Friday, September 22, 2017

ch ch ch changes


you didn't think that little reprieve was going to last, did you?

Since the flood has reshaped our reality just about everything I write about has/will reference it in one way or another. For a while anyway. Currently I am without a studio. I can set up my desk at some future point before the room is remodeled and work but my environment is gone. The kites still hang but that's all that's left of my studio. 


No star lights, no paintings or prints or other wall hung decoration, no 'kapow', no place to hang my keys and caps, no roll of 3' butcher paper, no so many other things. Right now I'm set up on the dining room table. Not the best option but the only option.

The shop is also changed. It was full before, containing our stuff and a lot of our friend's stuff who is in the process of a major move himself, moved but still adjusting. Now, with our stuff, our friend's stuff, and all the stuff from my studio and the back bedroom that survived and the total demolition of the 4 built-in rooms in the metal building that is our shop and the contents of those rooms...with all that stuff in the big bay and the small bay, it's stuffed full and unusable. Still we are planning on casting these waxes I spent the summer on because I have committed us to the December open house and we need these pieces for that so we're starting on that this weekend.

It seemed to me that when we first returned and in the first week or so after there were no birds. I don't know if this is true, perhaps my situation didn't allow me to notice them but slowly they have been returning. First one day I saw a cardinal, then a few days later I heard the wrens fussing and today I saw in the white crepe myrtle beside the house a titmouse and chickadees fussing and two mockingbirds. I've put out birdseed in the little feeders that I can't see from here.

The neighborhood is changed too. Some left and I haven't seen them since. Some are about but not everyone is in residence yet or they are living in rougher conditions, or in their travel trailers of which there are a few. My neighbor on one side has rigged up an outdoor kitchen. Another neighbor has put a hog fence perimeter around the front of their house and trailer. This is also one of the few houses that keeps lights on at the front of their house all night every night. Clearly they live in fear. Rocky is suddenly inundated with calls for bids to repair their houses as everyone is ready to get back home.

The big claw truck came down our street again earlier this week. They had cleared along the front of the house once 



but then the debris from tearing out the shop rooms got dumped and I've spent the last three days making sure every ruined thing that I wanted gone from either property was on the pile. Many others put out another load after the trucks came by last week. I even managed to get rid of an ancient rusted frozen up heavy as shit flat lap and the water heater from the shop, neither of which I could move, when one of the metal scavengers happened by while I was on the street.

I've mentioned how the things in my gardens have fared. What I didn't mention is the ox-blood lilies. They liked all that flood water. Three or four days after the water receded, up they popped.





14 comments:

  1. It's interesting how different folks cope with the aftermath, isn't it? To make a priority of putting up hog-fencing would indeed indicate a bit of paranoia.
    Look at those lilies!

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  2. Must be hiding treasures. Looks like progress. I keep thinking of those poor Puerto Ricans. How will they get out of all that mess? If the great quake and Yellowstone doesn't erupt, maybe we'll make it past the 23rd. Glad to know the little birds made it through.

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  3. So much destruction, so many lives changed, but yet a flower still grows and the birds are chirping. There is hope.

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  4. Love the lilies! A bit of beauty while you try to get on with your life...

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  5. Wow, wow, wow, those lilies are the true sign of continuance after a tragedy. Yay for your bird friends catching your eye and giving you a sign also. Life goes on in spite of ourselves. You are a trooper and an inspiration. xoxo Oma Linda

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  6. Ox-blood lillies, which I've never heard of before, should be the flower associated with hurricanes. They could be a symbol of hope and renewal.

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  7. The songbirds disappeared here, too, but they're coming back. I heard a chickadee this morning, and the cardinals have been singing now and then. I remember how silent it was after Ike. It really was as though the world had been stripped of all its creatures. And then, one night, I finally heard a fish jump, out in the marina. It was if that single fish put the world back on its axis.

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    1. I was at the feed store waiting in line to pay for the bird seed talking with an old man about the birds coming back. he said he wondered about the rabbits, that the squirrels could climb trees but what do the rabbits do when it floods. something he said because he saw one out in the field that morning. I've thought about it and I guess as long as it doesn't get too high they manage to get on some deadfall. I'm glad the rabbits made it.

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  8. You are a real trooper, Ellen. I feel your frustration when you survey your work environment for the near future. But, in spite of that, you find something cheerful to focus on, and to share with us, Good for you!!

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  9. So many changes when mother nature comes through with her wet broom. I am sorry about all that your are going through, but your spirit seems strong.

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  10. Home is where the heart is, especially when all the rest is i storage or on the curb. Those lilies are a good sign, I hope more arrive.

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  11. Life is always changing, but starting over is hard. Love the lilies, they look like a symbol of hope.

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  12. Beautiful lilies! I hope enough of your studio's artwork survived for it to seem like home again when you're able to move back in. I'm sure neighborhoods all over East Texas will be permanently changed by this storm.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.