05-AUG-C-10
MY DERWOOD
DOMESTIC DUTIES
IN
COMBINATION WITH DALE KRAMER’S
PULLING VIKING REFRIGERATOR OUT OF THE ALCOVE
FOR CLEANING, HANGING THE HEADS,
AND SETTING OUT THE SALT BLOCK AND DIGITAL
“ALL ABOUT
GAME” MOTION CAMERA IN THE DERWOOD DEERWOODS
AND, THEN
COMES A BLOW---
NOT JUST TO
ME AND DERWOOD,
BUT A
GROWING REALIZATION THAT
THE
August 31, 2005
I am saving
fuel. I am sitting in the Game Room in
Derwood, listening to the unfolding disaster along the Gulf Coast as the two
main oil terminal ports have been closed accounting for 20% of all fuel imports
into the US, and the shutdown of 31 refineries along the Gulf Coast, with no
shipping allowed into the Mississippi as the search and rescue operations are
going forward for thousands of stranded people as the death toll has surpassed
a hundred. The wholesale price of
gasoline has gone seventy five cents per gallon over the price just on Friday
of last week, and the gas station I had driven in to yesterday waved me off
since they had no fuel. I went to get
the Audi an “Ultimate” car wash and drove it home and parked it in the garage
for the day, to avoid getting it dirtied up in the overnight rain predicted and
the rising price of fuel—both consequences here of the much more severe
devastation wreaked upon the
By
pre-arrangement, I had promised to meet Dale Kramer this morning and show him
photos which I had packed into three albums while I had awaited other developments
in Derwood, and we did three other chores as he came by. We hung the heads form
The other thing we did was to pull the Viking Refrigerator freezer forward from its alcove after unbolting it from its recess stretching out the copper coil of piping that feeds the ice maker to expose the under refrigerator smelly mess that still is stuck to the floor (and ?under it) so that the commercial C & C Cleaning crew can come and finish the job on cleaning out the smelly nooks and crannies from the protein liquefied run-off, and then reclaim their big machines downstairs which are pumping out scented air through a Hepa-Aire scrubber and a dehumidifier. If they approve the job (pending the discussion about the necessity of calling in another expert form “Environmental Services, Inc form Deal MD as an “industrial hygienist”) then I should be through the scrambling and scrubbing after the freezer meltdown contamination of the whole house and can start up on purchasing the upright refrigerator freezer and chest freezer for downstairs and the baker’s rack for the kitchen. This should have me back to normal if the claims between the Cleanup Crew suggested by the State Farm Insurance Company (already riding on a very high deductible) are resolved. As, I had told them, it is then time for me to get started on some serious meat hunting to re-stock the freezers that will be coming in to replace the two thrown out, and the Viking---which I still hope can be salvaged despite the contrary opinion of the Cleanup Company.
Dale Kramer
and his co-worker Tim are leaving to go bow hunting elk in
So, the Game Room is up to normal, awaiting the arrival of the two oak mounts for the Wolverine and red fox, and with the further suggestion that Dale look at each of the pedestals to make a door/glass window in their bases to hold the bleached skulls of bear, wolverine and bush buck now on library shelves, with a back light to highlight them, as well as a shelf beneath in each for the special hunting pictures from the photo albums.
AND, THEN
COMES A BLOW---
NOT JUST TO
ME AND DERWOOD,
BUT A
GROWING REALIZATION THAT
THE
The wind picked up
as I walked around the house picking up the fallen branches—a chronic
phenomenon if you live in the woods.
Then I did it again, and again. I
realized I might be getting the last vestiges of the wrath of the hurricanes
that had struck the
As I had sat fascinated with the careful underestimates of the Tsunami at Christmastime (“a hundred dead and a thousand homeless”—while I thought “Right! I know the coastal concentrations of the Asian peoples and there cannot be less than half a million affected; I was right.) And now, avoiding any hyperbole I hear the announcers saying there are at least fifty dead and hundreds homeless. This is the Gulf Coast they are talking about, and I know that there have been more people at risk than these numbers would imply even at the times the Cajuns came down form New England, and that tens of thousands are in misery right now with no one aware—except for those with some imagination at what must rally be happening, confirmation of numbers or otherwise. It must be one of the largest environmental disasters in American history, I would guess.
The phone rang. It is my neighbor Debbie Lubers. She wants me to know that a big tree has fallen across my meadow down near the overgrown garden. I went down to see it, and sure enough, it will take all day Saturday to clean up that pile of as yet unstacked timber with my chain saw using the gasoline which will be four dollars a gallon by then. I also saw that the garden gate was open and the vegetation had been cleaned out. I thanked Debbie for looking after that and she said she had no idea and it must have been another neighbor I have never met who may have done that. Neighbors helping neighbors in times of storm.
I am going to work now—it is 3:00 AM. Why? I have a lot of school work to do, and I am sure I may not be here to do it. I have a feeling—fresh as I am from Eritrea Africa and dealing with a mini-disaster of my won here in Derwood continuing as it seems to be,--that I may find myself in Louisiana/