Owed, Owned, Onerous and Ornery
I call it The Struggle.
It doesn't matter where you drive. It's going to take awhile. No matter what you want, it's going to take determination and endurance to get it.
Some traffic is due to the thousands of powerline crews, insurance agents, roofers, builders and various jackleg opportunists, such as the "I Survived Rita" T-shirt sellers, crawling over the city like bagworms in an oak tree. But then there is driver stupidity, hypnotized rubberneckers slowly drifting between lanes and using cell phones to report a twisted sign, an interesting debris pile or a snapped tree. They should have seen the place the day after the storm.
Hassle and struggle are a way of life now. The victims feel like someone, anyone, owes them something. A week after the storm, a huge line of cars formed in the mall parking lot. People wanted free federal water, ice and a ham sandwich, and they waited for hours and burned a lot of gas to get it. Never mind that grocery stores were open.
I'm not looking for freebies, but I want what I'm entitled to. I'll have to walk across a mile-long strip of flypaper in lead boots to get it. I'll try to minimize the bellyaching.
Juggle, juggle, toil and struggle. Traffic. Trees. Debris. Insurance agents. Insurance adjusters. Long lines at the home-improvement stores. Long grocery lines. Big wait at banks. FEMA. Red Cross. Salvation Army. Garbage collectors. Packed restaurants. Three-day wait to get a haircut. Mosquitos. Impatient people. Can I please get a beer here?
Welcome to the University of Disaster. Tuition: $2,000 deductible.
Do you know how much it costs to fix a square foot of roof? I do, sort of, I think, but building materials are getting more expensive. Simple supply-and-demand economics, thanks to Rita and Katrina.
Do you know why they tell you to turn off power and water and empty your refrigerator prior to a storm? Power: Electricity returning to a home with damaged wiring could mean a fire. Water: Storm surge and flooding can send raw sewage into your homes via plumbing. Refrigerator: Eeewww.
Did you know that insurance pays for gutter damage but not fence repair? I'd rather have fence coverage. A neighbor's pine tree karate chopped my fence, along with gutters, roof, ceiling, bricks and Sheetrock. Yep, the fence-repair ball is in my court, but if you were my neighbor, what would you do to help? Would you send your yard crew over to rake up the blanket of grass-killing pine needles? Apple pie?
What would Jesus do? Insurance companies have an answer. Hurricane Rita: an "Act of God."
I guess when one dog-paddles in a honey pool for weeks during The Struggle, it's easy to poke a finger heavenward and blame the omnipotent. But then I look at our armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers suffering a far greater struggle and away from their families for a year or so. They have it worse than most of us could ever imagine. STRUGGLE: all caps and italicized.
I don't believe God stuck his index finger in the Atlantic and, as if stirring whipped cream into his latte, swizzled counterclockwise and created Hurricane Rita. Rita didn't park a car bomb outside a hospital. She didn't strap a bomb on her back and run into a restaurant.
Rita did what hurricanes do and have always done before recorded time, and I think we'll all be better off in the long run just having this experience.
Act of God, eh?
Well, if that were true, why were the liquor stores among the first businesses to open after the storm?
It doesn't matter where you drive. It's going to take awhile. No matter what you want, it's going to take determination and endurance to get it.
Some traffic is due to the thousands of powerline crews, insurance agents, roofers, builders and various jackleg opportunists, such as the "I Survived Rita" T-shirt sellers, crawling over the city like bagworms in an oak tree. But then there is driver stupidity, hypnotized rubberneckers slowly drifting between lanes and using cell phones to report a twisted sign, an interesting debris pile or a snapped tree. They should have seen the place the day after the storm.
Hassle and struggle are a way of life now. The victims feel like someone, anyone, owes them something. A week after the storm, a huge line of cars formed in the mall parking lot. People wanted free federal water, ice and a ham sandwich, and they waited for hours and burned a lot of gas to get it. Never mind that grocery stores were open.
I'm not looking for freebies, but I want what I'm entitled to. I'll have to walk across a mile-long strip of flypaper in lead boots to get it. I'll try to minimize the bellyaching.
Juggle, juggle, toil and struggle. Traffic. Trees. Debris. Insurance agents. Insurance adjusters. Long lines at the home-improvement stores. Long grocery lines. Big wait at banks. FEMA. Red Cross. Salvation Army. Garbage collectors. Packed restaurants. Three-day wait to get a haircut. Mosquitos. Impatient people. Can I please get a beer here?
Welcome to the University of Disaster. Tuition: $2,000 deductible.
Do you know how much it costs to fix a square foot of roof? I do, sort of, I think, but building materials are getting more expensive. Simple supply-and-demand economics, thanks to Rita and Katrina.
Do you know why they tell you to turn off power and water and empty your refrigerator prior to a storm? Power: Electricity returning to a home with damaged wiring could mean a fire. Water: Storm surge and flooding can send raw sewage into your homes via plumbing. Refrigerator: Eeewww.
Did you know that insurance pays for gutter damage but not fence repair? I'd rather have fence coverage. A neighbor's pine tree karate chopped my fence, along with gutters, roof, ceiling, bricks and Sheetrock. Yep, the fence-repair ball is in my court, but if you were my neighbor, what would you do to help? Would you send your yard crew over to rake up the blanket of grass-killing pine needles? Apple pie?
What would Jesus do? Insurance companies have an answer. Hurricane Rita: an "Act of God."
I guess when one dog-paddles in a honey pool for weeks during The Struggle, it's easy to poke a finger heavenward and blame the omnipotent. But then I look at our armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers suffering a far greater struggle and away from their families for a year or so. They have it worse than most of us could ever imagine. STRUGGLE: all caps and italicized.
I don't believe God stuck his index finger in the Atlantic and, as if stirring whipped cream into his latte, swizzled counterclockwise and created Hurricane Rita. Rita didn't park a car bomb outside a hospital. She didn't strap a bomb on her back and run into a restaurant.
Rita did what hurricanes do and have always done before recorded time, and I think we'll all be better off in the long run just having this experience.
Act of God, eh?
Well, if that were true, why were the liquor stores among the first businesses to open after the storm?
posted by Brian Pearson at 9:42 AM
1 Comments:
I am looking for my memories through the stories, the narrative of people. I feel it is difficult but I will try.
povaup
Post a Comment
<< Home