I feel I owe an apology to the universe. Here I was blithely wishing for a rainy Sunday, on which I planned to do things which I could perfectly well do on a sunny day. Well, I got it, and now the entire east coast is dealing with the aftermath of Irene.
In Herkimer it seemed we were merely having our rainy Sunday. We tuned into a special edition of Today and were properly shocked and concerned about the images from New York City and the surrounding areas. As the day wore on, we started hearing about problems closer to home.
Sauquoit Creek, which I had never properly been aware of before this, flooded. I saw a picture WKTV posted on Facebook of a road I used to drive every day to work, waist deep in water (depending on how tall you are.) Another reason to be glad I don’t work there any more (we won’t get into other reasons; this isn’t that sort of a blog).
Friends and relatives from other areas checked in with tales of what they were suffering. Many were without power, although some had generators (or I guess they wouldn’t have been on Facebook) (unless they were on a battery operated laptop, I suppose. I don’t really know much about the internet). I heard a covered bridge in Arlington, VT was out, but nobody posted a picture, so I don’t know which covered bridge or how far out it is. I must say Facebook is a fascinating tool at times like this.
Do I feel my wish for a rainy Sunday wrought all this havoc? I guess not really. In college I used to observe that it only rained when I did not wear my raincoat. When I wore it, we had a nice sunny day.
“What an ego,” my friend Susannah Diamondstone (one of the all time great names) used to say. “She thinks she controls the weather.”
Of course, I did not really think that. But the facts bore me out.
Perhaps I feel I owe an apology for enjoying it all. Not that I enjoy other people being flooded out and/or without power. And I certainly don’t enjoy the death toll. But I did enjoy my rainy Sunday in the Mohawk Valley. And I feel grateful that the wrath of Irene passed me by.
Mohawk Valley Girl 