2021 Life Logs, Day 245: Extreme Weather, Extreme People, Extreme Stress
Date: Thursday, September 2, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Heavy Rain Overnight; High Temp 74, Low Temp 55 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
In the mid-1950’s MAD magazine invented Alfred E. Neuman and his motto, “What me worry?” Recently that motto pops up in my mind often because there are so many things to worry about. Extreme and unprecedented are words that are to describe what seems to be the new norm. Extreme weather, people with extreme views, and parents under extreme stress seem to be everywhere, all the time. As I was sending last night’s log, my phone came to life with the emergency signal warning of a tornado. I stayed up long enough to get another tornado warning. I listened carefully to the towns that might be affected, and Falmouth was one of them. But the pattern of the towns listed made me think the tornado was headed slightly west of East Falmouth. I made the decision to not go to the basement to sleep, but to be on high alert in case I needed to head that way. After I fell asleep, I was awakened with yet another alert. The tornado touched down north and east of here, so my assumptions were wrong. It could just as well have been here. Next time Shadow and I will sleep in the basement. The fact that this kind of weather has become something that seems to happen often is really scary. As near neighbor Lara Dearman said this morning, “The extreme weather events seem almost Biblical.” The summer home they have spent the last year remodeling was partially flooded last night and friends in their New York hometown of Larchmont had completely flooded homes, no electricity, and some could not find their cars as they had floated away. Things were fine here at the cottage, but the lines of debris in the driveway that looked like waves were an indication that a lot of water had flowed through last night.
Heather, Jed, and boys spent the night on camp cots in their basement and only Ollie slept through the whole thing. He was already asleep when they decided to head to the basement, so Sam carried him down. This morning Ollie was quite confused when he woke up in the basement asking how in the world he got there and why. But the things that happened to us here were just an aggravation or something that can easily be repaired. Others in the path of Hurricane Ida and her aftermath lost their homes and everything they owned. Some lost their lives. Then there are the fires raging in the West. Extreme weather is a reality to be dealt with.
I won’t even get started writing about the extreme beliefs of more and more people in this country. But it is certainly a worry. And then there are all the parents of children in this country who are stretched and stressed to the max in figuring out how to help their kids negotiate a Covid world as safely as possible. With school starting next week here, that stress level is rising. So it was truly a breath of fresh air to see something Jo posted on Facebook. It was a beautiful landscape painting that exudes peace and serenity. Jo had stumbled upon the painting online and was immediately entranced.
Then she read the caption. It was of the exact location where she and Justin were married atop Eagle Rock in Topanga Canyon in southern California. Taking time to embrace the beauty in this world can give a little relief to all the other stresses. Thanks, Jo, for sharing this with us at a time when thoughts of peace and serenity are so needed and at a time when we all need to be reminded of just why we must push harder for climate change legislation. We have to do what we can to protect this beautiful world.
This afternoon I took the Goldpebbles to Staples to do some school supply shopping and tomorrow we will celebrate the last day of Camp Oma Summer 2021. We have had a wonderful, laid-back summer but it is now time to transition to school and fall soccer season. Heather, Jed, and boys are headed Fitchburg up near the New Hampshire border for the weekend for Jonah’s first two-day soccer tournament of the season. I will drive up for one of the games, probably on Sunday. They plan to come home on Monday just in time for Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year, and the first day of school on Wednesday.
