The Tango
February 19
And finally the insurance man is out of the loop. And now the tango with the mortgage company begins. The language has something to do with an insurable interest in our home. In a pig's ass.
And so I begin to learn more about the ways of people than I had ever hoped. No, what I mean is that I nevertheless, must behave with respect and regard toward others who have a dissimilar idea of what this might mean and who instead elicit (deserve?) a murderous rage. And I think again that living is not for the faint of heart, nor as Bette Davis once said about getting old, for sissies.
And I think instead, of all the merchants who did not raise their prices as if it were Christmas. But who instead gave discounts to flood victims having realized that in spite of the immediate cash flow sponsored by FEMA and our illustrious insurance companies, that in reality of course it would be all of us, as taxpayers who would pay for this. After all Sonoma county will need to recoup some of its tremendous losses.
And I think in fact, of the many people who did have hearts and big hearts at that. Those who did lend hope along the way, and weren't in it just for the buzz and an adrenalin rush. Those who knew what to do without asking, knowing that anything done, especially at the beginning was nothing but helpful. And those who along the way did their jobs with compassion and who never treated us with anything less than absolute regard and who never for a minute saw us as anything other than singular human beings.
And one remembers, and thinks to dare not forget, how thin is the line that divides us from them. And it is the wise ones who know that it is the selfsame line that divides them from us, and consequently they are a little less arrogant. And a whole lot less careless with their karma. And again I am hit in the face with the lesson of beholden to. Goes back to those issues of pity and indebtedness. And I think instead of goodwill and wonder where, but for the grace of one another would we all be, but condemned to hell.
And I ran into Lee today, the postman, and he said, you're smiling, and I said yes I am, the end is in sight. Our humor is returning and though we cannot yet really enjoy a sense of leisure, we are just a little bit more playful and a little less grim and terse. That the sun has been shining, and that it was a record high for this time of year the other day, 78 degrees F, in fact, of course makes it easier.
And life goes on, I had to spend that beautiful Sunday in traffic school, having failed to come to a complete stop in Pacific Heights on my way home the other day to the tune of $104.00, sooo, to eradicate the blemish and the increase it would reflect on my insurance I spent the day with other such scofflaws, oy vay.
And who has even had time to reflect on the Ides of March. Certainly not us.
March
So we began to think of moving back in, first week in March, certainly by mid March and we set deadlines accordingly. Funny the things in the end that turn some walls and floors into a home. Anyway, like pieces of a brain teaser everything had to be done in its proper order, the kitchen cabinets sans countertop (the countertop was on special order and hadn't come in yet) before linoleum, bathroom vanity and toilet after linoleum, and in the other bathroom vanity and toilet before carpet, and of course ideally painting before all of that. We just made it under the wire because the great wall took longer to rock than might have been expected, but what a wall it is, so white, so clean, such great expanse, I had to fight tooth and nail everyone's urge to texture the damn thing. And finally carpet. Whew. And the next day we were to get the furniture. Ha! OK, let's see the stove, fridge and dishwasher have been, still in their packing, in the laundry room and so are the coffee table and two end tables for the living room, also in their boxes and not yet assembled. Yet to be delivered is the bedroom furniture, the entertainment center and two couches for the living room and the bedroom set for the guest house, but hold on to your hat because has come a new storm warning with dire predictions of flooding. And indeed it did. This one however was what we had actually expected and been somewhat prepared for when we conceptualized that our place would flood in the first place.
The guest house/garage took some water. We had in our great wisdom decided not to put carpet in but to tile it, and in fact the tile guy had been scheduled to start work that week, but well, the power had gone out, because of this incredible wind storm which had knocked down trees and power lines, and all in all the weather and the roads and everything was pretty iffy. Anyway the short of it is the guest house took about 6 inches of water and all we had to do was hose it out.
We had thought, you know, to put in scuppers, but never quite got around to it!
Anyway the power stayed off, and we had no running water again and we were cut off from town. And of course, there was not a little hysteria because of the great flood in January so we went through the drill again. Moving stuff to higher ground. The insult was of course this was the very weekend we had planned to move in, and of course we had just laid our new carpet, just laid, mind you, our new carpet, and here we were like looters running up the street with our appliances.
How many stooges, more than three.
Anyway at some point Paul called a halt to this madness and said, f--- t--- s--- we're moving home come hell or high water! And we did and it did and it was fine actually, if a little nerve racking. But by God I coped. I had by this time developed a workable strategy for triangulating some semblance of truth--I listened to 3 different radio stations at about 10 minute intervals, and called the Office of Emergency Services and the Sonoma County Water District just about every hour to get updates on the level of the river at the Guerneville bridge and, it helped. So did the Ativan mind you, but we were home.
Two months it took.
And even though we were the last ones back into our house we were the first ones at this stage of completion. You know walls, flooring, appliances, beds, laundry facilities. On the other hand we were using our outdoor bistro table as a dining room table and the computer room and the sitting room off the deck had no furniture (money and time thing) but Goddamn it we were home. And we moved back in (as we had the first time and as we had been driven out) in the pouring rain. There was some sweet sense of mastery in this I must admit. And so we canvassed the neighborhood retrieving all of our belongings that had been given refuge hither and yon and brought them all home. People looked on in disbelief. More than once we were asked which way we were going with that stuff. But you know enough is finally enough. Our final stand you know.
