I am now on Day 13 without power, Internet, water or heat. I feel discontented and disconnected as I sit here inside Starbucks at Kroger in Oxford. It’s free wi-fi and expensive coffee, and to be honest, I prefer the Community Coffee at the gas station across from my neighborhood.
This has been my life for almost two weeks.
I do, however, feel clean after taking a shower inside a make-shift bathing station earlier today in the Wal-Mart parking lot. And thanks to the Tide mobile laundry unit, I will roll back there after writing this piece and pick up two sacks of clean, dried and folded clothing.
Disasters always bring out the best and worst in the people affected.
I’ve seen mostly the best.
I had open-heart surgery a few months ago. The surgery went well. I then had surgery to remove two cancerous tumors in my stomach and one infected lymph node. In early December, I took a scan, and it showed it was completely perfect. I’ll take another later this month.
For now, there is no more chemo ordered.
I say that to tell you I am not really capable of moving limbs and cutting trees any longer. I had about a 70-year-old Magnolia Tree in my front yard. It fell victim to the ice storm…splattered everywhere. Imagine my surprise when I looked out the window the other day to see a mom and three children cleaning the debris and hauling it to the road. They were from Community Church of Oxford where Fish Robinson serves as pastor. They just wanted to help…and they did.
May God bless them.
David Johnson
STARBUCKS CROWD
Misery adores company, I reckon, and I got into an hour-long conversation with a 76-year-old fella this morning about family roots and the Civil War. I know all about the divorce and terrible marriage of a sixty-something-year-old woman and her clarinet-playing daughter. I’ve met college-aged people studying for Masters degrees.
Currently there is a female who just called someone’s sister a (earmuffs) MFer. Now she is complaining about the food wherever she is staying and how there are too many rules…
Yadda, yadda, yadda…
But almost everyone has had smiles on their faces.
MY NEIGHBORHOOD
I live in a subdivision known as Rolling Woods. As you might have guessed, we have a lot of hills and trees out there.
The ice storm was particularly devastating.
There are about 80 or so homes in Rolling Woods. As I write this on a Thursday afternoon, there is no power. Crews really only began showing up at the first of the week. They are currently working hard, but it is difficult to judge the progress. Forecasts are ranging from “some power later tonight to some homes,” to “it will probably be Monday.”
That’s enough for me. With two season-opening softball games and the Ole Miss women at Alabama, I’m headed to my older daughter’s house in Tupelo for the night.
Right after I swing by the Wal-Mart parking lot and pick up my clean clothes.
Seriously, thank you all for bearing with us through this natural disaster. We won’t let you down.
And we hope you are smiling.