IRENE IRENE OH IRENE ~

Well, we got smashed by dear Hurricane Irene ~ she wasn't wind so much but all a wall of water. Power & phone went out like a snap of the finger at 10AM on Sunday morning and then the river by our road rose & rose. At least twelve feet. I've never seen it that high. Neither has an old timer friend up in the village and she's lived here 70 years. Same place. The flood took a better portion of our dirt road and made it a river bed. Just left bedrock and stone rubble in the flood's wake. Neighbors a half-mile down river have no road at all showing ~ just jagged ledge. Last night we about lifted a lost motorcyclist over that tiny Matterhorn and on his way. How he appeared and got himself into such a fix, nobody knows. A little Scot terrier dog with him too, riding right behind the handlebars. We were all busy fixing a road not there. The river subsiding and remaining loud. Muddy, like the color of cement. Myriad miles of roads in there. Hereabouts, vehicles are parked and isolated. We have three. One is a brand new rental that as luck would have it we just happened to have for a few days. Stuck with us. We're hiking the two miles to the village with packs & bicycles taking all book customers packages with us to mail in town. We can catch rides from the village with friends. They say days & days & maybe even a month more of this before we see any sign of the town road crew. So many are taking matters into their own hands, which is always a good sign. Yesterday, in the most beautiful sunny day that could possibly occur after a flood ~ a vivid blue sky I tell you ~ we washed our laundry in a wood's stream running nicely up behind the house. Clear water. Like it came from the sky.

borrowing a computer
no access at home
itinerants !
all be well