But encouraged.
Well, our interwebz just came back on a couple of hours ago. Don't know if we have any power at the office yet. Didn't as of Friday evening and our building is in the middle of one of the hardest hit areas of Dothan. We'll just show up tomorrow morning and see.
Going through something like a major storm changes you. Changes us, if only temporarily. With social media and technology, we have real time, minute by minute updates...if you have access. My phone was our life line to the world. It was the one device that worked. Snagette and Lite's phones were useless. And let me tell you, with 100 mph winds ripping shit up for hours, it was a pretty cool thing to be able to stay in constant touch with friends and family. And yes, I count so many of you among those friends who kept that line of communication open. For that, I truly say thank you.
We were extremely lucky in our little corner of the world. Our home was spared and we came away with minimal damage. Compared to others, our clean up was trivial. But when I say something like this changes us, the next morning was prime example of that. Got up and prepared to go out get started. Things looked a little different. Not quite as bad as I remembered. Turns out, someone had come in my yard and dragged off the worst of the debris. Wow!
I cleaned up for a couple of hours and took a tour of the neighborhood. One of our good friends a block over had a tree down and up against their house. I stopped to see if Dan wanted to get started on it, but he was already at a friends house helping him get a tarp on his roof. When he got back, we got the tree cut up and moved to the road.
I've been cutting and hauling trees and debris for 3 of the last 4 days. It's just what people do when bad stuff happens. I wish I had skipped the trip to that shit-fest in Auburn yesterday to do more. This hit in our area and certainly 100X worse just 75 miles from us. We've already seen and read countless stories of selflessness and sacrifice all around us. And just like that person or persons who came in my yard early the next morning and knocked out 75% of the heavy lifting for me without being asked or paid...it's what you do. Hopefully, it's what we do. You finish a job and if someone else needs help, you throw your shit in the back of the truck and go get it done. You don't think about it or question it. Snagette got an email from our church saying they had a list of supplies that needed to be shipped to P.C. and all points between there and Mexico Beach. No need to say more. She and two friends were at Sam's loading the wagon within the hour. It's what you do.
If any of you have lived long enough, you've all been through one natural disaster or another. We all have. And you see what you hope is the true human spirit. I just think it's a bit sad that it seems to take a disaster to show what we're really...hopefully...all about. I have no doubt what you guys are all about.
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