Earthquake, Hurricane, Rotten Beams!!

Oh my....long time without posting--various notes in the works--but here's a quick up-date on this week of one excitement after another.

All is relatively fine.  There is massive flooding in the neighborhood--all my regular walks are under many feet of water, and many roads are closed due to collapsed bridges and fallen trees, but there was not too much damage here.  Which isn't to say it has been un-eventful--turns out that even a hurricane that doesn't live up to its advance warnings can still cause plenty of havoc.

But--first the earthquake.  Who knew?  I was sitting in the living room, lap top appropriately in lap when the pink bowl and vase on the shrouded piano starting rattling and shaking violently.

quivering bowl in repose

The house has not had any resident animals (as opposed to the past twenty years or so), but my first thought was that somehow a small animal had climbed into the vase and was now trying to escape.  Or--even weirder--perhaps a bevy of small beasts had just hatched or gained consciousness or whatever--and were now trying to reach the wider world.

The rattling grew louder and louder.  Should I intervene?  Surely it was my responsibility to free the imprisoned creatures.  As I approached the quivering bowl, I must have become aware of a bit more motion in the house.  This didn't feel like any earthquake I'd ever experienced, but....

At that moment, the phone rang.  It was Sarah. Perhaps she had heard a report of some super-natural extraordinary New Jersey event and was checking in.  Alas--she was not on the line.  Repeated efforts to re-call her were fruitless.

The shaking stopped.  There was a voice mail from Sarah.  She hadn't called me, but her clever phone had--instead of a message there was a cluttered recording of anxious voices worrying about an earthquake.  Eventually contact was made--we learned that we had --in both Brooklyn and New Jersey as well as many points north and south been shaken by an earthquake in Virgina--which had caused little serious damage but shaken many nerves.   Time for a lesson on the difference between the stone underpinnings of very old east coast as opposed to the potentially crashing tectonic plates under our California homes.  That was last Tuesday.

After that reminder of  the unpredictable nature of all things, we were understandably on edge as Hurricane Irene made our way towards our shores and cities.   So much anxious anticipation....waiting, waiting, waiting....lots of extremely knowledgeable predictions--followed of course by one surprise after another.

Sarah, in Brooklyn, was on the edge of various evacuation zones, Sam, printing in Florence, Mass. was in the direct path of the storm--but it was expected to be much weaker once it reached him.  It wasn't clear what to expect in northern New Jersey.  Everyone thought trees would  be downed by the strong winds which would cause inevitable power outages, and there was concern about the already very saturated earth.

apple tree down

In the end, Sarah, in Brooklyn, was relatively unscathed.  In New Jersey, I lost power for about seven hours--it was a partial power loss--the refrigerator wasn't working--and lights were too dim to do any good--but there was a glimmer of electricity flowing somewhere--just enough to lead me to suspect I was losing my mind.  Sam--who appeared to be furthest from all threats was actually evacuated.  He was printing in an old restored factory building on a tributary of the fast-rising Connecticut River--which was emptied out by the fire department.  He even got snacks at a Red Cross Shelter before staying with a friend of a friend.

high waters

The damage here was pretty minimal.  The stone retaining walls, not quite finished last year, took another serious blow, the long dirt driveway is very severely rutted, one of the two apple trees was toppled (oh the deer are happy with all those ripe apples at mouth level), and the waters everywhere are very high.

The paths in my adjoining wetlands are completely underwater.  

Today, Wednesday, many roads are still closed, detours and traffic everywhere--and power is still out in large areas.  

My house weathered these storms and tremors, but alas, the damage of the centuries is slowly being revealed.

rot, rot

and more rot.

As Johnny and George returned to work removing old siding, they have discovered one rotten beam after another.  These are the basic beams supporting the house.  Lots of remedial work to come.