WORKING FOR A LIVING

I’ve been back at work since Friday and it’s weird, after two weeks off, to try and pick up where I left off. When I walked in Friday morning the first thing I noticed was that my computer was connected to a long, heavy duty extension cord. I could tell things had been moved, but it probably took me twenty minutes to realize that of all the desks in the room, mine had taken on some water during the hurricane.

The outlet in the wall got wet, the filing cabinet had been wet on the bottom, and everything on top of the filing cabinet and my wall calendar had been soaked. I know it could have been much worse and I am so grateful to whoever took all the wet files off my desk and spread them out so they could dry while I was gone.

The saddest file was the one full of papers printed on an inkjet. I’ve been able to make copies from nearly everything from the wet files (love those laser printers) to send out with the invoices to customers, but this one contains a report that is now all crinkly with ink that runs the full length of the page, totally unreadable, yet very pretty in an I’m a survivor sort of way. I am waiting for the engineer who wrote it to get back from wherever he is in the world to print me out another one.

I managed to cram 12 days of work into four. Not sure how, but I managed. I am already up to my eyeballs in October work. I am grateful to be busy and have a good job in today’s economy!

Most of my friends have power now, even though some can’t plug in two major appliances at a time. I saw some pictures from a friend who had a tree uproot in the driveway, pushing concrete up under her truck and then landed on her roof. So many stories, so many lives affected. Most people I know are back at work or school, and as the traffic lights start to work as they should, life feels a bit more normal.

I have seen tree trimmer trucks from New York (they have put their hometowns in black tape on the back of their trucks), New Jersey, and Michigan and electric company trucks from Oklahoma and San Antonio. I’m sure many states and towns are represented. They gather as an army in vast parking lots and drive off into the neighborhoods to clean and light up homes and yards. I wish I could thank them all individually. I guess I’ll just have to keep waving at them like a crazy woman when I drive by.