Song: Stormy Weather (a Jazz standard)
Tuesday 8/17, Jacksonville
Friends:
The hurricane did a great deal of damage in the Oviedo area. (It's an
Orlando suburb.) Carola's 1920's Sears home in the city proper and my
small home on an acre of land in the county were pretty much spared, but
there are about 50 trees down on my property and a lot of huge limbs
from the giant old live oaks down on hers. Also we both lost the
service (electrical) entrance equipment.
Carola lives in my house with daughters Andrea and Jessica along with
Jessica's baby Phoenix. We've been working since Saturday morning first
clearing a path into my home and rebuilding the service entrance there
(thank God for Mark, Tina's husband!) and then pulling the trees off my
roof and the shed. We aren't expecting electricity for two weeks so
Carola sent her daughters to stay in Gainesville for the duration.
We've had temperatures in the 90's and 3 or 4 inches of rain since the
hurricane, so it's pretty miserable. But, the mosquitoes are happy!
Yesterday we hired a fellow with a heavy-duty chain saw to cut up the
oak limbs at Carola's house ($250 for two hours!) and several of the
neighbors helped drag limbs for half a day. The road in front of the
house now has a 6 foot pile of limbs the entire length of the property!
FEMA is supposed to pick it all up! Most of Oviedo looks like that.
The small pleasures: Finding gasoline! Finding a restaurant open so you
can have hot food. Sitting in air conditioning. The Publix supermarket
getting (some) ice! Coming to Jacksonville for a night's sleep and
doing laundry.
We're headed back down in the morning. I'll be back to Jacksonville for
work on Monday the 23rd.
John and Carola Debo
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