Over the weekend, I spent some time shopping for items that we would need for demolition and cleaning. I was able to get dehumidifiers, fans, blowers, cleaning supplies, trash bags, etc. It felt good to be actually doing something that would help our cause.

On Saturday evening, we learned that our neighborhood was now considered under mandatory evacuation and that anyone with standing water in their home would have their power cut off. We were told various stories from various sources as to whether all power would be cut, or whether it would be on a house-by-house basis. News sources were conflicting and confusing. We began to be very concerned, as the power outage was potentially going to be two weeks long. Two weeks without power in a home that had been flooded would be devastating, as it would allow mold time to grow in the house and be much more difficult to successfully clean. We slept fitfully, wondering how we would figure out this new challenge.

I woke up Sunday morning concerned over the power and was trying to figure out what to do, when the phone rang. I answered and it was a person from my company, offering a generator and some additional supplies that would be helpful. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, because at least if our power went off, we could still run a dehumidifier or two with the generator.

Later on Sunday, we made the decision to go back into the neighborhood and get started on the demo work for our house. But, first, we went to church.

We belong to a church in the Houston area that we really love. The people are kind, wonderful, and down-to-earth. We tend to be sporadic about attending, as life gets busy, we get tired, etc. However, as I was lying in bed praying my way through the nights of Hurricane Harvey, I set a goal. I decided that walking in the church door on Sunday was going to happen. I was going to be alive and safe and well enough to go to church. So, on Sunday, go to church we did.

I was planning to go straight to house demolition afterwards, so I wore running shorts and a t-shirt and tennis shoes to church. In my past life, you know, a week ago, I would have felt inappropriate being there in such attire. Now I believe that if you are there to worship God, if that is really why you are there, it doesn’t matter whether you show up in running shoes or an evening gown.

After church, we drove to our neighborhood, parked our car, and waded through the water to our street. The water level on our street was down enough that we could wade in fairly easily, but was still not drive-able by car. The power was, thankfully, still on.

We opened the door and the smell hit me again, pungent and raw. We spent the next few hours tearing up flooring in our living room, removing items from the dressers and kitchen drawers and cabinets, and rearranging furniture. We began to sort through clothes to throw out, versus wash and keep. If clothing items touched the flood waters, we decided to throw them out. I didn’t really find any of these activities particularly difficult, except for when I began to go through a bag of shoes that were soaking wet. I saw the shoes that I wore on my wedding day and it made me cry for a minute. Then I straightened myself up and realized that I haven’t touched them since my wedding day, so maybe they needed to go anyway.

These days, I find that I’m generally in a good mood. Also, I feel like I have a lot of tasks to do and I feel pretty serious about getting them done. I’m not spending much time feeling sad or crying. Writing helps me process what is going on around me. Sometimes I sit down and a torrent of words pours out of my typing fingers before I even realize that I felt that way.

In my last blog entry, I wrote about a woman I met whose husband had died of pancreatic cancer. I mentioned that I wanted to stop and visit her. I ended up running into her yesterday in my neighborhood and I asked her how things were going. She told me that a team of angels from Naples, FL had come and did demo work in her whole house for her. Almost all the demo work was done! What an incredible act of kindness to drive from Naples, FL to Houston, TX to rip up drywall! She and I shared a hug and a smile before I had to run on to my house.

After we finished our day’s work at our house, we got in the car and drove back to the place we are staying. I grabbed a quick dinner and shower and then it was time to drive an hour away to pick up the generator that I was promised. I hopped in the car, plugged my phone in, and music started playing. I tend to like dark, sad music normally, but I proceeded to rock out to all kinds of ridiculous pop music. I was dancing along to Britney Spears, Madonna, and that stupid song Call Me Maybe. Over the past week, there’s not been a single moment where I’m not responsible for someone or sometimes several people. Life hasn’t been light. Having an hour to myself in the car to be carefree felt like an extravagance. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

While driving there and back, I saw so many out-of-state cars with paint on them saying “DRIVING TO HELP TEXAS!” I tried to say a little thank you to the universe for each of these people. We love you and thank you for coming to help us. Yet another incredible act of kindness to drive across the country to help strangers in need.

With this storm, I’ve learned that each day presents a new challenge. Maybe life has always presented a new daily challenge, only not as extreme. As hard as this situation has been and will continue to be, I feel strengthened by the fact that solutions also appear, sometimes out of the blue. It was not lost on me that Vanilla Ice played on my pop music binge last night as I drove across town to pick up a generator.

“If there was a problem, yo, I’ll solve it!”