Lonely

Day 136. Year of Queens. Power. After 16 days our practice space has power. Which means - cold beer!

Day 137. Year of Queens. Power but no sewage and water. The stores are all closed. There’s no one walking around - just a few people collecting with computers around a WiFi hotspot. Week 3. It feels like the mountains are lonely.

There’s blue in the mountains this morning - and a blue to the clouds in the shade.

There’s a blue to the steam of my coffee - and blue to the bird calls made.

There’s a blue to the smoke in the chimney - lonely and lingering without you.

There’s a blue to the breakfast being eaten - and my breath is turning blue.

And then the color fades without you.

And then the color fades without you.

Year of Queens. Day 139. I grow a beard really quickly. I grew it for two weeks when we didn’t have power or water. It actually made me feel more connected to the mountains and woods and land. I shaved it off when I got power back. I wish I’d kept it.

Year of Queens. Day 140. The magnitude of the flooding still grows. It didn’t feel like it during the actual storm. I’d heard the wind howl louder. I’d seen the rain fall harder. The day before the hurricane a large storm came through from the west. Asheville airport got 7 inches. We got 3-4 inches in Black Mountain. That was before the hurricane. 4pm as Helene was approaching I put out a contractors bucket. 14 inches tall. By 10 am the next morning it was overflowing. So maybe we had 15 inches of rain in 18 hours, plus 3-4 inches from the day before. Someone in Black Mountain measured 22 inches of rain in 48 hours. It looks like a bomb went off. Bridges gone. Cars flung off the road. Neighborhoods and communities gone. The entire economy down for a month. Things are being fixed. There are starting to be events to reopen this area and invite people back. I hope people come back.