There’s this line in Maurice Sendak and Arthur Yorinks’ The Miami Giant about a boat landing in Miami that goes, “So I swerved a bit.” That line of that very odd book, which manages to be funny and just a smidge unsettling at once, came to me today as the unexpected devastation in Vermont from Irene became apparent.
While my house didn’t shake and the windows barely rattled, there are all sorts of spectacular images coming my way: swollen bodies of water, and places that aren’t regularly bodies of water given over to water. Old friends lost the retaining wall behind their house and their septic system. Whoosh.
The sun shone and the air was dry the day after the storm and it seemed as if the day shrugged its still-damp shoulders and coyly asked, “Who me?”
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Our farmer wrote of the spectacle that was their field underwater: “Ben and Ellie canoed in the river that covers our entire field out in the Meadows — you can still see the very tops of the brussels sprouts plants, though. We are feeling bummed that many of our fall plantings are under water out there and still will be until tomorrow probably, but also feeling lucky that it is the only field (of our 5) under water.”
Under the blue sky, relativity was at play that’s for darn sure.
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A day late thanks to Irene, our crew returned. Saskia had enjoyed her first long day at preschool. I learned she got to spend some end-of-day clean-up time in her old classroom, which she loved. She slept at naptime. She played in both yards, front and back. We went to get eggs and of course had to get a chocolate ice cream cone.
On our way to town, she pushed her doll stroller for a while and I pushed her stroller. She has gotten into this habit when we stroll side-by-side: she looks up and asks, “Isn’t this fun?”
Indeed, it is.
We ran into Kate, Bayla and Calvin, who ended up at our house to welcome their pals back. I got Kate to snap a photo of us all together, because I need one for the preschool classroom. Actually, I just need one. It was extra sweet after the free-floating anxiety the weekend seemed to unearth to hug every single one of those kiddoes—and their papa.
