Is this a crisis, or isn't it?

Sorry I haven't posted. Disasters are one of those things that ought to be recollected in tranquility, unless you have that war correspondent mentality. Which, I guess, I do not. It's quite disappointing to discover that I don't have as stern of a temperament as an apocalypse might demand. Okay, maybe I'm just in the stage of early Sarah Connor, as opposed to later.

I woke up last night with someone banging on the neighbor's door. So I came out, turned on my radio, and found out there was emergency diking going on near the psych hospital, which is a short walk from my house. Slept a little while longer, and woke up to find much of the neighboring town under a voluntary evacuation, including where my nephew and his family live. Also, friends down the street were evacuated in the middle of the night. At this point, my best-case scenario is that I at least get my elderly parents, who could have left anytime and have a million places to go, to freakin' leave town, even if they're really my only vehicle out of town, if it comes to that.

The funny thing is that I'm not even in an evacuation zone: I'm in the part of town everyone is supposed to flee to. But my sisters were both in the big flood twelve years ago, so I know the sewer can back up, and fuel oil can fill people's basements. It doesn't look like there's any plan in place to rescue us.

Meanwhile, we're making coffee. My husband and I are supposed to just go to work like all is normal. If something happens, we're going to be on opposite ends of town, without a car. There's incredible congestion due to the closed roads, the sandbagging trucks, the rising river -- and there are still people out trying to get to jobs that aren't exactly essential right now. If it were up to me, I'd get my parents and our cats and we'd all have been out of town yesterday. But we kind of need our jobs.

So, near-by friends, stay safe. Far-away friends, think good thoughts of us! Burn a candle, what have you. I told someone yesterday that it'll be okay in the end, it'll just be more or less sucky. I'm trying to keep that advice in mind.