What a memorable week. On this Friday night I feel the need/opportunity to reflect back. This was a week that threw everything at us. Monday and Tuesday were fairly normal, fairly productive work days. All the while we were being apprised of the approaching storm. But that would be Wednesday and so much has happened this hurricane season I think many of us figured another small, inconvenient close call. By Wednesday morning, no such luck. This thing called Hurricane Zeta was not moving off track and New Orleans and all points due south and due north would be impacted. But of course this would be nothing, maybe a strong tropical storm maybe even a small Cat. 1 hurricane. Again, no such luck. Despite the lateness in the season and the supposed cooler water nothing would prevent this Zeta from becoming a strong Cat. 2 hurricane. What the heck. A strong hurricane in Louisiana and Mississippi in very late October; what the heck. So I go to work Wednesday, we decide to bail out at 11 am and good thing; this storm is moving and moving fast. By 2 pm we are feeling impacts but by 5 pm things are getting scary.
Now I've never rode out a Category 2 hurricane in this house. I was fully expecting no power, tree damage, maybe damage to my barn. None of this happened. As the storm drew nearer, then the eye, followed by one last shot, the whole thing was out of here by 7:30 pm. Get this; we never lost power, the satellite TV did remarkably well and there was no damage on my property beyond tree limbs. What a pleasant surprise. I was so shocked to be able to retire to bed all cozy and comfortable by 9:30 pm.
Now not everyone was so luck, especially with power. Between southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast there were over 1 million without power. Some are still without power especially in New Orleans and surrounding parishes. Both my sister and my daughter, some 45 miles apart, just got power back on tonight, some 48 hours in duration. Sadly, there will many without power well into next week. Thursday, my staff and I worked from the bank without power which is always a challenge. But we did it!
Also, speaking of Thursday, our home church parish, St. Jane de Chantal, had to postpone Confirmation with the Archbishop present. No power at church, too many confirmand families dealing with similar issues and more; therefore, no Confirmation. Happily I can report it is only delayed until next Thursday.
So the whole area is returning to normal except for those with power outages and any residual damage. Of course close to landfall, on the coastline, the damage is a bit more severe. Understand that this is the 7th time we were targeted and inside that infamous cone of uncertainty and the 5th time a named storm crossed the Louisiana coast.
While all this is going on the rest of the nation is immersed in the Presidential election and lots of additional politics, the Dodgers won the World Series and a huge chunk of America turned cold. So cold that today we had a low of 52 degrees. By the way, I've never experienced post hurricane clean up unless we had an accompanying heat index of about 100. Thank goodness this is so.
Tonight I had the best time driving from work to Slidell to buy chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-a for my granddaughter Brennan. She loves the stuff and has not been able to understand why no chicken nuggets for like 3 days. So Pops found the closest Chick-fil-a and endured the 45 minute car line to deliver chicken nuggets which produced a huge smile and a "love you Pops" which was the best way possible to end a very challenging week. As I get ready for bed I thank God that we survived a hurricane visitor this week and can look forward to the weekend with relief and joy.
This is All Saints Day weekend and All Souls Day on Monday. In addition to my assigned masses I will offer the blessing of graves at the nearby Abita Springs cemetery. And yes, next week we vote and await the election results. I choose not to think about that today. This week has been enough to ponder.
A blessed Friday evening all!
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