Tuesday, September 20, 2005

I wonder if I will ever see my mail

Mail delivery resumed here on September 10, though a few days ago, there was, for some reason, no delivery. There is a huge heap of back mail sitting somewhere that we still don't have. The post office can do nothing but wait for it all to come in, and then they will deliver it. But I wonder when; it has now been three weeks since the storm hit.

Our phone service was fine when we returned, but now the best we can get is a dial tone with a buzz. Sometimes it has a buzz and distant busy signals. Sometimes there is so much static that you can't use it, and sometimes there is nothing at all. My cell phone still doesn't work, though one of the pieces of mail I did receive was a bill for non-existent cell phone services.

Though we are very fortunate to have only a big mess and some house damage, it is nevertheless stressful. My business has almost shut down because several of my clients have not returned from their evacuation trips. It is still hard to locate people; today, I learned that some friends of ours lost a townhouse they had moved into right before Katrina hit. And then there is the business of applying to FEMA and wondering whether our application has been thrown out, as so many have been. Traffic is almost at a standstill in some places. We still have no cable connection. Our insurance adjuster is coming on Friday--if we haven't evacuated to Alabama.

To make matters more interesting, my only Internet-capable computer crashed over the weekend, and I had to wipe out my hard drive and re-install windows. Once I got everything up and running, my DVD drive broke (thank goodness it waited until I had re-installed my operating system). Also, there is something wrong with my car air conditioner (it is sweltering here), which the dealership was unable to find, but they are going to try again tomorrow.

Fortunately, our blender is working just fine. I bought some limes and some white peaches, and plan to make peach margaritas a bit later. We can't buy groceries, per se, because we may lose power and/or leave town, but consuming a little fruit is always a good idea.

1 Comments:

Thanks for mentioning the mail disappearance. I had mailed my sister a package Sat, Aug 27. Obviously, it never got to her house in New Orleans. When I asked at the post office, I was told that mail to New Orleans was being sent to a warehouse, then returned to the sender. Maybe limbo would have been a better answer.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:27 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home