Phase II the lock down.

 

 

In the movie Casablanca the nightly curfew slowed the action at Rick Café American from escapee aristocrats holding on to their last few minutes of fame, into the dribble of Casablanca’s underworld. Casablanca’s curfew signaled the time when Victor Lazlo met and lead his free French, Bugatti bought and sold his visas. It was after “lights out” that the start of the cat and mouse games trafficking people into the free world began and the time for all the other activity that need to occur in the dark to occur. For us 7pm is the curfew which is heavily enforced as well as daytime lockdowns so stiff in some areas you need paperwork endorsed by Eisenhower himself if you are going to pass. Sadly there is looting going on. Travel in to help those in need or to see what’s around you is impossible if you don’t have ID pertaining to where you want to go or a VERY convincing reason for traveling to a destination; Jersey cops are some of the most skeptical people in the world. This poses a problem for me as I am a resident of New Hampshire; I am foreign and in question everywhere.

For a minute I ask you to close your eyes and imagine yourself in bed with your family asleep, your world around in tatters, there is no heat, no light and unsafe water.  Outside your house are stacks of carpet, furniture and junk on the lawn similar to what one may see in front of a dorm building at San Diego State on the last day of school but with mold already set in. On the hood of your car you are drying a few left over family pictures, a pair of boots, some mail and a trinket that although wasn’t your favorite survived.  To find sleep one must answer over and over in their head thousands of  questions like, when will we have power or any other basics which all seem so far out in the future it doesn’t matter, worries of how all this will be covered by insurance, getting sick or worse. You live in half dreams and as you slip and slumber you hear a car pull up, people in your yard and that generator that was running  your one light or the fridge that keeps the babies milk cold is now cut and gone. You have been hit by insurgence and its only getting worse. Looters are now coming by water like pirates sweeping your decks, by car and foot. The local pub has become the central hub for everyone, opening at 5pm and having last call by 6pm, it’s a place to get food (one of a few places open in this area), have a drink and for at least a few min share some stories. Tonight’s topic far and wide was looting….In short there is a very clear code, if you violate someone in any way you will be at the hands of the public, a public that would forever remain silent to your fate. Interestingly everyone is wide open, giving, paying it forward and paying it back, if you knocked on anyone’s door and asked for help you would not be turned away, I am 100% sure of that, these are very good people; sadly the looting is done out of greed more than survival. I say this not to make a speech about the right to bear arms, which at this point is a given for 100% of the population, but to tell what’s around me as the real story, to give light to things that we don’t deal with on a day to day that tilt our vision.  One of the things I learned from this experience…we link things to what we know in our mind and sometimes fail to stop and think with freshness. The people, who linked this storm to storms past, did the basics and lost a lot because of it (I want to be clear to say a lot of people did a lot of prep and still lost everything): “Evolve or die”. Thinking out of the box is so critical to foreseeing things before life reshapes everything.  Lessons which are hard to earn from a Toronto high rise, a cute little Cape Cod, while California dreaming, or on those rolling plains. The perspective I am showing is much more fundamental and what life at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs looks like.  A life that cannot be policed or kept under order law, there simply isn’t enough, its one that is kept together by the citizens.  Again bringing me back to how important it is to surround yourself hith good people. It’s easy to say oh they can have it I will buy another one….your linking again.

This morning was spent picking up and re-loaning a spare generator now needed at another location in order to pump out. On the way into the very hard hit neighborhood, we picked up coffee in a thermos, a luxury to the highest standards, which was more than appreciated. Creating the upward spike in emotions for me, but after 2 hours I hit the bottom again with depression setting in again, slipping back in your mind to shut down.  It’s funny how we think we are so strong, but something as simple as seeing a baby bassoon on a heap of junk followed by a beautiful morning picture from a special friend threw me over the edge, no one saw, but it was needed.  30 min later someone else mentioned in passing that they finally broke down, I can connect with that. On the way out we were stopped by an elderly lady who asked us if we could help carry some stuff out of her house, a women of means, now ragged she broke down as we carried away the contents of her house to the curb to be picked up and dragged away. It was like we were removing 30 years of memories.

 I have to give credit to Terry who seems to be the local therapist and neighborhood “Kennedy” who is ever unfailing. Tonight she has created a bon fire potluck which I am sure will turn out a crowd.  Getting prepped she bouncing back and forth from the kitchen where she is cooking on a make shift stove that I brought in off the boat and a bbq out back. Where is Martha Stewart now?

Waiting to get gas...

Right now it’s a 50/50 on whether or not I will be able to leave here by boat. Currently there is a lock down on the waterways with heavy fines.  A low pressure system passes on Thursday which will give me the window I will need for the 700mile trip to Bermuda.  Pray for me, its time to go.

I want to thank everyone for there support of my blog, although I only have 6 followers the page view count is mind blowing and growing all over the world.