Monday Morning Blues

Well, the title says it all. In a funk. Cranky. Sad. Mostly it's just that this is the first time since the day after Hurricane Ivan that I've been able to look through all the photos posted on the Pensacola News Journal's web site of the aftermath of that damned windstorm from Hell. Pensacola isn't my hometown, but it, and Ft. Walton Beach-- which also will have received a lot of damage-- are the closest any other place comes. There are so many memories for me of the area, and to scan through photo after photo of major devastation is just damned depressing. People's dreams-- their entire homes, with all the furniture swept out into their neighbor's yards. One woman foolishly had no insurance even though her condo was on the beach, and they had photos of her surveying the complete destruction of all of her things, weeping clearly.

The place where I had my wedding reception is one of the oldest buildings in Florida-- certainly, it's supposed to be the oldest in Pensacola. This is a photo of the big old oak tree that we sat under; I have a photo somewhere with my bridesmaids sitting prettily in a circle under the tree, and Andrew & I perched at a table smiling and talking to a family friend who died a few years later. There are several pictures of us standing happily on the staircase you can see in the background of the photo. Where the tree's roots are is where the young unmarried women gathered to catch my bouquet. (It was caught by a pre-teen-- they're the only ones who really fought over it... all the older marriage age women were very conservative).

The house doesn't look like it's damaged too much-- but it does look like the place will never be really the same. So that's the point of scanning through all these depressing photos-- what memories are there of things that are now gone. It means a lot to see all of the photos, but when you see one with a memory of your own attached, it makes it even harder.

So, dammit, I need to settle down and get some work done. But it's really sad to see, and know that when I go back to visit Pensacola again (maybe at Christmas) it will just not be the same. Sigh. Four hurricanes in one year, as you know if you've heard any of the news coverage, is extreme. Let's just hope that's all. Florida is going to be hurting. They do have incredible powers to recover, and it won't be long till you can take a vacation on the gorgeous beaches again. But it's going to be rough for quite a while.

UPDATE: If you want to waste time and feel the need for an added bit of melancholy, there are lots of galleries of photos here. I don't know why CNN and the other news channels insist on showing trailer parks-- there are plenty of destroyed more stable houses too.