Blue Tarps

This morning I was driving to work along the route I used to always take. Lately I’ve been going another route and this morning, it felt like it had been a long time since I was on the highway. As I was driving along the road that I’ve taken for the last 5 years, things looked very different from me. By the side of the highway, there is a canal (go figure in Florida, right?) and on the other side of the canal there are houses. In the past I’ve never been able to see the houses because of the line of trees and high fences blocking the view. Well, today I got an eye full. Oh, what a cute tricycle on their back porch. Wow, those people have a huge grill. Oh my, that man in his living room should really put on a robe or something. It’s amazing how the landscape has changed so much since Hurricane Wilma. So much attention was on Katrina that people didn’t seem to take notice of Wilma. Well, we certainly did. (* Note, I am not trying to downplay Katrina. I know we made if off much better than the people of the gulf coast and my heart goes out to them. *) No one I know that had a fence had one after Wilma passed. Maybe they had parts of it still up, but not all of it. There are maybe a quarter of the trees there were before. And traffic signs and lights? Some streets still have one little light on a 3 lane road. A turn light? What’s that? The signs, well, let’s just say I always tell people to go past the KFC and turn right at the Texaco to find my house. Street names are not going to help at all. As I drove along the highway seeing all of this, I also noticed the large number of blue tarps. They were everywhere. When my co-worker showed us the wedding pictures he had taken out back of his house by the lake, you could see blue tarps on the houses across the lake. It’s been 6 months and people still haven’t gotten their roofs repaired. I still haven’t gotten my windows fixed. And hurricane season will be here soon. Are we doomed to another bad hurricane season? Will my windows come in before the roof gets blown off? Will that man put on a robe or close his curtains? No one knows the answers to these questions, but I do know one thing. You better hold on to your blue tarps!