Hi! thank you for the birthday card. I had a birthday message for you too, but when you read this you'll see how/why things got all turned upside down.
Rewind to July 21. I am at an inservice at my new school (took a job teaching 2nd grade at a brand new school in downtown Memphis with a wonderful boss). All is well. Chip is at his studio (also downtown) working. It is a good day. Now forward to July 22. It is about 6:30 am. Chip and I are up drinking coffee and watching the local morning news. It is raining. The weather guy says it is probably going to be a good summer storm, and then the power goes out. It feels weird, so I go get Sam out of his room and then BOOM. Uh oh, we say, bet a tree hit the house. I go into the kitchen. No hole, but it is raining down the walls. Then we see the big tree leaning into the upstairs . We go upstairs where the tree has landed, and start trying to cover up what we can. I go for a bucket when the phone rings. It's for Chip. He is quiet and then he hangs up quickly. "Gotta go downtown. The roof has blown off the studio."
So Chip leaves. I stay and continue to try to keep things as dry as possible and call the insurance guy. Still no power. After a while Chip calls to say it is really bad downtown, and he needs help getting things out. I get on the phone to friends, and start to get ready myself. Still no power, and lots of rain. I start downtown, leaving Sam to man the phone. You would not believe the mess. My neighborhood looked like a war zone. There were homes hit so much worse than ours. Trees were everywhere. It was surreal. I managed to get downtown. I stayed there to fill one car load and headed home to unload and get Sam. At home, there was a message canceling the inservice at work. Still no power, but the radio reports I heard in the car were unbelievable. Sam and I returned downtown and find it difficult to get back to the studio because the police department had the street roped off. After my impassioned speech, we were allowed through. Some friends had managed to get there before the ropes went up. We began to move 10 years of work out of the building and then the fire department showed up . They wanted to condemn the building and really didn't want to let us keep salvaging stuff. We just got the kids out and kept on working. I don't even remember how long we were there. I just know it was sad and grueling work. Still no power, and the report was that something like 80% of the city was out.
We got a room at a nice little inn downtown that just happened to be in a little spot with power. That was our home for a week and a half, while we shuttled back and forth between home and studio. While we were still staying downtown we got a call from a neighbor saying the second half of a tree that was still dangling had crashed and maybe we'd better come check on it. Well, our dog was inside and I got home as quick as I could. The dog was happy to see me, but my bedroom had a tree through one wall.
We returned home from life in the hotel after about 12 days. We got power back about 3 days after that. I don't know how people managed for weeks without power. It was so hot. We had to rearrange life at home. We moved Sam into the den, and Chip and I moved into his room. There was no power for most of Memphis for 2 weeks, and there was destruction like I've never seen before, and no one outside Memphis heard about it. My mother never believed it was really bad, I guess because she didn't hear it from Tom Brokow. She'd call, all chipper, and ask if Chip was back in the studio yet. No, Mom. There is no studio. No, Mom. There is no studio.
It took almost 6 months to get back to sort-of normal. We got our bedroom back around Christmas. Chip had to move his business into the house--2400 square feet of studio in 2 storage spaces and all the available rooms in our house. It was a mess. And then there was the problem with finding contractors and tree removal folks. All the tree removal businesses in the United States of America were here, but we had to settle with some creepy, backwoods, convict-turned-tree removal-service bubbas from Arkansas. And they were the best we could find. I never felt too safe with them around. Then there was the problem working with the not-very-neighborly State Farm Insurance Company. We ended up having to get a lawyer and threaten court before they would pay what needed to be paid, sometime last month, I think. Chip always had one ear on the phone about house problems and one ear on the phone with studio problems and then he had to try to stay in business all at the same time.
So fast forward to today. ( Chip and I are still together.) I am at the computer in the upstairs room that has been converted to Chip's office. I have e-mail again. Chip sold his space downtown (back in November around Thanksgiving) to some folks who wanted to make a fun little downtown studio/getaway. He has rented some studio space to work out of when he needs it (most of his work has become location work these last few years). Sam has his space (although it may need to be moved to the garage to accomodate his moods and his music). I have survived most of my first year of 2nd grade, (and that is another letter), and the fence is back up in the back yard for the dog. The front and back yards still look like white trash, and our contractor has had a nervous breakdown and may not finish the last 2% of what he was paid to do. But everybody here is healthy and it is spring break...
I hope everyone is well at your house. I keep Michael and his mates in my prayers. How is he? Do you still expect him back in July or August?
Chip is home and needs to get back to work up here, so I'll say bye for now, and happy birthday.
Love,
Janis
