Sunshine following storms

 

Controlling the kitchen? Well, maybe

Everyone has their story after last night’s terrific storms swept across Texas and moved on east. Our story is one of incredible gratitude. Texans tend to get a bit blasé about storm warnings—we get them a lot and often they peter out. But there was something different yesterday—a more threatening note. Even the governor began damage control before the storm. TV weatherman tracked it minute by minute, and as it approached we were urged not to wait but to go to a safe spot.

Jordan wanted me to come into the house, especially after she heard that two eighteen-wheeleers had been blown off the highway at Weatherford. I declined, saying I could go to my closet if necessary. “How will you know?” she asked, and I said I’d keep listening to the TV weather reports and I’d look out the window. Because they said to stay away from west-facing windows, I pulled the shades down on the French doors and one window on that side of the cottage. I think the doors are plexiglass and not glass—ought to check on that.

What I didn’t count on and should have was the power outage. The storm hit at 6:00 p.m. and the power went off at 6:01. With the shades pulled, it suddenly got very dark. For a moment, I thought I was trapped in the bathroom, because the walker kept hitting an immoveable object. The flashlight on my phone told me I was trying to plow into the plumbing pipes under the sink!

So there I was, back at my desk—no light, no computer. What does a writer do in that situation? Well, I tried meditating, but I’ve never been very good at that—my mind jumps from subject to subject. Finally I decided I’d crawl into my bed. You guessed it—I fell sound asleep, only to be awakened suddenly when the electricity came on about seven and the cottage lit up. I guess Jordan had turned on all the lights before the storm. We finished the dinner that was in the slow cooker and praised the Lord for no damage.

This morning the sun shone brightly and you’d have never known there was a storm unless you turned on the TV. Reports of extensive damage, but blessedly little loss of life, have come in all day. I am particularly distressed for a mom-and-pop greenery whose greenhouses, full of carefully nurtured seedlings, were destroyed.

For me, it was a day of computer troubles. It all started because I couldn’t get into Central Market online to place my grocery order. I called Colin and ended taking way too much of his morning—fortunately he was working at home. He finally installed a new VPN and it seemed to fix the problem, once we minimized the connection map. But it was about two and a half hours of frustration, when I had a lot of work waiting for me. I told myself the situation was beyond my control (and my ability to fix it) and it wasn’t the end of the world. That self-lecture worked—to some extent.

Tonight I have my groceries (Jordan even boned two Rotisserie chickens for me), my computer is working, I’ve made a stab at organizing my tax information, and all seems well with the world. Tonight I’ll proofread—or sort tax receipts.

Some days the world seems so out of control, with partisanship divides in our government, book bans and curriculum censorship, state laws criminalizing abortion (and now drag shows), drug deaths among teens—the list is endless. Yet I found a news brief with a quote that encouraged me. Raghavan Iyer is a cookbook author and teacher who has brought the food of India to thousands of Americans. Now he has been diagnosed with metastatic cancer, and he is using his time to encourage people about comfort food no matter what cuisine it comes from. In an interview, he said, “If I can control the kitchen, I can control my life.” I think I will make it my mantra.

Hope everyone is safe and was as fortunate as we were last night. It’s spring in Texas—sometimes wonderful, sometimes terrifying, always unpredictable.