I ought to have recognized once I acquired the urge to make grits that one thing was askew within the universe. When I’m feeling disconcerted, my Southern roots flower and I usually discover myself desirous to make grits.
There’s a high quality about this grainy substance that I discover each comforting and sustaining. On winter mornings, I used to gulp some down in my school eating corridor earlier than sprinting throughout campus and I might really feel armed for something the day may deliver.
Such was the case on the morning of August 20 when the rain from Hurricane (later Tropical Storm) Hilary lastly made an look after days of anticipation by anxious Southern California residents, myself very a lot included.
Nevertheless, I used to be feeling comparatively calm and ready even once I virtually tripped over my catastrophe preparedness equipment that I wrested from the closet flooring. So when the necessity for grits known as me to the kitchen, I didn’t equate it with any explicit concern. Although, as I used to be cooking, I did discover that the rain was severely escalating its faucet dancing on the backyard window.
“All we want now could be an earthquake,” I mentioned to my bowl of grits as I sat down in entrance of the TV. The phrases had barely left my lips as I turned on the information saying we had simply had an earthquake. On the similar time, I used to be getting a “duck and canopy” alert on my cellphone.
The one factor I hadn’t anxious about had occurred. Was this attending to be a sample with me? My thoughts flashed again to my latest journey to Chicago when the twister I anxious about didn’t occur however one thing I hadn’t anxious about did.
If solely I had anxious a couple of 5.1 quake descending on California within the midst of an impending hurricane, I may have made a contingency plan like I did with the crack in one of many window panes that I had anxious over for months. I lastly coated it with a towel and masking tape once I heard in regards to the hurricane. Not a drop of rain seeped by way of my makeshift repair however I anxious that it will.
It’s a number of strain worrying in regards to the issues I would overlook to fret about.
E-mail patriciabunin@sbcglobal.internet. Comply with her on X @patriciabunin and PatriciaBunin.com.
