THE GREAT OB FLOOD OF 1983 in Postcards 4

DAY 1: Hungover and leaning up against one of Timothy M’s old cars that I gave to Margot.

I drank a lot the night before. There I was lying in bed near the bedroom window the next morning. A tap, tap woke me, and I stuck my head out to see lifeguard friends on surfboards. The world outside was flooded.

There had been a giant rainstorm. The tides were extra high too. The ocean just rolled onshore right through living rooms, and homes, and cars, to flood our street a block away from the beach.

My house was dry. The water was one inch from the top step of my tiny porch. My twenty-some colored Datsun was high and dry in the back yard. Everybody else’s home was underwater even Milaka’s a block from mine where her new textbooks were on the floor. All the cars on the street but mine were totaled. The electrical wiring was under my house and had to be replaced. The landlady was highly annoyed, angry, and fixed it under duress while standing in the yard throughout the repair.

Once I ate some carbs that mornning and took some aspirin, I joined my neighbors out on the street. We moved cars, we helped older folks. Some unprintable in a 4X4 roared through and sent a wave through my living room. He rounded the corner at light speed and hit the Life Guard Unit sitting in a high spot. We all ran after him. It must have been entertaining theater. Later in the day I walked down to the lifeguard tower and from that high perch was able to watch the surf wash away the boardwalk below.

Now, early in the winter season, the city installs a high sand berm the length of the beach. Sandbags are available for anyone who might need them especially those near the beach. So far…the berm has worked well since 1983.

Day 2: Yes, I still smoked, and yes my trashcan was floating away.
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• Himself: Not taking it all quite so seriously.


• Myself: Slept through my meeting so will hit a nooner. Today writing, sewing, grocery shopping and reading.


• Reading: Volume 3, see yesterday.


• Gratitude’s: G, as usual. The grey skies and cool air.