A famous Valle Crucis barn. Pay no attention to the smeary flowers in the center--apparently my wide angle lens has a goober issue of some sort when I stop the lens down to f22.
Out of the million people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, about 100 folks showed up in Boone. Of those, not one single person is interested in my fully furnished apartment . I'm going to extend this post because if you come to my site just for the pretty pictures, then you will be sorely disappointed in my hormonally charged whining that follows. You've been warned...
My husband told me so. He said that nobody was going to want to come to Boone from the hurricane ravaged Gulf. But at the time all I saw was a tv image of a mother, clutching her child, pleading for water and help. "We don't know where we are going to go," she cried to me personally from the tv.
My husband is the most generous man I have ever met and yet he told me the evening that we discussed donating our apartment:
" Just remember Marie. No good deed goes unpunished."
I heard him. But I didn't listen. Instead I jumped into action, hoping to save that poor TV lady. I posted my housing on a zillion websites. Called local professional helpers. Enlisted support from my co-workers. Basically, every single moment of the last week or so has been focused on making a home for the TV lady.
But TV lady was a no-show.
God I can't believe how completely stupid I am.
Right now, sitting in my barn I have a complete home. Really. I have everything from a handmade crossstitched pillow that says "Home Sweet Home" donated by the sweet little old lady that works in our plant to a internet ready computer resting in our building. I have been touched by the willingness to give by folks that don't have much extra to give.
And there is no TV lady to give it to.
Or so I was told by the local professional helper. The evacuees don't need your apartment or things, they just need your money, " said the professional helper to me yesterday.
So now, I feel like I am back in junior high school and have committed a serious fashion faux pas. The popular girls are laughing at me. No kidding.
And I have the horrible task of fetching that little pillow from my barn that has "Home Sweet Home" cross-stitched upon it and returning it to the little old lady in the back and telling her that nobody wants it.
Sophie never showed up either.
**Update 5:15 pm** All you guys are the best. I just read my post again and I would like to clarify things just a bit: 1) I am not mad, bitter or even amazed that no one chose to temporarily live in our apartment. But, I did think believe, after watching TV lady and the rest of the media coverage, that the need for such dwellings was going to be tremendous. Afterall, a city full of buildings were covered up in filthy water. I felt it important for every town, large or small, to absorb part of the overflow of folks. 2) Both the professional help and my husband were correct. I did always feel however, that if the right person(s) came along, it would be meant to be. I still do.. I am delighted that of the folks that landed in Boone found the right place for them to rest their weary heads. I am grateful for the professional helper and I love my husband even when he makes sense. 3) I mostly regret that I asked some wonderful folks to help me. And they did. Now there is all this stuff that I have to return to them or ask their permission to donate it to a local charity. I wish I could reimburse them for all their expenses. 4) I still hope and pray that the TV lady and her baby are safe somewhere.
