What comes after Matthew, you ask?

Yall..when I say it was a long day and night, that is not an exaggeration.  It felt like we were there talking to these dang citizens for a couple days all smushed together.  We took call after call about downed wires, trees blocking road ways, power outages, bridge closures and more.  Those were just the storm related emergencies.  There is also all the regular crime to consider.  We became tired and cranky on a whole new different level.  At the same time, we were all in it together, and I was sitting next to someone that keeps me laughing.  Before we knew it (ok, real talk it was after hours of bitching to each other, and drinking a red bull) it was time to head home.  The only thing was that we didn’t really know what it was like out there.  We had spent 16 hours in a room with each other with no windows.  You can watch the news, and you can look out at the sky from the dark roof, but that and actually knowing what you are going to see, what will be out there, those are very different things.  The drive was nothing like the one I had encountered coming in to work.  In place of the sheets of rain coming down, there was only a small wind blowing.  There was debris on the roadways, and a feeling that the city had lost a little bit of its glimmer while we were inside that night.

I got off the highway, and turned onto the street where my apartment complex is.  It took my eyes a moment to adjust to all the darkness I was surrounded in.  There were no street lights inside the complex, no building lights and no porch lights.  The whole place looked like a horror movie.  Trees everywhere, flooded sidewalks, and a haze hanging in the air that made me feel like I was the only one there.  I had to park not so close to my apartment, and walked up, half thinking that there would somehow miraculously be lights in just my building. Well no such luck people.  My place was hot and dark, and almost looked like the scene of a crime itself, the way that places look when the police come and tape it off.  Like the souls that once were there have been taken over by the darkness as well.  I stood in silence for only a moment, walking around just a little bit with a flashlight before I realized I looked like a burglar.  I had a very important trip to make. I had to go get my doggy!!  When I arrived to get him, he looked nervous, and I was told that the poor guy had been throwing up and pacing most of the night.  He doesn’t like storms, or being away from me at all.  By the time we got back to the apartment, he was sound asleep in my arms.  We were both wet and tired, but we were together, and that’s all that mattered in that moment.

I got minimal sleep in the hot apartment.  Waylon also started barking at every noise he heard.  I then got my self outta bed and took a shower in the dark to head back to work to do it all over again, this time for just my regular 12 hours.  Ill spare you the run-down of the rest of the weekend.  I will say that I regained power on Sunday and have never been so excited to flip on my lights! I can also say that although a little weather beaten and water logged, Jacksonville will be just fine.  We got hit hard, but we hit right back.