Normal

Normal is a weird concept. Like how we have a certain neighbor in the complex behind us who has a medical emergency pretty much any time the weather’s awful, without fail. So when an ambulance and a firetruck showed up to that building mid-Sandy, that was normal.

God bless those emergency workers, though.

The kids playing in the flood waters downtown within minutes of the rain ending? Also totally normal.

Photo courtesy of Tracy Woodward via the Washington Post.

Then there are the things that people try to return to normal after a major event, but don’t quite make it. For instance, we were back in school yesterday, but the kids were so wired there was probably not a speck of learning done. Or the fact that within hours crews were clearing away the tree in the through-way out of our parking lot,

Freedom!

but that giant chunk of the sidewalk the root ball took out and the sad hole in the treeline where the behemoth used to live? Definitely not quite normal.

Then there’s the stuff that’s totally not normal at all. For some involved in this storm that’s a really sad thing, but for me? It just means I got a ridiculous amount spun and dyed on Tuesday while I had no where else to go (or could go). Now what to do with this thick and thin mess?

I made this!

AND this!