Searching for Beauty

Smashed car on top of trailer...left behind by the river.

All of the photos in this post were taken in the past week. We are still living in a disaster zone. There are still people in tents.  Thousands of people are displaced and hundreds of businesses are still closed. There is still a desperate need for help in our area. However, we keep taking small steps forward. There were 900+ vehicles in the rivers after Helene and now there are 89 vehicles that still need to be removed from the rivers. That is progress. Two bridges and half of a main road have reopened in our city. There are still major issues with travel to Tennessee because the highway is so damaged and unstable. There is still no train service (commercial or passenger), but it is getting closer as they make repairs to the hundreds of miles of tracks. It is about 1.5 hours away now. 

Below are two photos of an apartment complex destroyed by the river that is still the same as when the water first receded. 

Smashed tractor trailers still remain along the road.

Our regional food bank was destroyed.

Manna, our regional food bank

They rebuilt the road on one side of the river, but the entire other side is still in ruins. 

No change on this bridge, but the river is looking cleaner and healthier in this section. 

Our city's award-winning golf course is in ruins.

Anyone need a fridge?

This road reopening means my husband's commute is back to normal, although the traffic lights are run on a generator because there is still no power on that section of road.

Many patches of woods look like this photo below.  So many trees are down. We are at great risk for forest fires and there has already been three fires in the neighboring county. 

Rebekah and I spent one day at Biltmore. It was nice to rest our eyes on beauty. The orchid greenhouse was beautiful. Spending some time on the Biltmore Estate was a wonderful reminder of the beauty that our area is so known for.  Beauty is always a bit hard for me to see during "stick season" ... what we affectionately call winter here because of the lack of snow.  It is all that much harder right now with so many trees down all over the area. Biltmore Estate has worked very hard on their grounds and the progress is impressive. 

Looking out from the back of Biltmore house

The river was frozen and every adult was embracing their inner child and trying to break the ice with a rock or two...LOL.

We traveled to Washington, D.C. and Richmond, VA so that Rebekah could audition for Summer Ballet Intensives. She got into both of them and will be spending part of this coming summer with relatives while dancing her heart out. We visited the National Cathedral while we were in Washington, D.C. It was really lovely inside and out. We didn't walk through the gardens because the weather was so cold, but they were impressive from our car even in the dead of winter. I love stained glass windows. 

We are so busy on the home front. Rebekah is finding her college workload to be very demanding this semester. Elijah is adjusting to college, too. He is taking four classes in Integrated Computer Machining. He likes it, for the most part, and is getting used to the routine and demand of so much homework. This year feels like a year in which we will be staying close to home. I am planning to open a day care out of our home in a few months for only a couple children. We are planning a small trip this year within a state or two from our home. So much hinges on what happens to my husband's federal government job. With this administration trying to dismantle the government, his job along with 2+ million federal government employees' jobs are very much at risk right now. It is a very shocking and alarming time. Even those who work with veterans, such as my husband, are not safe.  Apparently,  making America great again means stomping on the least of us. We would be wise to remember and care for the least of us. Mathew 25:40.

Our cats are so silly. A game of chase resulted in one cat getting stuck in the fruit bowl. 

Elijah's hair is getting so long. He is enjoying the cascading curls.

Blessings, Dawn

Hurricane Helene ~ Asheville's road to recovery

 As I write this post, we are at day 43 post Hurricane Helene. The devastation is everywhere, but there are more and more signs of recovery. The death count has stopped climbing (although I think there is still a dozen missing). Clean up has begun in some areas, which were littered with downed trees and tons of debris, and are now blank spaces of mud. Many of the landslides have been cleared from roads, and nearly 100 of the 400+ closed roads have reopened. Stores that weren't flooded are reopening and a few restaurants are open with limited menus and using paper products and canned drinks. There still is no safe water... The majority of us are finding support within our community and finding our way to new routines (like keeping a constant count on how much water we have and collecting more from donation sites).

Although there are many signs of recovery, there is a dystopian feeling in many areas (especially those along rivers, creeks and streams). Tent and camper cities are rising out of the mud to house the 200,000 people who have been displaced (that is the number of displaced throughout Western North Carolina, not just Asheville). Buncombe County in which Asheville lies lost 40% of its trees, creating fears of more landslides each time it rains. The debris is stacked along roadways; and the rivers are still filled with debris, trash, semi trucks and a train I saw the other day. More than 100 public bridges need to be repaired or replaced. I can't tell you how often I do three point turns these days as I come across a closed road. Sometimes the road had been open but is closed as clean up crews attempt to remove a tree or in one case this week a semi trailer off the top of a building. Yes, the rivers rose high enough and were moving fast enough to deposit semi trailers on buildings. 

The set of pictures below are Swannanoa (10 minutes east of our home) and our closest shopping area about three minutes from our home. They are all pictures from week 3 or 4 post Helene.

This community was about two football fields from the river.

The devastation is just mindboggling. 

This little house came off it's foundation and almost landed in the road. 

Loved this restaurant

Twisted train tracks with no dirt left under them are everywhere.
Who knows when any kind of train service with return? 

Dear Husband and I ate out in a restaurant right on the edge of the wreckage this weekend.
I took this picture from the restaurant parking lot. It is a surreal experience.

Semi truck trailers stacked on each other and the side of the building.

As is generally the case, life goes on. Through the devastation that surrounds us, there are moments of normalcy and pockets of joy. Rebekah performed in the Halloween show, Nightmare at the Museum, with her dance company in Greenville, SC. She was Cruella de Ville. She did a beautiful job.

Breakout (an escape room venue) opened up in downtown Asheville just in time for Halloween. We went and played the Monopoly Get Out of Jail room. It was fun and we escaped with two minutes to spare...lol. 

The most exciting news was for Elijah!! He got his driver's license. Dear Husband took him down to Marion and Elijah took the test. The lady said he did a nice job and it was nice for her to ride with a young man who drove under the speed limit. We are so proud of his accomplishment!

Our neighborhood bears are back. We didn't see them for a few weeks.

We are very grateful for all the help that has come to our community. So many have come from afar to help. There is so much work to do and recovery is going to take years. I talked to a friend that said the county was developing a five year plan to full recovery. 

Asheville is strong. We will rise together for only when the least of us has a seat at the table will we truly be a strong, safe and happy community. 

Blessings, Dawn

Life Update

 The summer just flew by this year. Life seems to get faster and faster. I am so grateful for my health which has allowed me to keep up. I will start with the negatives of the summer. Elijah suffered a very difficult depression this summer which has simmered down with three medications but is still ongoing. He was faced with crippling anxiety that crushed him. Unfortunately, when his probation period ended at the packing job he had, the boss let him go. He was somewhat relieved because it really wasn't a great fit. She micromanaged the very small business to an extreme degree. His stress level has made it impossible to get him back into the work force in the last 7 weeks or so. Instead, we have concentrated on driving. Dear husband took it over and they are driving 6 days a week. He is very close to taking the test and has made great progress in the past few months.  We are praying that this will help to build his confidence. 

The other negative is Rebekah's car died and we haven't yet found a replacement that will  meet her demanding travel needs. She is currently sharing Grandma's car. 

Rebekah has had a splendid summer. She went to multiple summer dance intensives and had a great experience with each and every one of them. She liked Sarasota and Joffery NYC the best. She was invited into the training program of Carolina Ballet in Raleigh, NC and Joffery NYC, but decided to decline the honor because they were tuition based. She did however accept a contract from Carolina Ballet Theater in Greenville, SC. She received an apprenticeship with this small ballet company and is stipend with ballet shoes. The commute is a grueling 1.5 hours each way ( with lots of construction and three highways with mountain driving) and she needs to travel it 3 to 5 times a week depending on rehearsals. However, she loves the company. She has lots of opportunities to perform on large and small stages. Her first performance is next weekend. Because it is a small company every one is very much needed and an apprentice gets to dance in every show right along side the fulltime company members. She even has some solo roles already. On top of  dancing, she is still plugging away at college and works with Tim two days a week. 

Rebekah in the dorms at Carolina Ballet in Raleigh

This Rebekah statue was stunning at the High Museum in Atlanta

David and I made a quick weekend trip down to Atlanta with Elijah  one weekend so that he could visit and online friend. It was a nice experience for him and David and I had a quick retreat of our own. We visited the High Museum and the Atlanta zoo. They were both delightful. 

My darling little nanny child is three now and off to preschool. I only see him occasionally now. His mother is pregnant though, so we might work out childcare for the new little one in the future. I am trying to figure out my life and what I want to do in the Spring. 

Tim and I went for an overnight to Duke for all of his cardiac appointments. We had a gap between appointments and went to the North Carolina Museum of Art. It was lovely and fun to get out and have  one on one trip with Tim. His appointments went well and he is good for another year of cardiac health. 

I will be posting about NYC separately. Our last hurrah of the Summer was an overnight trip to Atlanta to see Green Day. Elijah once again visited his online friend. Dear Husband was our great supporter and enjoyed his down time eating junk food in the hotel and watching the history channel and Tim, Rebekah and I went to the concert. It was great. Rebekah and I had about 6 hours of sleep in the hotel before we had to head out to get Rebekah back to Greenville for her ballet rehearsals. It was a whirlwind, but fun. 

One of her summer intensives was a contemporary studio and they did an photo shoot. She got some great shots for free. They were included in the intensive program. 

We are already racing into fall. I hope Elijah turns a happy corner in the next few weeks. 

Blessings, Dawn