Progress--and Dust
Tonight when I got home there was a brand new grey metal circuitbreaker box planted in the wall, replacing the old fusebox. The plaster around it had been smoothed and painted over, and the exposed wires were no longer visible. I don't know if this means I can now go out and buy an air conditioner and plug it in--I'll check with my landlord. It would seem almost miraculous to have that possibility, after twelve years here of steamy summers.
The workmen left a fine coating of white dust all over the floor in the vestibule where they had been working, and also in the entrance to the living room/kitchen area, where they must have been tramping in and out for some reason. I just vacuumed most of it up, unfortunately introducing particles into my lungs in the process--I can feel them now as I'm breathing. Because my things tend to be scattered about, some of the dust had coated my backpack that was lying on the floor. When I picked it up to brush it off, I was reminded, unavoidably, of the way my backpack had looked after the long odyssey home from Lower Manhattan, where I work, the day the towers fell.
So, despite progress on the air conditioning front, I am feeling melancholy tonight. But I also know it will pass.
The workmen left a fine coating of white dust all over the floor in the vestibule where they had been working, and also in the entrance to the living room/kitchen area, where they must have been tramping in and out for some reason. I just vacuumed most of it up, unfortunately introducing particles into my lungs in the process--I can feel them now as I'm breathing. Because my things tend to be scattered about, some of the dust had coated my backpack that was lying on the floor. When I picked it up to brush it off, I was reminded, unavoidably, of the way my backpack had looked after the long odyssey home from Lower Manhattan, where I work, the day the towers fell.
So, despite progress on the air conditioning front, I am feeling melancholy tonight. But I also know it will pass.
posted by Sarah Sometimes at 9:27 PM
4 Comments:
I don't even live in New York, Sarah, and I still have trouble looking at older photos of the city that still show the World Trade Center. Living through it must have been horrific.
Have you seen the amazing Joel Meyerowitz book, Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive? Having photographed the towers for many years in all kinds of light, he talked his way onto the site a day or so after they fell and became the only photographer with free access throughout the entire process of cleaning it up. The images are a mix of haunting and hopeful, showing not only the destruction, but the strength of the men and women who worked tirelessly at the site. We heard him speak in Chicago; it gave us a real sense of the indomitable spirit of humankind in general and New Yorkers in particular. Very moving.
Hope you get to have that air conditioner. I remember those hot, humid Augusts quite well.
Those last 2 sentences were unexpectedly moving. Hope your melancholy passes.
It's strange how something like that can trigger a memory.
Hope you are feeling less melancholy today.
Dear terry, clowncar, and jo(e): thanks, all, for the kind words. I am in better shape today. And thanks, terry, for the book rec--I will look for it.
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