And Lo, The Day Was Long

This morning I got up, gave the Cowboy a treatment at his house, and cleaned out all my stuff, loaded the car (puppy and all) and went to work. I saw one patient. The middle of my day fell apart because people were needing to gather their wits, and some people needed to gather their belongings. Jackie was going to try and make it up to the Farm—and she did. I followed suit. The rain has let up and the remaining one lane of road is open with flaggers. They are trying to shore up the hole before the next storm moves in tomorrow. The river was way down from yesterday.
Still, a house floated out yesterday, in addition to a Lexus. There are news crews on the pass and helicopters flying everywhere looking at damage. Huge log jams clog the rivers, and debris is everywhere.
It was great to get back up to the Farm. Jackie’s sister came up, too. In three hours, we managed to:
Eat lunch.
Muck out 8 stalls and fill water troughs in anticipation of maybe bringing the horses home. I learned how to drive the ATV, which is used for poo removal.
Unload and stack THREE TONS of hay. This hay was wet AND dusty. A bale of hay weighs 85 lbs. The wet ones weigh more. There was plenty of grunting, gasping, sweating, and swearing. We got it done, though. I kind of couldn’t believe how hard it was, the hay. This work, with Jackie and Becky, was, we agreed, oddly satisfying. In addition to being so shitty. We did listen to George Thorogood the whole time, so we felt like we were b-b-b-b bad.
After the hay and the poo and George Thorogood, I cleaned up the puppy, took a shower, and went back to work. I ended up driving back to Portland in sleet.

Yesterday when I stopped by the place where the river was washing out the road, I was amazed at the raw force at work before me. Boulders the size of refrigerators were flying in the maelstrom. It sounded like a freight train, but with a game of pool happening at the same time. There were people standing with me, and all of us just watched it without saying much. Water was dripping off the brim of my hat. I got much, much wetter later on. My feet are all screwed up from working in wet boots all day, my arms hurt when I wiggle my fingers. I’m sneezy.
After all that crisis and danger and rain? I’m still madly in love with the Mountain. I can’t wait to go back.