Leaving Shipoke
No, no, not me.
We had a going-away party yesterday for Scott and Heather Emery, who are leaving Shipoke for Olympia, Washington. Scott finished his general surgery residency at Pinnacle Hospital and accepted a job in a surgery practice back in their home state. Heather was a lawyer for the state, most recently for the Independent Regulatory Review Commission. She doesn't have a new job lined up, but as a result will be able to work on their new home with its views of Puget Sound.
I'll miss Scott's genial good nature and Heather's peppery wit. They arrived not long before the 2004 flood, so are full-fledged Shipoke residents. Your status here is based on how many floods you have gone through. I don't think we have any '36-ers left, and there may be one or two survivors of the Agnes and Eloise floods in the 1970s. But for most of us, the question comes down to whether you can regale newcomers like Cali McCullough and her husband with stories of the 1996 and 2004 floods. We don't even have to make stuff up. Reality is good enough.
So we sat under the picnic shelter in the playground yesterday telling these stories and drinking wine, or beer, and snacking on wraps from Wegman's (courtesy of Bill Cluck) and potato salad from me--first of the season. I don't look forward to another flood, even though I would love to make a documentary film if it happens. Floods are brutal events, wearing on the body, soul and pocketbook. But like soldiers who have gone through battle, we relive them again and again.
In a perfect world, I would have arranged for the State Farm adjuster from the 2004 flood to be at the party for Heather to finally strangle. But don't get me started on that fiasco. Heather and Scott won't escape flood insurance and its onerous cost at their new home, either, but I suspect Puget Sound floods a lot less than the mighty Susquehanna. We all wish them the best.