"Has it been that long?"

I was going to post a screen grab of a scene from Carnivàle that matches the post title (episode 4, "Black Blizzard"), but my laptop is being fruity and won't let me play a DVD with subtitles at the moment. So no matching "meme" to this post. 

Yesterday, the Whirlpool refrigerator beeped at me. 

No, it's not like that scene in Ghostbusters where I opened the doors and a voice said 'Zuul' and shot fire and lights out of its face. "You don't typically see that type of behavior in a major appliance". You just get ferociously beeped at when it's time to fix something.

The beeping was because the filter for the water is on its sixth month of use. 

We have one of those French door refrigerators with the water and ice maker on the door (and the ice maker takes up a good piece of shelf location on the inside of the fridge). 

From what I could search for a model number, it closely resembles the WRF555SDF line.

Every six months, the water and ice area ding at us when we go to use the filtered water, reminding us to subsequently order a filter, replace a filter and screams bloody murder (okay, close to Zuul) to really replace the filter. 

The "order filter" noise and wording lit up when I went to get water to make the coffee, and I asked my mother "Didn't we just replace the filter?". She said yes... after the hurricane. 

Which means it was six months ago. 

The storm of the decade that fucked southwest Florida was six months ago. 

It still looks and feels like it was just four weeks ago in some areas. 

I talked to someone the other day that said her area close to Sanibel is still a mess and she doesn't wish anyone to see what chaos it looks like (she's a free spirit... I know her from my last job and run in to her on the little beach area located on the property. She does yoga and Tai Chi and all sorts of other things... for being over 65. Plus she is on the major health bus). So she basically says how sad it is... the destruction and the mess... and if you haven't been that way yet, don't bother because it will break your heart. She and everyone else living in it, are trying their best to stay positive (which she sounded great, by the way) but where they are located is known for the views of the water and the nature. Not for piles of broken pieces of nature. Which is why she said she doesn't wish anyone to see it. I told her I've heard stories about it all.. it's being slowly picked up but I haven't been that way yet to see what's going on. People are telling me it's still a bit of a war zone. She didn't want to use that verbiage exactly, but she did say I was on the right path. 

Anyway, to have everything back in perspective, the fact we put a new filter in the fridge when we got power back and everything cleaned up and out, to realize it's been six months since the storm is crazy. We're all counting the days for the area to get back to just a quarter of normalcy (Fort Myers Beach is still down, the islands are still down) but it's taking a long time and will take a long time. 

The Haul Away trucks are constantly moving thru the city and are filled to the brim with stuff. It's coming along but at a snails pace. 

It's just so weird to use a water filter as a judgment of how time is progressing. As strange as it is. 

I guess when we replace the filter, it'll allow us to keep wondering how slow things are going around here..

Until then,

Cheers