On the Fence about the Fence

I know I've told the story of my back fence here before, but because I don't expect anyone to recall the minutiae of my life I'll tell it again in brief. (My internet is still out and I hate to type on my phone's tiny keypad.) The previous owners of the house behind mine "replaced" their fence before they put their house on the market. What they actually did was anchor new fence posts to their crappy existing fence, leaving me with the old one, which has been falling down bit by bit for the past few years. I couldn't tear it down completely because it was the only thing holding either side up. I may have mentioned yesterday that along with many tree limbs, part of the back fence came down. Apparently my neighbor left before the hurricane hit. I don't know whether he's back, but two full panels of the fence are lying in my yard, with a third one about to go. I'm doing my best to resist the urge to fix it. If it had been built right in the first place, there wouldn't be a problem. Other than having to look at his yard, which seems not to have been cut all summer, the only reason I care about the fence at all is that I don't want Mazie to get over there.

It looks so bad I'm not sure how long I can hold out if he doesn't fix it. I'm tempted to at least try to hold it up with a few bungees. I don't even know if I can lift it if I cave in and attempt it; two and a half panels of six-foot high wooden fence will be heavier than you might think. On the plus side, the weather is absolutely gorgeous, so much so that it's hard to believe what it was just two days ago. Everyone I've encountered on my limited forays out into the world beyond my street seems to be experiencing the same odd combination of emotions: relief and shell shock. No matter how much you read about or watch on TV, nothing is like being in the midst of something like that, whether it ends up being as bad as projected or not. The whole stress factor of not knowing where it will hit or how bad it will be is indescribable. I'll leave it there for now, and I'll keep you posted about the fence (haha).