Debridement is a medical term referring to the removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue to improve the healing potential of the remaining healthy tissue. Removal may be surgical, mechanical, chemical, autolytic (self-digestion), and by maggot therapy, where certain species of live maggots selectively eat only necrotic tissue.

In the above definition, replace dead, damaged or infected tissue with the debris, piles of sticks, stumps, limbs and broken fences that have been littering everyone’s front yards since Hurricane Ike, and it is a fairly appropriate pun. Debris-dement. Fun, especially the part about maggot therapy.

The contractors that the City of Houston has hired to remove the debris from the streets finally made it to our neighborhood. They came with curious little front-loaders that would scoop up a pile of debris and place it in the big dumpster truck. When that truck was full, they would wait for another truck to come by and start filling that one.  It was actually pretty neat to watch.  I don’t know if that’s just because I was bored at the time, or if it’s because they seemed to be able to pick up a big pile of trash without taking out the grass, a tree, the lamp post or any of the parked cars nearby.

We had raked and bagged most of our small debris. The stuff that was too big to bag, we cut and stacked at the end of our driveway.  I know the picture looks like a pile of leaves, but it’s actually mostly branches.  We just cut it all down first so it would fit on the driveway.  Katie was determined not to kill the grass after we (she) worked so hard to get it looking nice again.  While the cleanup crew was working on the street in front of the house, I asked one of them if they would please pick up the pile on our driveway (they had ignored it previously). The guy agreed, provided that I remove the piece of wood that was on the pile of broken tree limbs. That piece of wood was a 30 inch long by 1 1/2 inch wide piece of scrap that I had cut off of a door.  That’s right, they wouldn’t take the pile of wood until I removed the piece of wood from the top of the pile of wood and threw it in the garbage.  I even pointed out that it was just a piece of scrap wood. “We’re not taking that kind of wood,” said the king of lawn debris.  ”Only tree limbs.”  Apparently they didn’t have the right kind of bulldozer for that kind of wood.

Of course, I was out taking pictures thinking, “Everyone who reads our blog will want to see pictures of this big scary thing playing pick-up-sticks on our driveway.” About that time, the same guy who made me remove the piece of wood from my woodpile started shouting at me from across the street that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. I thought about pointing out that I (standing on MY property) could take a picture of anyone and anything on the street in front of my house, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. However, since I was REALLY wanting his crew to remove the temporary barricade Katie and I made at the end of our driveway (and because his buddies had equipment that could destroy our house) I decided not to try to win that argument.

Instead, I did what any decent person would do. I politely waved, put the lens cap on my camera, put it over my shoulder, walked into the garage, made sure I was out of site of his magesty, then took another picture of the scary scoop monster as it picked up our driveway debris and carried it away.   The neighborhood looks a lot nicer now. Most of the big tree debris has been hauled off. A lot of fences (including ours) still need to be repaired or replaced. That will be our next big project.

Kate’s parents and grandfather had big-time tree damage with yards full of branches that only a chainsaw could tackle.  Pete and Wanda (parents) have been able to get most of the branches cleared over the last couple of days.  Russ is still waiting to get most of his damage removed.  Last I heard, he needs a crane to help take down a dangling pine tree.

We got electricity back within 48 hours.  That simple fact changed our house from “Katie and Ben’s Place” to party central.  We have been hosting friends and family for meals and sleepovers.  Our dining room table has been well used this week.  And since we have cable, our TV is getting a workout showing non-stop footage of local reporters standing in puddles, waiting in lines and trying to make people cry on camera.  Don’t get me wrong, I understand that a lot of people are in a bad situation, but I can only handle so much of reporters that sound disappointed that more weren’t killed.

Tonight, while Pete and Wanda took us out for a delicious dinner, we found out that Alice and Dallas now have power.  That news came when ADT called Alice’s mobile to say their burgler alarm was going off.  Just in case there was an actual burglar, she called a neighbor and asked her to investigate.

We are still waiting for some good news regarding electricity for Pete and Wanda and for Russ.  The last report Pete and Wanda was Sunday when a Centerpoint field rep said “one week.”  They weren’t happy, but at least we know an estimate for them.  No word for Russ yet.  Yuck.

Still, considering the coastal areas that were completely devastated by floods from a huge storm surge, all of us got off pretty darn easy.  We all have houses that didn’t flood.  We have food to eat and beds (or a sofa) to sleep on.  We are all blessed.