On Monday, a microburst hit my city that destroyed buildings and displaced over 100 people. My neighborhood was one of the most impacted areas, and I count myself very lucky that my house was unscathed. The power was out for my family for about 12 hours, some neighbors for 24.

The microburst was true to its name, lasting only minutes, but reaching an intensity I haven’t seen in the decade I’ve lived in Tempe. The rain went sideways, and then white. I couldn’t see through my windows as we huddled on the couch.

“Don’t open the fridge,” my husband and I reminded our kids about a hundred times. We crossed our fingers the power would come back soon enough to leave the refrigerator and food alone. This is one reason I’m glad to not buy meat. When the power came back later that night, the food wasn’t spoiled.

Others aren’t so lucky. If the wind ripped off your roof, or a tree fell through your wall, the chances of saving your food is slim. And for my neighbors living on the street, a surprise storm like this is even more devastating. Mutual aid is needed to recover — consider sending AZ Hugs some $$ if you can, they are on the ground doing the work.

After the storm passed, the sky cleared up so quickly I felt gaslit. We wandered around the neighborhood, picking up garbage and checking on people. My kids played in the puddles and gawked at the car, with a tree fallen on it. There were trees twisted backward on themselves, street signs and trees uprooted, power lines severed, streets untraversable by car. The city’s recovery is going to take a while.

I’m experimenting with offering a 30-minute call (plus 30 minutes of editing after) to work on either big picture strategy or editing (or a combo!) and answer questions. The call is $75 – discounted to $50 for paid subscribers (special link here.)

This call is perfect for:

Email me with questions ([email protected]) and if you book a call I’ll be in touch before we talk.

Help a writer with tired wrists? As part of moving my newsletter to beehiiv I’m combing through the archives and finding many, many dead links. I’ve already spent 4+ hours on this and I’m turning to you in my hour of need.

Instructions: Subscribe to my newsletter and read through the archive until you find a dead link. Send me an email ([email protected]) with what you found (please share the post title or a link to the post AND the exact link that is dead) and I will upgrade your subscription to paid for 3 months for FREE – so you'll get the full schedule of 4 posts/month rather than just the free essay! 

HINT: The deeper you trek into the archives the more likely you'll find dead links. 

RULES: Email me before Nov 1 in your time zone. One dead link per person. The first person to email me with the dead link wins if more than one person finds the same link.

Join the chat for paid subscribers on TOMATO TOMATO, the Discord server started by Alicia Kennedy that’s the place to be for conversations on food, culture, ecology, and more. We begin in The Good Enough Weekly channel at 1pm PST on Wednesdays.