Back to Normal

Well, I really don't want to admit to anybody in the area how quickly we got our electricity back, but here's a clue, it was less than three days. It is nice to finally be able to find milk, eggs and the essentials - ice cream. And thank goodness the gas lines are gone.

In a sick way, I sort of missed hurricanes when we first came. I missed the camaraderie and family time and forced isolation from modern technology. But now I remember why we tried to move away from hurricanes - the lines (for everything from ice or gas to coffee and milk), the complainers, the piles of tree refuse, the sacrifice of perishables out of the fridge (thankfully, all we lost was mayo, eggs and sour cream), the interuption of all routines and activities, the days of abnormaility. And did I mention the complainers? I'm not talking about people that lost everything. I'm talking about people that didn't prepare in the first place, and then they are whining that they need things. Why do you think they talk about this in the news for a week ahead of time?? yeesh. I am sick of hurricanes, and I am glad that where we live seems to be returning to normal.

I have included some photos of things I saw nearby in the few days after Ike left. I have never seen so much structural damage from a category two. It seems to be that trees this large don't exist in south Florida (probably because God's tree trimming service comes to town every few years), but here in Texas, they haven't had a storm this bad in 25 years. So there were tons of houses that had catastrophic damage because some giant tree fell on it. In fact, that is also why some people here went so long without electricity. We are very grateful that none of our trees toppled over, and we ask you to keep in your prayers those that lost their homes or loved ones in the storm. There were some amazing stories from survivors in the paper. www.chron.com