This morning, DH made a final Walmart run. He was surprised to find that it is not busy at all.
We cleaned up any debris outside that could turn in to flying projectiles. We cut some large branches off a tree that looked like they might want to go through our roof. The branches are now in smaller pieces and stored in our garage, which has a leafy smell.
I removed all the screens from the windows. It seemed like it might be a good idea - if they are in the house, they will not blow away and become flying projectiles.
We are going to put plastic sheeting over the only thing in the house that we really treasure and can’t take with us - our bed, which my DH made when we moved here from solid cherry.
Little boy is trashing the family room. This is making me anxious.
We are probably going to go quickly through the list of things yet to do, eat some lunch, and leave today instead of tomorrow. I’ve exchanged phone numbers with our neighbors, who are also leaving.
If any potential looters are reading my blog, don’t get any ideas. Many of my neighbors are staying put, and this is a gun-happy crowd we’re talking about here. I’m not much of a gun fan, but I’m happy for law-abiding citizens who are NOT emotionally unstable to be able to protect themselves and their property from scum who would take advantage of a natural disaster to enrich themselves at others’ expense.
I will audio blog from the road as I get a chance.
In an earlier post, I wrote about a phone conversation with a worker for a local candidate for City Court Judge. Saturday, I got a brochure from another candidate. It was very different from the other brochures I’ve read. She actually talks about her work experience that qualifies her for the position - seven years as public defender for the exact same court.
What a concept. Instead of talking about how she’s pro-life (how will that affect a court that is 80% juvenile criminal cases?) and pro-marriage (ditto) she talks about her experience and strong, positive working relationships with the people on the staff. Here’s a quote: “I am the only candidate that can win the election on Saturday and report to work on Monday without missing a beat.”
Maybe I’ll call her campaign office and see if they want me to put up a yard sign.
In other news, we are almost all packed up and ready to run away from Hurricane Ivan it’s a category five, heading into the channel between Cuba and the Yucatan peninsula. The prophets at the NHC can’t really say where it’s headed beyond the next 24 hours or less. We’ve booked a room in Meridian, far enough inland that we won’t be bothered by hurricane-force winds or storm surge. We probably won’t leave until Wednesday a.m., if we go at all. It just depends on what the Hurricane does later today and tomorrow.
I was pretty frightened this morning. DH and I have both told Little Boy that he doesn’t need to be afraid, and so he’s not. Oh, to be five again! But then I e-mailed my pal R., a long-time resident, and he told me that they’re getting ready to go, too. That had a very calming effect on me. Thanks, bud. You rock.
My older son is coming for a short visit. I’m so excited to see him again. I normally don’t cook on Saturday, but today I’m making his favorite, Chicken Stuff (I use sour cream instead of mayo & lemon juice, and skip the cream of chicken soup, and serve it over rice). That way, I’ll be sure he’ll be home for at least 15 minutes at some time today. Maybe there’s something good on HBO he’ll want to watch tonight.
The other houseguests are not so pleasant. They’re kind of gross. OK, they’re really gross. Cockroaches. Since we thoroughly cleaned the kitchen and dining room a few months ago, and put poison and traps in the space between the laundry room floor and the garage floor, they are a lot fewer and further between. Yankees (like me) associate cockroaches with filth. Well, that’s just not so, here in the deep South. If you have a mild winter, like last one, the suckers never get killed off. It takes a hard freeze to reduce the populations, I think, and we haven’t had one of those since 2002-2003. So even the cleanest of houses will get occasional invaders.
DH is the designated cockroach destroyer. A couple of times, just hollering his name, he has thought one of us was severely injured. So, we’ve changed our call. When we see a cockroach, we just yell “Cockroach!” And then he comes and kills it.
That was an unpleasantly common event in the spring. By early summer, it had pretty much dwindled to once or twice a month. But I was reminded of it again when one went crawling across the dining room floor.
Do you suppose they are opening the pet door in the garage, and getting in that way?
There is an election for City Judge this Saturday, and I think there are literally a dozen or more guys (mostly guys) running. I got a campaign phone call about ten days ago. Here’s how it went. My mental responses in italics.
Hello, I’m calling on behalf of John Wells, running for City Court Judge in Slidell. John Wells is a former Navy Commander
That’s nice.
who has been a licensed attorney in Louisiana since 1995.
That’s nice, too.
He’s married to Janice Burton, and he and his wife are active in Marriage Encounter.
That’s very nice. It’s good that people want to do things to make their marriage stronger. I think those are Roman Catholic buzzwords, which a Catholic would understand to mean, “He’s Catholic,” but I could be wrong, and besides, I don’t really care what religion he is.
He’s in favor of mandatory military-style bootcamps to teach discipline to youthful offenders
Uh-oh.
He’s strongly pro-life
Uh-oh.
and favors a defense of marriage amendment to the Constitution.
Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Uh-oh!
Will you vote for John Wells for City Court Judge?
I responded, aloud: “Based on the information you’ve just provided me, most certainly not.”
Probably not the result the caller expected - or a typical response to that sort of candidate information in conservative St. Tammany Parish.
Little boy had his first trip to the dentist today. I was not allowed in during the exam, so that the dental folk could build a rapport with him. He apparently never figured out that going to the dentist is supposed to be unpleasant.
My favorite artifact from the dentist’s office (which I didn’t get to keep, but will ask for when he gets another in three years) is the panoramic x-ray. Being a little boy, he has little teeth, with lots of bigger ones that are perfectly developed and exactly right in number, waiting to emerge in the next few years. Too cool for words.
The dentist’s advice:
- Floss between the back teeth that are real close together. Check the other teeth, too, in case they start getting close together.
- Brush his teeth when he’s in bed, so I can get to his back teeth at a good angle. That’s also when I should floss.
- Teach him how to spit. I thought this was funny. Apparently, he has trouble with the mechanics of spitting, and it’s a Bad Thing to swallow too much fluoride toothpaste. So, I have to teach my refined little boy how to spit. Sounds like fun!
Our beater car just died. The engine shows no signs of containing any oil. Clanking noises and smoke from the engine. I think it was fatal.
I had some friends from Ohio come through on their way to Florida. They were taking the long way around. When we had originally talked about them coming, two weeks before, I was glad they were coming through. I hadn’t yet met their kids, and we have plenty of room.
But I have been in a funk the last few days. When they called Wednesday night to tell me they would be here Thursday, I was secretly Not Glad. I didn’t want to see anyone. I didn’t want anyone to come over. I wanted to be left alone.
It was good that they came. We had a nice visit. We went into the city, and took the Lafayette Cemetery Tour run by Save Our Cemeteries, which I often do with tourist visitors because it’s a change of pace from the Quarter and fine for kids. We had lunch at a little corner restaurant in the Garden District. It was good to get out. It was good to be with people. They left for the Florida Panhandle this afternoon.
I’m in a much better frame of mind than I was before they got here. I’m glad I didn’t get what I wanted.
I went grocery shopping this afternoon. After checking out, the cashier asked me, “Are you over 55?”
I just stood there, mouth agape, speechless. After a minute or so I said, “What?”
She repeated, “Are you over 55?”
I started slowly shaking my head. I started to tear up. She said, “You don’t look it, but I have to ask. It’s Senior Citizen’s Day, and everybody over 55 gets 5% off.”
I said, “Well, thanks a lot. I’m going to go home and cry for a while now.” And I did.
For the record, I’m 44. I have a couple of wrinkles between my eyebrows, and my smile lines are getting more and more permanent. My hair is about 50% gray.
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