a place for me to write what I’m thinking
We aren’t going. Even if we can get in, that doesn’t mean we should. Things are bad there, and there’s not a thing on our list we can’t live without.
The front line troops are focussing on search & rescue. There are people trapped there that can’t get out. Will they beat us up? People in New Orleans are going nuts…people do crazy things when they’re in survival mode.
We’ll go back when the Powers That Be tell us we can. It’s just a house. It’s just stuff.
Randy and I apparently read the same things. The story he tells of the guy who sneaked into his neighborhood, assessed the situation, then went back to Baton Rouge, has inspired us. We live in the neighborhood right next to this guy, and we are going to try to sneak in and get our stuff. Then we’re heading out to Columbus, via Birmingham (where we’ll stay the night).
They may not let us in. That’s OK. At least we will have tried. We have a list of things to do when we’re there, and if we can’t make them happen, we’ll just keep moving, neither better nor worse off than we were for the effort.
We’re going to Columbus for a few days. Maybe a week. My family is there, and it will be free. After a week, if we still can’t go home, maybe we’ll go to Gainesville and see the in-laws.
There’s a lot more general news out of Slidell, but nothing really specific. Apparently, the damage is really bad. Randy linked to some pictures from the area on Complicated Shadows. More information keeps coming in, and none of it’s good. I did hear a piece of an interview on WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge, where the reporter said her photographer lived 3 1/2 miles from I-10 and Gause Blvd., and while there were some trees down and shingles blown off, his house had no other damage at all.
Here’s hoping he lives in my neighborhood.
This morning was pretty difficult. I spent a lot of time watching the news, and it wasn’t good. I ate breakfast, then came up and watched a little more news, then got on the internet. I zoned into some non-hurricane web sites and just read things, and it was so nice. So, I decided that I didn’t want to spend a lot of time sitting around wondering what was happening chez nous.
We went to lunch, as I said in yesterday’s post. And then we went to Space Center Houston, a visitor’s center/activity center adjacent to the Johnson Space Center. I thought it was closer to our hotel than it was, but it was still a very good idea. We were gone for over four hours, and we played and enjoyed the place, and I didn’t think once about my house.
But now it’s back to reality, and I’m mighty apprehensive about it. Aside from the information that I-10 between St. Tammany Parish and Orleans parish being severely damaged, this is the only thing I’ve read specifically about my area, and it’s not good at all.
Thanks to all for your concern and kind wishes. We’re planning on staying here at least until Wednesday morning. I don’t know what we’ll do after that.
It was a long drive (about 10 hours) but we are here. We are such geeks - we didn’t bring a laptop, but a full-size Dell Dimension 4400 with a 17″ NEC Multisynch monitor. We have a nice little desk and high-speed internet in the room - well, of sorts. It only connects at 10 mbps, but that’s probably faster than the connection to the outside world.
We upgraded our environment from the last time we evacuated - we are in a small suite with a king-size bed. There is a small seating area with a large loveseat that is a sofa bed, so little boy doesn’t have to camp on the floor.
Tomorrow we are going to go to Pappacito’s for lunch, where they make their own tortillas. I haven’t had fresh tortillas since I left Lubbock in 2002. While the food in the New Orleans area is superb, I haven’t been real impressed with how they do Mexican. It’s good to be back in Texas for a bit.
We are evacuating to Houston. As I’ve said in the past when I’ve blogged about this: not everybody in my neighborhood is leaving, so don’t anybody even THINK about coming here to steal my stuff. My neighbors like guns.
We have a room in a nice hotel with high-speed internet access, so we’ve decided to take our PC. We’re such geeks.
DH helped a woman in our ward put up wooden shutters over her windows today. He’s a good man.
Look at this lovely graphic.
See where that “H” is at 8:00 p.m. Monday? I live right there.
Here we go again.
I didn’t get the job. I really thought it was mine for the taking, but they hired someone else. This person is “a year away from a computer science degree.” I read that as “younger.” Also, somebody taking an entry-level job who is, indeed, entry level, while at the same time having more SQL experience than I do.
Does this sound bitter? I don’t mean it to, really. Them’s the breaks. The hiring manager was very positive and encouraging and “it’s a shame we only have one opening, we’ll keep your resume handy, we’re a growing company.” The job was in a sales department, so he spread it pretty thick 
Still, it’s nice that he made the effort.
Some sour grapes: it REALLY wasn’t enough money.
Finally, some self-berating: now, it REALLY sucks that I blew the hospital interview. It sucks REALLY bad. Grrr.
Today, I have been married to my DH for eight years.
Before I married him, I thought I wanted a guy I couldn’t push around. There weren’t too many guys like that. I have a forceful personality. Ahem.
Instead, I married the most gentle and pleasant and accomodating male human I’ve ever met. Instead of marrying someone I can’t push around, I married someone I never want to push around. I married a man who makes me better than I am.
I’ve been very insecure in every other relationship I’ve had with a man. I am totally secure in this one. Even in my darkest times, I’ve always known I could trust him completely.
My only regret is that we didn’t meet sooner. Perhaps I wouldn’t have been ready for the relationship if we had met earlier, but the idea of another five years together on the starting end is really nice. As it is, I’m grateful for every day I have.
A couple of weeks ago, when the New Med started kicking in, I cleaned my kitchen pretty thoroughly. Then, I started looking around and thought to myself “Oh dear. This house is filthy.”
I did what any woman would do in my position - I called my mother. We commiserated for a few minutes about my filthy house, and I asked her to come help me clean it. I was kidding. Mom was serious. She said she would run it by my dad first, but she would give me $200 to get the house cleaned. She sent the money on the condition that I would use it for that purpose.
Of course, we spent hours and hours yesterday pre-cleaning. Picking stuff up, throwing and putting it away. Amazing how much work has to be done just so cleaning can begin.
The cleaners showed up at 8:20, a little early. They cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. The owner was along; she’s an ex-Marine. Marines are very clean. My father used to be a Marine, and he’s the tidiest person I know. I hired this company because the owner used to be a Marine. They did an amazing job. My house is SHINY. It looks positively lovely. Now, I think I want to paint.
My parents are just the best.
On the downside, I blew my interview this morning. Oh, the interview went OK, but I was late. And late is fatal.
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