Well….. Today is the anniversary of hurricane Katrina. I watched the movies of everyone else’s experience. All I know is my own. I know that we prepared for a 3 day power outage. That’s about the norm I think for such a thing… My sister-in-law, who’s been through more than she can count called me a few nights before and told me what to go get. We filled up everything we could with drinking water and went and got some canned food. We never ran out of food but it seems we drastically under estimated the water situation. I was asleep when the storm hit. It woke me up…the hollowing was unreal… It sounded like some huge humming machine. This was my first hurricane and being from Texas where the wind blows pretty hard I wasn’t too scared…..until I looked out side. First off I want to say that it AINT THE WIND THAT KILLS YOU! It’s the shit flying IN the wind that does. The trees were leaning! And not just a little either. They were bent nearly in half. The rain was amazing too. It was raining sideways. Then loud popping sounds… And then our roof gave way on the barn. Huge sharp pieces of tin went flying into my chicken coop breaking away the end of a 5 yard long cage. Believe this or not but those chickens survived….. All of them. That’s about the time something came down on our roof breaking a huge hole and the kitchen ceiling started filling with water… Now you’d think the ceiling would have caved in and all the water would’ve poured in at one spot…Nope… at least not until I took the mop and poked a hole in a huge breathing bubble of my ceiling.. It was the right thing to do but I sure wasn’t prepared for what happened. Nasty brown roof water gushed in and soaked me and put at least 2 inches of water on the floor. A bucket had blown up from the barn I guess and I ran out side to get it. All I can say about that is at least I got the brown water washed off me. I was out there all of 60 seconds. The things I saw blowing by were unreal. I held onto the door, grabbed the bucket and then pulled myself back inside. Even on the porch the wind felt like you were hanging out a car window going about 75 miles an hour…We watched the wind and rain blow like that for 4 hours…and then it changed directions and blew 4 more hours. And during those 8 hours my daughter and I mopped and dumped buckets of nasty brown water. After the rain stopped the wind died down a little and even with out the power, at that moment, it was still nice and cool….. And then the sun came out the next morning and the heat came back. After 3 days we ran out of water. Not only was our town in ruins but because of the power being off we couldn’t buy anything. Not even gas to leave. I bought 5 gallons of gas for $50.00 just so that we would have the gas to go get water from the National Guard. I was shocked that MONEY could hardly help you. Even with money too BUY the things we needed we couldn’t. We grilled all our meat before it spoiled…. And then 8 days later our power came back on. We were some of the first ones to be restored. I listened on my car radio to a few things that were happening but didn’t really get the full scope of things until I got to see CNN on my TV. As I look back on my experience I have to say that yes I was scared. Not as scared as I’ve ever been but close and the only way I can compare this to when the towers fell is the fact that 1300 people died when the levees broke in New Orleans. I cried for them just like I cried when I saw the towers falling….

When the levee breaks: A few great singers

If it keeps on rainin, levees goin to break,
If it keeps on rainin, levees goin to break,
When the levee breaks Ill have no place to stay.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Lord, mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home,
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well.
Dont it make you feel bad
When youre tryin to find your way home,
You dont know which way to go?
If youre goin down south
They go no work to do,
If you dont know about chicago.
Cryin wont help you, prayin wont do you no good,
Now, cryin wont help you, prayin wont do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
Thinkin bout me baby and my happy home.
Going, gon to chicago,
Gon to chicago,
Sorry but I cant take you.
Going down, going down now, going down.

This came in my email... I had to post it...

A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger...he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies.

If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.

Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home... not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush.

My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes di stinguished. He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.

I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked... and NEVER asked to leave.

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name?....



We just call him, "TV."

** Note: This should be required reading for every household in America**

He has a younger sister now. We call her "Computer

My friend Sylvia is mad at me… I said I was sorry but she doesn’t care right now… I wanted to say to her… “I told you I was a rotten friend! You should forgive me!” but I didn’t…… I have a tendency to make it all about myself. Even the friendship…I think I am secretly trying to get all I can from it before they dump me. How lame is that?

I wish I could be more like my brother… just oblivious to everything around me…birthdays….holidays…. Anniversaries all wiz by my little brother with out him ever knowing unless someone tells him. I understand men and dates… some men refuse to believe that birthdays and anniversaries are not important enough to burn in their memories …..but some things MUST be remembered…Like the day your mother died. That should be number one in the old filing cabinet. The husband is the same as my brother when it comes to stuff like this… I stopped telling them the dates of things last year. Now the husband doesn’t go to put flowers on his dad’s grave any more (I do) and his mother know longer gets anything for her birthday… (who cares). I think my little brother has come out better for it though… he doesn’t feel the urge to cry any more on Aug. 15 like I do… because I remember dates….. And sometimes I wish I didn’t.

I went to see Chubby yesterday but he wasn’t excepting any visitors…. Ok, truth is his owner wasn’t home. But I plan on getting by there again this week… I hate it that he got hurt!.. I hate it and it makes me sick! I couldn’t be a Vet… No way… seeing hurt animals just breaks my heart. The husband’s friend told me on the phone if Chubby would have died he would have just thrown him in the bushes… no harm done.. NO HARM DONE?.. OH MY GOODNESS! I guess he didn’t know me or he wouldn’t have said such a thing… I started to cry and said how much I loved Chubby and on and on….he then asked me to please not cry…. Chubby was ok…POOR CHUBBY!… He got a raw deal! And now a raw owner!

So while I was watching “Cops” last night on TV out of NO WHERE Bonnie yells out… OH NO! It’s da PO PO!…I looked at her a moment and then laughed until my side hurt. The husbands friend calls the police “the PO PO” and now she does too… I said to her………… Yes, The Po Po…and we love the Po Po….. and then thought how ridiculous that sounded. I sort of want her to know that if she’s ever in trouble, she should run to the guy in the uniform with the gun. But doesn’t that sound scary too?

I just heard Chubby will be ok!........So this is for you Chubby...Get well soon little guy.........

Warning:
Do not try this at home unless you're
young and fit!

Let's Twist Again

Come on let's twist again like we did last summer
Yea, let's twist again like we did last year
Do you remember when things were really hummin'
Yea, let's twist again, twistin' time is here
Yeah round 'n around 'n up 'n down we go again
Oh baby make me know you love me so then
Come on let's twist again like we did last summer
Yea, let's twist again, twistin' time is here

Come on let's twist again like we did last summer
| Yea, let's twist again like we did last year
Do you remember when things were really hummin'
Yea, let's twist again, twistin' time is here
Yeah round 'n around 'n up 'n down we go again
Oh baby make me know you love me so then
Come on let's twist again like we did last summer
Yea, let's twist again, twistin' time is here.

The husband has been giving me a lot of problems about my dogs. About me not keeping them in the kennel 24 hours a day (and we live out in the country and have plenty of room for them to run.) He’s always screaming…. “ Your fucking dogs are out! There going to tear up something out there!” “There going to shit on the drive way!” ….. I just listen to him screaming and do nothing… Then a few weeks ago his friend asked me if I would look after his puppy for a couple of days… I told him I didn’t know really because the husband has been giving me a lot flack about my own dogs and that maybe he should ask the husband if I could. The next thing I know the puppy is being handed to me. Now Pearl, the oldest and only female and head of the pack, didn’t really take to kindly to the new puppy that I called Chubby. She even grabbed him on the back of the neck and tried to kill him. I put her in the kennel from then on out and only let her out when Chubby was in the house. I thought…. “ What’s a couple of days?… She’ll live through it and so will I.” The days turned into a week…. And then a week passed and two weeks had arrived. During this time Chubby crapped all over the driveway and under the car port and the husband was screaming daily and out there with the water hose. Then he did something that is all most unspeakable. He was sitting on the couch and Pearl was barking in the kennel and he could hear it…. To look at him you would have thought it was driving him completely crazy…. He jumped up and went out side… I was in the kitchen and really wasn’t paying him a lot of attention. I try to tune his voice completely out until it sounds like a dull drone….. When he came back inside he was screaming your dogs are out. I “assumed” he meant the NICE dogs!… So I continued to wash the dishes… He had went out side to make Pearl stop barking and noticed an old pot inside the kennel that he liked for camping. He OPENED the kennel door and let her out while he was reaching down for the pot! ( I know this to be true because I know that bastard) He had decided that he would let the dog out and then come back inside and “make” me go put her back up….along with all the other dogs….The only problem with his warped plan was he had forgot about Chubby. Some how, after way to long, I realized what he was saying while he sat on the couch with a smug look….. And then I screamed OH MY GOD!…. CHUBBY!… At which time the smug left his face and he jumped up and ran out side….. Where Chubby was being bitten by Pearl and he didn’t make it in time. I was behind him and saw sweet little Chubby and my heart broke in a thousand pieces. I was crying so hard that I felt it in my stomach.. Even now as I write this, tears are falling down my face. I ran past him because his screaming, just like always, was having no effect on what was happening. With my foot I kicked my own dog so hard that she fell down and dropped Chubby. I brought him inside and held him close to me… and as I did this I called the husbands friend and told him to come over quick and take Chubby to the Hospital. He came and I cried. He told me that it was alright… but I told him NO IT WASN’T ALRIGHT! I called to check on Chubby but there’s no answer. I don’t love the husband any more. I really haven’t been able to look at him since all this happened. I blame him. It’s his fault…. And there’s nothing he can say or do to make this right. NOTHING! I said something to him that I wish I hadn’t said…I said.. “ You have a rotten dead soul… and no wonder God sees fit to take the one’s you love.” I want to say I’m sorry for saying that… but I can’t say it to him! I can’t bring myself to look at him and just say I’m sorry for that part…. The rest of what I said I meant. Like when I said… “ What does it feel like to be a man then……all the sudden , not?” I’m so lucky that Bonnie was taking a nap in her room during all this… Very Lucky indeed.