Hurricane (y)Ike(s)!

Well, as most of my friends and family know, we came through relatively unscathed. As did the 6 or 8 houses around us. Go a block over in any direction, and they didn't fare so well. Trees uprooted, roof damage everywhere, fences down or completely blown away, never to be found. We were very fortunate. As were most of my friends and family. For that, we are all profoundly grateful to the Powers That Be.

Our town still has no power in over half the area. Produce, ice, water and dairy is hard to come by. It seems none of us are going to shrivel up and blow away, but its not been easy.

I continue to be amazed that we can put flat screen tv's in the back of the headrests of our cars so kids can watch Pokemon while traveling 15 minutes across town, but the wind blows and the 4th largest city in the nation, and surrounding areas, is virtually paralyzed for going on 9 days now. Think it's time to find new methods of power distribution?

This catastrophe is no better or worse than say, Katrina, wide-spread damage wise. The damn thing was so big and lasted so long it made it's way up to the Chicago area and caused damage there too - that's over 1000 miles away. Many areas east of Galveston/Houston were hit even harder than this area. Just as Gulfport and Biloxi were devasted in relation to New Orleans. What remains a mystery to me is that once the initial coverage by national media was displayed, and "they" discovered that there weren't thousands of deaths in Ike's wake, they turned to other news. News no less newsworthy, but just turned almost completely away. As Rachel Maddow from MSNBC said, "...the media turned the page far too soon on the devastation of Hurricane Ike...".

It will be many weeks and months before life returns to normal. For some, it will never be the same. Hundreds of homes were simply washed away, businesses gone, widespread unemployment...and the list goes on.

I just hope that once Governor Perry finally takes a personal tour, which is supposed to be happening within the hour, more help will be requested from our Federal Government....who is busy trying to bail out our economy - the very one the Bush Administration tanked in the first place.

Wonder if there will be anything left for disaster relief.

"I'm a very nice person...."

"I'm a very nice person and I would like to meet a very nice person."

Yeah, that's the notification I just received from one of those personals sites. That "someone" wanted to get my attention.

Well, now, I'm enthralled. I have to get right on that and respond immediately. Because after all, what more can be said in a brief description of oneself?

Um...what was I about to do?