Exceedingly Mundane

Today went according to plan, love it when that happens! Got all the errands run, and I’m happy to report that I had no problems whatsoever getting gas. YEAH! I drove right up to the pump, and although I was limited to $40, I was able to get gas without a line. What a nice thing that I always took for granted before! We both have full tanks now, so barring any unforeseen road trips, that ought to hold us a couple of weeks. The price wasn’t bad either. I drove by 2 gas stations (one I’m not sure had gas) that were 2.59 and found a Shell that was 2.53 sandwiched in between them. So, needless to say, I got the 2.53! What was odd was that this station wasn’t selling the middle or premium grade, they had those pump handles covered with plastic bags. They only had the low grade, which is what I wanted anyway. I guess that gas station owner was smart and decided that more of the low grade in the tanks in the ground was a good thing – since most people are buying the cheapest grade these days anyway.

I went to Target and Walmart, and also dropped off books at the library and checked out new ones. I have updated the sidebar to reflect the new books I’m going to read. One is by Karen Kingsbury, a Christian author that Gail recommended. Another is by Debbie Macomber, who wrote another book I just finished reading and enjoyed. The other is a chance book. I haven’t heard a thing about this author or these books, either in someone’s blog or website or from anyone I know. I was browsing the bookshelves at the library and ran across several books in the “Miss Julia” series. I love reading series books, if I like the characters or settings, I like reading more than one. So I thought I would give one of them a try. On the front of this one it says “Absolutely Loved this Book! What a Joy to Read!” – by Fannie Flagg. So it’s probably a good old-fashioned southern kind of read, like “Fried Green Tomatoes” or whatnot. I’ll report back later on whether or not it was any good! 😀

Looks like a busy day today. Tim is working from home still. He has all week and I just love it. I love him being here during the day and being able to fix lunch for him and hear him talking on his conference calls and seeing him work. Makes me warm and fuzzy all over. 🙂

I have been catching up on housework, laundry, bill-paying, cleaning, etc all week and today I’m headed out. We’re really trying to conserve gas and combine errands, since the hurricane. I’m going to head out today and scope out the gas situation. Hopefully, the long lines are gone and it’s just the high prices left to contend with. I hope most of the gas stations near us that closed down shortly after the hurricane are opening back up. We’ll see 🙂

I’m headed to the library and Walmart today and contemplating a trip to Target. Oh, and gas station hunting. Should be a good day! Then, tonight we’ll watch our tape from last week’s Battlestar Galactica that we taped and never had a chance to watch, then watch a new episode tonight at 9:00. I can’t wait, I love that show! The rest of the weekend will be filled with football. Tim is very excited, and I am too!

I finished #26 for the year last night, yipppeeee!! I read another of the Harmony books in just over 24 hours. I picked up “Signs and Wonders” on Wednesday night and read a couple of chapters, after I had finished the Blossom Street book. I sat down during the NFL opening game last night (between the Patriots and Raiders) and finished the third book for me in the Harmony series. They read really quick, so I was able to finish it in one night. That makes #26, and I’m so happy to have met and surpassed my original goal!

Last night I finished the book I had started reading before Hurricane Katrina starting bearing down on the coast and New Orleans. The book was “The Shop on Blossom Street” by Debbie Macomber. I had already “gotten into” this book before the storm, but didn’t have much chance to read until the last day or two. I just posted my review of the book here on Hambones. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to check out more books by this author from our library. I loved the characters and the way she told the story, and (always important with me), I approved of the way the book ended!

Next up, I started reading another Harmony book last night, “Signs and Wonder”. I only read a couple of chapters before I fell asleep though! I seem to be really tired these days. This book should go quickly though, if it’s like the other 2 in the series I have read. Each chapter is like a little short story all to itself, so they go very quickly, and it’s a really easy book to pick up and then put down and read in short intervals.

I need to make a trip to the library soon, but we’re still trying to conserve gas. Hopefully, the lines won’t be long when we need to fill up again soon! And, hopefully, most of the gas stations will be open soon. Most of the ones near us have been shut down lately.

P.S. I just realized when I went to update my reading list (Word document) on my computer, that this was #25 for the year. Yeah! Goal reached… although, I have now moved the goal to 30 books for the year. Still — yeah! 😀

I uploaded a few more pictures from after the Hurricane. These are ones I took on the way to my in-laws house in Smith County. They live in a rural area and there were tons of trees down everywhere.

Here’s a picture of the barn near their house, the same picture that I use for the top of my blog – so look at the top to compare, it doesn’t quite look the same! In fact, you can hardly see the barn now for the tree that split and fell in front of it:

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Please don’t read the blog entry below (“Our Beloved New Orleans”) and think for a second that I don’t think all the time about the human factor. I do. I see all the images on tv and read all the stories in our paper about the people that have lost everything. About the people who are suffering and have lost their life due to this storm. About the people who have lost their homes and their businesses and their families and their livelihoods, and people who may not ever be able to recapture what they had before this thing hit. But it’s not something I’m ready to blog about in detail, so I decided to reminisce about the city we go to so often. Not that I have, or ever could, forget about all of the people, and the pets, that have been affected by this terrible natural disaster. Some things are harder to blog about than others.

I think I’m still in a state of some kind of post-traumatic shock. So many of the places we know and love are just simply not there any more. So many places we have visited on the coast, like Jefferson Davis’ home of Beauvoir. Like Marine Life with all the dolphins and sea lions and birds and animals. But, most of all – the pictures of New Orleans are just overwhelming.

The images of a place we have been to so many times. We’ve been to New Orleans many more times than any other place. I’d guess that in the 10 years Tim and I have been together, we’ve been at least 10 or 12 times to New Orleans. For games. For weekend getaways. For a concert. For more games. To do the touristy thing. Twice to visit the D-Day Museum (which we both love). So many times, so many places. And now what we see on TV doesn’t even look like the same place.

Images of the only other place that I have ever lived, except for the place I call home now, where I was born and raised. I have lived here, in Jackson and Madison, for my entire life – except for the one year I lived in New Orleans. What has happened to all of my friends who moved down and bought homes on the North Shore when our company transferred so many of us there? What of the places in Metairie where I worked, and ate out, and shopped at, and hung out with my newfound friends? What of the streets where we went to the parades during Mardi Gras? What of our company’s main headquarters downtown on Poydras? What do these places look like today?

Images of the Superdome. A building we have been in too many times to count. Home to Tim’s beloved New Orleans Saints. I heard today on the news that they will probably tear it down and start over. And what of the Hyatt next door where we have stayed many times – we’d go down for a game and spend the night next door so we could just walk over before the game. And the other places we have stayed, and so many places we have visited and walked through in the French Quarter. What do these places look like today and what has happened to them?

So many memories.

I’ve pulled a few pictures out (from my digital camera, I have many many more from trips in years past from my film camera, but I would have to scan them in), and included them. We have so many places we love to go and visit. I just wonder what condition they are in currently and what is to happen to them.

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I haven’t been online in more than a week, and have been unable to write about our experiences with Hurricane Katrina, and with our families and how they fared. Here’s a quick synopsis, and I’ll be trying to write more in the days ahead.

My dad’s house in Hattiesburg (90 miles north of the MS Gulf Coast) was spared, in spite of all the pine trees in his back yard. Tim’s brother Mark and his family were equally lucky, as they had no trees fall on their house. Most of their neighbors were not as lucky – most every house had one tree or more on the roof or house or car. Dad and Mark’s family rode out the storm here with us in Madison (we’re about 200 miles north of the coast). Our house is fine, and we had no damage from either wind or trees. The wind did get pretty bad, and we’re a long way from where it was so devastating. We lost power Monday afternoon, and got it back about 48 hours later. The ones in Hattiesburg are not so lucky – no power yet and no idea when they might have power restored. My in-laws in Smith county got power back yesterday, so they are understandably ecstatic! No fun with no air conditioning in the South in August and early September.

I didn’t take any pictures during the storm, but tried to take some afterwards. Click the -More- link for the first couple… I will try to load more tonight or tomorrow.

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Things are slowly starting to return to normal around here, more than a week after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and our MS Gulf Coast. We are back at home, and have power, and have lots to show and tell, so hopefully today or tomorrow I can start back blogging. Or at least catching up on emails! 🙂

Today, I’m happy that the lights, phone and Internet are still working!!!

The lights have blinked twice so far, with the hurricane coming through, but so far (cross your fingers), they have come right back on. We’re all very grateful to have air conditioning, tv, and all the good stuff we are used to!

Mine today is more a “thankful” than a happy. I’m thankful that we have the technology today to predict hurricanes and warn people in advance of what could happen where they live. I’m thankful today that we live as far north as we do! I’m thankful that we have a place to offer to family and friends to come stay, to get out of the path of a hurricane like Katrina.

My happy today was a surprise – Terry, Brittany and Zack came over, and we all went to a movie! 😀

Go take the “Which Book of the Bible are you” quiz, and post your results in a comment. 🙂

You are Romans.

Which book of the Bible are you?
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Wow, this really made my day! My blog buddy Dawn highlighted my blog in her post today, “Meet the Bloggers”. That is so cool, and she is soooo sweet to say nice things about me and my blog. We’ve never met, but I feel like we have gotten to be friends, via the Internet, and as Dawn says — “see, not everyone on the Internet is a weirdo!”. I feel the same way.

Dawn is playing in our fantasy league, she’s the Florida Storm Surge. Watch out guys and girls, she’s pretty football savvy and she just might beat us all! 😀

Go check out Dawn’s blog, and Dawn – thank you so much, this really made my day. You are too sweet for your own good!!

Today, I’m happy that we aren’t under watering restrictions.

I ran the sprinklers (all 3) this morning for over 2 1/2 hours. And my grass is still brown and half dead. After all that water. (Of course, I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I’ve been stubbornly refusing to water for over a week, since they keep predicting we will get rain, but we’ve gotten none, nada, zilch).

See, have a look for yourself:

At least it’s not all dead!