post-Gustav

Hi everyone,

We are doing well. God blessed us in giving us a much smaller hurricane than we were expecting. We did not lose any food during the time we didn't have electricity. We were fortunate to have a generator that we ran to keep the food fresh; and also to share with neighbors who didn't have one. Isn't God wonderful? I was looking through the eyes of flesh and wondering how we were going to manage to keep the generator running with our low bank account. When we shared the generator our wonderful neighbors also added gas to it when they returned it to us, then when they were able to buy their own generators someone came by and gave us money enough to run the generator one more day. This person didn't know our need. I was thankful for that and then when it looked like we still wouldn't have enough, when we were near the end of that gas we got electricity back on. God knows our needs and He provides.

The girls and I had worked hard to wash clothes by hand one day so we could hang them on the line to have clean clothes. (I didn't want to waste generator fuel by running the washer.) Two days later the clothes still hung damp and now smelly. I figured out that it was too wet and so strung up a line on the patio and started over after giving in and running only the washer on the generator. I began hanging the clothes on the makeshift line and they were slowly drying. I was excited but it still took a while. When the electricity came back on (after 5 days) I ran out and began gathering the clothes to throw them in the clothes dryer. I was so excited to be able to quickly dry my clothes! I think, of all the things I missed during the time the lights were out, I missed my dryer most. Don't get me wrong I love hanging my clothes out and try to do so regularly, but scratchy towels and displaying my unmentionables to the neighbors isn't usually my style. I am also used to the line dried clothes drying in about an hour or so.

I have most of Heather's wedding dress cut out and the next step will be to sew soon. I will probably start that process today. I was a little distressed when I began pinning the pattern to find out that the lady who cut it shorted us over 13 inches so it will be slightly off grain on two pieces because I had to finagle the pieces around till they all fit reasonably on the material. Please pray that I do a good job because this is a special dress, not everyday wear. I want it to be what she dreams for it to be. Please pray also that she will be able to get David's ring back. She sent it out to get resized for him but the store's roof collapsed during Gustav. We will have to find out what to do to get it back for her. I'm sure we will.

One thing I have found is that in our little part of the neighborhood that already seemed nice, the people have drawn even closer during and after the hurricane. Neighbors who usually stayed to themselves and indoors were forced outdoors by the heat and it actually seemed like a neighborhood out of a 1950's movie where kids rode bikes, neighbors called to each other from front porches, we all spent time going back and forth to each other's homes visiting. It was neat. I pray that we will continue. I enjoyed the quiet acceptance that seemed to envelope us while we waited for the power to come on.

David went back to work two days after the storm hit and one day he came home to get fans. The poor cashiers were beginning to pass out from the heat, one was even taken to the hospital. The fans seemed to help until they could get the air conditioning running. The stores were only letting in a certain number of people at a time to keep down post-storm panic. I have to hand it to our governor, Bobby Jindal. He seemed to assess the needs of the people and help was here quickly. The National Guard (thanks troops!) came out to offer ice and began clearing debris, gas trucks came out to stations that opened on generator power so the gas stations could provide much needed fuel. His main focus was on the necessities first...food, fuel, water, ice and debris removal. Although there are still many without power and damage things are coming about quickly, not the fiasco that is still being recovered from Katrina, three years ago.

Heather and Tiffany went back to work...I think it was Thursday. They are trying to play catch up in ordering and restocking shelves in their individual stores. I don't remember if I told you all before but they both work for the same company in two different stores. They work for Gem's drugstore.

Rochelle completed some more drawings. There is a picture of David Phelps, comedian Taylor Mason and George Sanders (the voice of Shere Khan). She is learning new techniques on Youtube. Check it out in the photo link, post Gustav pics folder.

We have rabbits we are breeding and two days after the storm Rochelle was looking out her window and saw one on top of the cage. It seemed that the night before two of them squeezed through a small opening in the door and escaped to the top of the cage. We put the first one back up and began looking for the other one. I looked all over for it and couldn't find it so I put a little food on the ground for it in the hopes it would reappear and then left to bring Tiffany to work. I thought I had seen it out of the corner of my eye and then laughed because I realized that it was probably the gray ceramic bunny on our neighbor's driveway. About an hour later our neighbor called to say he'd seen it right where I had thought it was before so I went with a net and carrots to gather it up. It was behind a bush and I couldn't reach it with the net so I clicked my tongue and showed the carrots and it came running for them. I picked it up and brought our little wayward gray bunny home.

Our family, church and friends sustained a lot of collective damage during the storm and as I called each of them they all shared stories of the storm. Please pray for not only our area but also the areas getting ready to get hit by Hurricane Ivan. Everyone will need it.

If you look in the photo link you will find pictures of the new crochet projects I completed just before the hurricane and also a few more pictures related to this blog posting. From now on I will begin adding the newest crochet projects to an album named craft projects.

Now, it's time for a new Heather adventure. I was at mom's checking on her the day after the hurricane. My David and my brother Jimmy were putting tarps over the holes in the garage roof when I recieved a phone call from Heather telling me she was stuck in our yard. I asked her, "What do you mean you're stuck?" She told me she had tried to get out and come to see my parents. When she realized my blazer was behind her car she tried to drive through the saturated yard to get out. She told me in retrospect that she didn't think of just moving my blazer. Well, she was ok until she got over the area where we had taken down the swimming pool and then she got stuck. She tried to rock the car out but it just sunk in deeper...all the way down to the front axle. David and my brother came to get her out and realized that she really was stuck good. I don't know how she managed it but there was mud thrown all over the house and roof and also behind her on the bushes. They did manage to get her out and as she laughed while telling the next door neighbor about what happened the neighbor asked her why she didn't just try to pull forward and back up over the little bushes. She said she'd rather get teased about getting stuck than fussed for killing my bushes. Funny girl.

That's about it for this posting. I hope everyone is happy, healthy, and safe. Take care and God bless.