Dancing with Ike

We survived Ike. What a week it has been! And I know that our straits were not nearly as dire as some folks. We live in Richmond, which was on the "clean" side of the storm and didn't have nearly the bad winds that folks like my brother had in Houston. Today is Monday and we are still without power. We have a generator, thank the good Lord above, so we have the basic amenities--fridge, news, lights, fans, clean water from our well. We had only a little rain and are not in a surge area, so we had no flooding.

My work was closed on Friday and I ended up standing in line for 4 hours at Home Depot to get plywood for our windows. But it made such a difference!! I barely heard the wind and slept like a baby. Which is hard to believe because I am usually a storm watcher. We got up Saturday morning to a different world. The big Arizona ash in our back yard was split in about 3 pieces and one huge branch was upside down in our pool. That branch took out a small grapefruit tree by the pool fence. There were a few more split branches on some of our trees, but that was about it for damage. A little bit of damage around the fireplace on the ceiling, I guess from the wind hitting the fireplace. And we will have to build a new fence sooner than we had originally planned.

It is costing us about $40-50 a day for gas for the generator, but having a fridge and fresh food is one of those things that is hard to put a price on during a time like this. We will just continue to hunker down and make the best of it. We are some of the lucky ones and we know it only too well. Galveston looks like a war zone...I can't even imagine what it must be like down there.

I'll write a little more when I have time. My brother had quite a time in the Heights....flooded roads kept him trapped. No power, no water, little information. He had quite a hard time but no damage to his house like many of his neighbors had. All in all, our family fared well in this storm. Thank you, God!!

My new house

We bought a house. In Richmond, TX. The biggest house I've lived in since my divorce 23 years ago by far. We are very excited about fixing it up. It was built in the 70's, but hasn't had much love the past few years. The yard needs work and it just needs updating in general. The gardens are overgrown and pool was green when we moved in. But it sparkles now!

My son has moved back in with us while he looks for a job. He just graduated from college and is working as an adjunct at a local community college teaching ESL. He is hoping to go to Japan to teach English so is excited about learning to teach English. I hope it all works out for him. I am just thankful that Jim doesn't mind having him here.

Work is a blur. Some good days, some bad. A steep learning curve. This will be the most challenging, and frustrating, job I've had in quite some time. I used to complain about not having enough to do (on my last job)...no more!!