Monday, September 8, 2008

A WEEK AGO TODAY

I had this silly idea of doing a minute by minute record of Gustav but that's a dumb idea. He's gone now and is just a bad memory. Come to think of it, there were some pretty good memories. This is a great city. We have a great mayor and a wonderful governor (neither of which I voted for but will next time). The citizens of BR came together and supported each other when needed. And there were people from all over the country who came here to work to make our recovery just a little easier. Some here still don't have electricity and some kids still aren't in school but there were very few fatal catastrophes. Some of us (me!) discovered that we could survive with much less than we thought. Never again will I ever take some of the small things in life for granted- ice and Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper! And books can be read and needlework can be done by flashlight. After all, Abe Lincoln educated himself by candlelight.

I'm not sure I said a lot of prayers. I think I may have trusted God from the very beginning and just got busy. After the branch went through the ceiling we had to move pretty fast to keep water from flooding the bedroom. And the day after the storm David and I rode around our neighborhood and realized we had very little damage compared to others. I misplaced one of my cameras and will sooner or later find it and will have those pictures.

My family knows I'm phobic about snakes. One of my neighbors let it slip that David and Michael killed a 4' copperhead in my driveway Friday while I was driving around looking for a bank. That morning David and I had had a ROUSING argument about putting up the front windows . They have no screens and I reminded him that just a couple of weeks ago we had had two "visitors" on the front porch. And just the Sunday before Gustav he had killed one in the bush beside the gazebo. I'm going to enjoy my "I told you so" time. I have a LONG memory.

Rose was a trooper. She's nearly 15 now, and is almost blind and deaf. She handled the trips between here and Michael's well and is now settled back in her chair in the bedroom. She paced a lot on Monday. I think she sensed what was happening.

Now we're facing Ike. The saying here is "Take a hike, Ike". I hope he does. But if he doesn't, we'll make it again. I worry about John and his family. They live in Houston and it looks like Ike may take a westward turn. I heard on radio this morning that this one could be like Rita. That one I won't forget. Laura Gautreau and I had been in London for two weeks. We had another two days of our trip. We were going to Windsor Castle. Just by chance we heard a delayed broadcast of US news, PTL. We had to leave a day early and were sitting in a plane on the tarmac at Ryan Airport (Baton Rouge) when she hit. Rock n' roll!!!!!

I posted some pictures on my Kodak site. Again, I have some more somewhere-ones of my neighborhood. Hopefully I'll find my camera-it's my best one. Go to www.Kodakgallery.com.
The email address is rolltide1969@cox.net and the password is rosecottage. It's easier to see the pictures if you use slide show.

For all of you who prayed for all of us, we thank you. Never doubt the power of prayer-spoken and unspoken. I remember in his sermon on the Sunday before Gustov (BG, to all of us), Bro. Colin said that God had the power to snatch him out of the water if He so chose. He didn't and there were reasons and lessons for us to learn. Not the least of which is that He is in control. Nothing happens that He doesn't will to happen. So come on Ike, we're ready!

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