Everything always happens at once
I haven't had time to post our good news: Husband's job has finally arrived in its new location on the north shore, and so yesterday we went out and bought a cute little mobile home. A friend of ours is letting us put it on some unused land he has near where we want to live. We'll live in it for a year, or perhaps two, while negotiating to buy a nearby piece of property and building on it. That's the first thing that happened....
Today, of course, we learned that Hurricane Gustav, which looks like it's going to cream New Orleans (deja vu, anyone?) is going to be a Category 5 hurricane, not a cat 3 as previously thought. (The higher the category, the higher the sustained wind speed.) It's projected to make landfall just west of New Orleans, which puts my house in the most severe quadrant of the storm. (Katrina was a cat 3 at the time that it hit New Orleans; Gustav is projected to be a cat 4 when it hits the city.) And it does matter what happens to my house, because we won't have the mobile home delivered until after the storm. Can't get insurance on it, anyway, when there's a major storm approaching. So we'll be here until it passes. The only problem is that the mobile home is located in Gulfport, MS right now ... and they are in the cone too! Worst case scenario, we lose both our house and the mobile home. But we keep our fingers crossed. ;-) We'll be evacuating tonight, since Gustav is expected to make landfall Monday morning. Today we've been packing, pulling up the garden, and assembling supplies...always fun. Injects a dose of excitement into the neighborhood how's-the-weather conversations!
And then, of course, today of all days, I get the email about my dad. He broke his wrist, really badly, a week or two ago, and there have been complications since then. The pain pills stopped up his bowels and urinary tract, and now he is bleeding from his colon. His dad died of colon cancer when he was just a few years older than my dad is now. All of us are worried about him; with Labor Day weekend upon us, his colonoscopy isn't scheduled until Thursday. So: prayers, please, those of you who believe in them.
And Dad called a few minutes ago to talk to me. I figured he had some medical news, but when I asked him, "How are you?", he said, "Oh, just fine," and proceeded to question me in detail about my evacuation plans ... checking to make sure his kids are safe and doing the smart thing with his grandchildren.
Today, of course, we learned that Hurricane Gustav, which looks like it's going to cream New Orleans (deja vu, anyone?) is going to be a Category 5 hurricane, not a cat 3 as previously thought. (The higher the category, the higher the sustained wind speed.) It's projected to make landfall just west of New Orleans, which puts my house in the most severe quadrant of the storm. (Katrina was a cat 3 at the time that it hit New Orleans; Gustav is projected to be a cat 4 when it hits the city.) And it does matter what happens to my house, because we won't have the mobile home delivered until after the storm. Can't get insurance on it, anyway, when there's a major storm approaching. So we'll be here until it passes. The only problem is that the mobile home is located in Gulfport, MS right now ... and they are in the cone too! Worst case scenario, we lose both our house and the mobile home. But we keep our fingers crossed. ;-) We'll be evacuating tonight, since Gustav is expected to make landfall Monday morning. Today we've been packing, pulling up the garden, and assembling supplies...always fun. Injects a dose of excitement into the neighborhood how's-the-weather conversations!
And then, of course, today of all days, I get the email about my dad. He broke his wrist, really badly, a week or two ago, and there have been complications since then. The pain pills stopped up his bowels and urinary tract, and now he is bleeding from his colon. His dad died of colon cancer when he was just a few years older than my dad is now. All of us are worried about him; with Labor Day weekend upon us, his colonoscopy isn't scheduled until Thursday. So: prayers, please, those of you who believe in them.
And Dad called a few minutes ago to talk to me. I figured he had some medical news, but when I asked him, "How are you?", he said, "Oh, just fine," and proceeded to question me in detail about my evacuation plans ... checking to make sure his kids are safe and doing the smart thing with his grandchildren.