Everyone in my neck of the woods has been talking about Hurricane Isaac all week. It got a little ridiculous. Isaac was a Category 1 hurricane that made landfall on the other side of the state, and yet schools and businesses across the parish were closed for two days, and I even saw a few places with boarded-up windows, which made me roll my eyes ( Read more... )

Yesterday morning, my fast-food run ended with me driving Muse Watson to the auto-repair shop. No, I wasn't in another accident, but Muse had been having some problems that were getting worse. I'm beginning to suspect that car is as cantankerous as the person he's named after! Fortunately, he was fixed and ready to go this afternoon. I was able pay ( Read more... )

The first hurricane of the 2010 season, Alex, has appeared in the Gulf. Bad news for the people of Mexico (where it's currently expected to make landfall) and even worse news for us if it makes the oil spill spread further and faster. Which it probably will. So in the meantime, I'm enjoying all the fresh, cool wind and rain that it's sending our ( Read more... )

Well, we survived Hurricane Ike all right, too. Our power didn't go out at all this time, even though there was a lot more wind and rain than there was for Gustav. The street off the corner of Grandma's house was a veritable river, more flooded than I'd ever seen it before. I went over there yesterday and splashed around with Eva. Power went out on ( Read more... )

Part One:
This excerpt from Julie Andrews's autobiography, Home, which I'm currently reading: "I was offered the title role in Cinderella at the London Palladium. The theater has tremendous prestige and a great history. Almost every American headliner has performed at the Palladium. It holds more than two thousand people, yet standing on the stage, ( Read more... )

Grandma's house was packed (and I mean packed) yesterday with relatives, friends, and people I'd never met. We were having a several-weeks-late wedding reception for my cousin and his new wife. There was chicken in gravy, rice dressing, shrimp fetucinni, crawfish pie, wedding cake, German chocolate cake, and a big bowl of ginger ale and lime ( Read more... )

Sara and I went shopping last night and I decided to treat myself to Kroger-brand pickles and Lay's potato chips. And predictably, when I came out of the bathroom later, I said to her, "I just don't know what I was thinking, buying pickles and potato chips at the same time. Why didn't you stop me?" But she was too happy that I had set up my own ( Read more... )

Tropical Storm Edouard made landfall today in the early AM. I sat on the back porch and watched the wind and rain with Eleanor. She is a very sweet little dog, but they keep her outside and she is so companionable that she wants someone to be out there with her almost all the time. She has learned to climb up to the dining room window and knock on ( Read more... )

Well, I've been absent for, ah, a long time, yes, but I do have a good excuse. I was, uh, I was kidnapped by international terrorists. Yeah, that's it! And I spent the last two months held hostage in an obsucre cave in Iraq with no plumbing or electricity. I barely managed to escape with my life, and every day I prayed that I would someday be able ( Read more... )