Conrad's Dream

Conrad told me about a dream he had Sunday night. I don't know if the debates are getting to him or if he is just really, really all about gun control.

He dreamed that Obama became President and of course, pretty much killed the Second Amendment- and took away all guns for private citizens. Not only did he take away the guns, but the ONLY people he allowed to continue to own guns, were the felons and criminals.

He dreamed that he refused to give up his arms (good Texas boy!) and that Obama and his croonies came to the door and took all his guns away- and they beat him up pretty badly as he was defending his weapons. Then he dreamed that it was all over the newspapers and TV and since people knew we had no defense, people kept breaking into our house over and over and over again.

WOW ... um, I don't know what this means. I'm not really a dream interpreter ... but it sounds like he does not want Obama to be President ... he is VERY concerned about gun control AND that he would take it to the limit to protect his firearms. Listen, I don't want to get beat up or feel pain of any kind. Besides my family's welfare, I don't know exactly what I would be willing to get beaten for ... I don't know if that makes me smart or selffish or stupid or what ... but apparently, Conrad would go to the mat for his guns.

Atta boy!

Kah

Fillin' Up

Hi.

I took Friday off. I actually had a day off planned but ended up working after the hurricane. So I took off this past Friday ... I needed to sort of fill up again.

I watched two movies: A Walk to Remember ... good ol Nicholas Sparks and then another one that was on my radar with Elizabeth Shue called Gracie. It was about a girl who's older brother, a soccer champion, dies and she fights to take his place on the team- true story ... the likes of Remember the Titans, Radio, Rudy ... etc ... it was good. Worth putting on your Netflix.

I also got the house back in order. We got the generator put away, candles and flashlights put away ... bathtubs scrubbed, floors vaccumed, clothes washed, etc ... I felt like I sort of had my life back.

No good garage sales- I guess people are still getting branches and things out of their yards or maybe, like us, enjoying their first "normal" weekend.

Saturday night I watched 27 Dresses- cute. Then yesterday we went to see Tropic Thunder. OH MY GA- that movie was FUNNY. We are so buying it AND the soundtrack. We laughed til we cried. We needed it.

Kah

Basics

Funny how you forget about the basics until you are without them.

Weird how when I didn't have access to a washing machine, all I wanted was clean towels and when I couldn't cook all I wanted to do was cook. Last night we had our first meal at home since this whole mess began. Boy was it good! Just plain ham sandwiches. I got some of the good, soft, white bread ... some mayo, mustard, cheese and ham ... DELICIOUS! I bought three different kinds of Pringles (for the record, I am not impressed with the Loaded Baked Potato one) ... and we went to town. Simple, basic and delicious. We are so tired of restaurants.

Tonight is tacos- from a taco kit.
Friday- Hamburger Pie
Saturday- Chicken N Dumplins
Sunday- Homemade Pizza

It's also sort of pleasant to see the fridge looking so clean and rather empty. When you have it packed full, it's sort of overwhelming. For now, for us, it's good to limit the choices. It seems like everything is overwhelming.

My coworker told me yesterday in the elevator it feels like everyone is sort of wound up. People crying at the drop of a hat, short tempers, frustrations. We are all feeling that. After all, we had two weekends of pretty much stress. No one had electric or air, we didn't even have water. People who had kids had to keep them entertained and lots of people were repairing their homes ... there has been absolutely no "rest" on these weekends. I bet everyone here this weekend just .... lays around. It will be good for us all.

I'm looking for a volunteer opportunity this Sunday .. but other than that, I'm laying around too!

Kah

Three Hours

That was my commute TO work today ... THREE HOURS.

They have not yet fixed the stoplights ... they are still blinking or completely out. So it's taking everyone way too long to get to work. HR has approved new Hurricane Hours and I am taking them! Starting tomorrow it's 6-3 if you want to work those hours and I DO ... because either way I have to leave my house at 5 - I may as well get here, work and go on home. GEEZ.

It took me 1.5 hours to get 10 minutes down the road. I called Conrad freaking out and he told me the next highway I took to work looked clear (from the news) Thank goodness he was right! I was about to turn around and go home.

Went grocery shopping last night and got SOME stuff, but didn't replace it all. I did the ketchup, mustard, mayo, jalepeno, sour cream, taco sauce, salad dressing route last night. Next week I'll do the minced garlic, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, worcheshire, teriaki, marinade route. I can't replace it all at one time. I did have coupons that ended up taking about $20 off the total.

I also had to get milk, eggs, bread, butter and those sort of things ... not to mention enough dinners to take us to next payday. It's going to be soup and sandwiches for awhile til we sort of get the budget back on track. I ate out enough to last me awhile anyway.

Kah

Restored

Well, *Sigh* so now you know I have a bit of a temper.

Conrad and I have tried to really maintain our normal behavior through these very abnormal experiences. The traffic is CRAZY- the tollroad has been free for something like 12 days now, so it's absolutely packed everyday. We have had to go to work even though we didn't exactly know where we were going to sleep or shower that day. We had to eat out for every meal, which is expensive and gets old ... it's so hard to see your neighbors sitting in their garages being eaten alive by mosquitos ... at 7PM it's dark, candles make the house HOTTER and the mosquitos are outside, there's nothing really to do but lay in bed. I think we did ok the first week. After day 7 we were really angry with the water company. The day after they said we would be restored, was terrible. We were both snappish. I cried a lot. It was hot, he was calling Center Point Energy and when he wasn't, I was ... it was a really bad time.

I would never expect ANYONE except maybe my family in SC who went through Hurricane Hugo in 1989 to understand how hard and sad and frustrating this has been ... but I would at least expect SOME compassion and to say that from some people all I have gotten is judgement would be an understatement. There are people I talked to everyday when I lived in Dallas who haven't even called or emailed or responded to MY update email to see how we were doing. A full week had passed before I sent the first update. It looks like a diaster movie down here. If you're watching your televisions, what you're seeing is TRUE and it stretches about 90 miles north of Galveston. We were in some dire straights and the night OF the storm, was a nightmare I don't know if I will ever forget. I'll never forget how the wind sounded, how the house shook, how it sounded to hear debris hit your roof or how it felt to look at your ceiling for almost nine hours PRAYING it wouldn't peel off. That's a lot to go through ... and there are about I'd say five to seven people I really thought by now I'd hear from- even if just a brief "are you ok" phone call ... but so far, nothing.

NOT at all to say that family and friends have not contacted us. Oh gracious, our parents and our siblings and friends from high school and fellow bloggers have checked in us and it's been so comforting. We have gotten LOTS of email from Dallas .... just a few I was expecting, never came ... Our friends here in Houston, after power was restored to them have offered their homes and showers ... it's been really nice and we have felt very supported. I am just saying *I* had several close friends in the Dallas area that I expected to hear from and have not. So to say I am a little hurt and very disappointed and slightly offended would be putting it mildly. I guess all that came out yesterday when I did finally have SOMEONE contact me and berate me and tell me I had mental problems. I suppose when you reach out for contact, sometimes you get what you ask for.

Power was restored as well as water sometime yesterday. It was on when we got in from work. I washed clothes, ran the dishwasher, dusted and cleaned for hours. It was a good night.

Kah

Oh that's rich

and now I have "Friends" from Dallas who are happy in their air conditioning, probably washing their clothes and drinking water from their fridge with ice from their freezers ... telling me that I need to stop complaining. That I CHOOSE to remain here in Houston, even though um having to find somewhere to stay, having to LEAVE OUR JOBS seems like maybe not such a big deal ... and leave our house and what do we do with our dog? TELL ME THAT... and telling me that if I cried about it on Saturday then maybe I have some deeper issues than just this no power/no water thing.

I have a DEEPER ISSUE FOR YOU- STOP READING MY POSTS AND MY BLOG. If you can't handle what I have to say then GO AWAY and stop concerning yourself with me. Why don't you come down here and live for a few days how I have lived for TEN DAYS.

I am not a princess. I am not spoiled and I have worked really hard to maintain my composure ... but until you have lived in this mess, don't judge me. GET OFF MY SITE.

KARYN

Ten Days- Nothing

So I guess when they said we'd have power back on Friday it was a lie. With no power = no water. We are miserable. We called all day Saturday and they tell us we have been moved down the list- to MAYBE Thursday. But it's just an "Estimate" you understand. I am so angry I can't see ... I am so upset, I can barely breathe. All I did Saturday was cry. I finally came out of it enough to sit on the back porch with Conrad and play Battleship for a couple of rounds ... I won TWO of THREE. So I guess I'm the champ, for now ... then the mosquitos came. I don't know if we have ever been this miserable.

The water in the bathtubs is getting low. I'm starting to worry about flushing the toilet and since we have no fridge, we're still eating out. It's getting expensive and I don't know how much longer this can go on. Even when the power does come on, do I have the money to replace the food? Conrad says we can- just slowly.

I miss my house. I miss my life. I am so very depressed.
I just can barely get out of bed.

and oh yeah- the Cowboys beat the Packers. I guess there's a silver lining.