Currently, I am laid back in the bedroom of my son Alex's house. I evacuated the houseboat last week due to Hurricane Gustav and am working diligently on wearing out my welcome. I don't think Alex really minds having me here, but I know he is over the birds by now. I am just too lazy to get all my chit packed back up and tote it back to the houseboat, particularly since there are three other named storms in the Gulf/Atlantic. I don't want to keep dragging everything back and forth, so the path of least resistance leaves me laying right where I am.
The storm was underwhelming from my perspective. Wind and rain, and of course the river came up so I could not get back to the houseboat for a couple of days, but fortunately no damage to either place, and none to anyone I know for that matter. I'm sure if we'd taken a direct hit I would be of another opinion. Thinking about thi s reminds me of the aftermath of Katrina. Everyone on 'the outside' saw what was going on in New Orleans. I remember sitting in my car in an ice line, grateful that I had filled my tanks before the storm. I watched these strangers from all over the country standing out in that heat heaving bags of ice and flats of water into car trunks and pickup beds and I just cried because how on earth do we thank these people? It still haunts me. I didn't really lose too much physically in that storm-I was one of the fortunate few. But I think we all lost our innocence which is why the evacuations went so smoothly. I don't ever want to feel so helpless as to how to express my gratitude-in fact, I don't ever want to have to feel that grateful again, thank you very much. I'd much rather be a helper than a helpee-a relief worker instead of a victim. It sounds crass, but I am much better at giving than taking.
I took Alex today to change his voter registration precinct today. He has been watching the conventions religiously and I can tell he has definite opinions, although he is not very vocal in expressing them, at least to me. He has said all along that he was not going to vote, that it did not make any difference to him either way. Once I explained to him that who is in office helps to determine his SSI benefits, he seemed to understand that it does make a difference, and I think he will vote at least in the presidential race this year.
Email from hubby in Nigeria:
I never imagined i'd ever meet anybody in my life that's never heard of Elvis Pressley OR The Beatles,
but today i have,
My reply:
Then I guess I can keep looking for the purple cow
I've never blogged/journaled before, probably partially due to things like that spilling out of my head. I read other peoples' blogs and then see the comments their readers make and it just makes me cringe to think about other people critiquing my thoughts. I realize now that I could make them private entries or disallow comments, but I decided to jump in with both feet, although I am not announcing the fact that I'm doing this to anyone. If someone stumbles upon it, fine. I read a quote somewhere recently that 'you don't want to know what other people think about you' and in a way that is true-especially if they think crappy things about you. But you also miss out on the good stuff that way. I guess Chris Cuomo changed my life in more ways than one in the last year, bless his heart! I hope ya'll did see him on GMA face his fear of heights by jumping off of the Taj Mahal building in Atlantic city from the 51st floor. I don't know why that made such a difference to me, but it did. Since I watched that, I am more of a risk taker, and I thank him for that.
I was also afraid I would flit from subject to subject, just like I am doing. Welcome to the inside of my head! That's what thirty years of pot smoking will do for you, folks. I have profound thoughts, I think. I just can't remember them. But the good thing is, what comes around, goes around. If I just keep going, they come back to me. Maybe writing them down will improve my short term memory.
I guess I am just tired of listening to myself think. I keep reading these groovy female humor writers and then peek at their blogs and I finally realized THAT COULD BE ME. Their thoughts are not that much different than myne own, they just stop to write things down. It would be nice if I could carry a keyboard around with me all the time, because now that I am doing it, I realize that it goes much faster (and neater) if I type. The first time we went to Amsterdam I did try to journal, but Johnny kept mocking me when I'd pull my little journal out and start scribbling because it took so LONG and was such a mess. My kindle has a keyboard, but it is not very user friendly-it can't keep up with my fingers, and I (against my long ago typing teacher's advice) am a read as I go kinda girl...It slows me down, because I can't continue with an obvious error, so I spend half my time, or so it used to seem, on the backspace key. Go, OCD, go.
I rectom this has been a long enough entry for my virgin voyage, such as it is. I certainly hope someone gets the purple cow reference.
My reply:
Then I guess I can keep looking for the purple cow
I've never blogged/journaled before, probably partially due to things like that spilling out of my head. I read other peoples' blogs and then see the comments their readers make and it just makes me cringe to think about other people critiquing my thoughts. I realize now that I could make them private entries or disallow comments, but I decided to jump in with both feet, although I am not announcing the fact that I'm doing this to anyone. If someone stumbles upon it, fine. I read a quote somewhere recently that 'you don't want to know what other people think about you' and in a way that is true-especially if they think crappy things about you. But you also miss out on the good stuff that way. I guess Chris Cuomo changed my life in more ways than one in the last year, bless his heart! I hope ya'll did see him on GMA face his fear of heights by jumping off of the Taj Mahal building in Atlantic city from the 51st floor. I don't know why that made such a difference to me, but it did. Since I watched that, I am more of a risk taker, and I thank him for that.
I was also afraid I would flit from subject to subject, just like I am doing. Welcome to the inside of my head! That's what thirty years of pot smoking will do for you, folks. I have profound thoughts, I think. I just can't remember them. But the good thing is, what comes around, goes around. If I just keep going, they come back to me. Maybe writing them down will improve my short term memory.
I guess I am just tired of listening to myself think. I keep reading these groovy female humor writers and then peek at their blogs and I finally realized THAT COULD BE ME. Their thoughts are not that much different than myne own, they just stop to write things down. It would be nice if I could carry a keyboard around with me all the time, because now that I am doing it, I realize that it goes much faster (and neater) if I type. The first time we went to Amsterdam I did try to journal, but Johnny kept mocking me when I'd pull my little journal out and start scribbling because it took so LONG and was such a mess. My kindle has a keyboard, but it is not very user friendly-it can't keep up with my fingers, and I (against my long ago typing teacher's advice) am a read as I go kinda girl...It slows me down, because I can't continue with an obvious error, so I spend half my time, or so it used to seem, on the backspace key. Go, OCD, go.
I rectom this has been a long enough entry for my virgin voyage, such as it is. I certainly hope someone gets the purple cow reference.
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