Working my way back to reality

Saturday the water started receding-lucky thing, as cabin fever had begun to set in.  While I enjoy being flooded in for the excuse it gives me for going nowhere, the majority of my neighbors enjoy it for the opportunity it gives them to start drinking at 9 in the morning.  They all sat up under the Shingle Mill all day drinking beer, and Elaine and Dave, my next door neighbors, were up there with them.  I knew as soon as I saw them up there drinking that there would be fighting before the day was done.

I slogged up to the truck and drove to Gulfport to get Alex from Mom's and came back to the house to watch the video that came in the mail-him appearing in The Pirates of Penzance and then we decided to go out for dinner to L.Y.'s buffet, our favorite chinese restaurant.  If given a choice of anywhere to eat, usually that is our pick.  There is such a variety that you can eat there every day for a week and never eat the same thing twice if you are so inclined.  The food is always fresh, and Alex likes the "hot asian chicks" who work there.  They know what we drink and where we like to sit.  There is also what we like to call "the L.Y. effect".  If you've been bound up for a day or two, go to L.Y.  It doesn't make us sick, but within 30 minutes of eating there, both of us need to use the bathroom.  Cleans ya right out!  Anyway, we were sitting there eating when Alex perked up and said "I've heard this song before."  It then occurred to me that we eat there so often that I am learning the lyrics to the songs on their sound system-and they are in Chinese!

I had to come straight home from dinner as I had to get back while it was still light enough to wade-I'll walk in water up to my tender bits, but NOT in the dark.  Sure as shit, as soon as I hit the deck I heard "Love?  You womanizing sonofabitch!  You wouldn't know love if it..."  I got inside as quickly as possible as I have been privy to way too many of their fights-last time it ended with Dave getting hit in the head with a 2x4 and he walked around looking like Bart Simpson for a few weeks til the swelling went down.  No wonder Johnny is hesitant about having them keep the birds while we travel.

Oooh.  Travel.  I also bought my ticket to Dover for next week, so that IS going to happen, one way or another.  The Atlantic looks pretty quiet, so maybe I can take a trip and not have to worry about a hurricane while I'm gone.  Now I'm debating whether to stay with the kids or at the Dover Downs Casino Hotel.  I know what I want to do, but I also know what I'll probably do, and yes, they are two entirely different things.  Although I do have permission should I choose to exercise it.

Now, I am praying for rain.  Everything outside is covered in a layer of silt since it has been under river water for the last week, and I am dreading opening the shed.  In Katrina, its styrofoam pads came off, so it has been sitting in the water all week, along with everything in it.  It also lost its floor, so Johnny laid particle board (that was supposed to cover the windows) over the studs, kind of overlappy, and not nailed down.  I'm sure that is going to be nice and sturdy...NOT.  I did hang everything up, so my little electric mower (think bubble mower) should be okay, but there were alot of ice chests and paint cans and such that are probably all in a jumble in there now, and they are all covered in silt too, and will have to be hosed off.  There is a wooden pallet that sits as a step in front of the shed, and it is rotting through.  All in all, I think I have a recipe for disaster.  It is not a matter of if I get hurt, more a matter of can I get anything accomplished before I get hurt.