"Around the World in A Day..."

Ok, not quite, but that album by Prince has been on heavy rotation in my car lately.

Yep. I have returned safely to my home to find it in one piece and with no hurricane damage whatsoever. Thanks to all you lovlies out there for your concerns and well wishes. :-)

Our 2 car caravan went from here, to Dallas, TX to Shreveport, LA back to here over a course of 4 days. The trip was tiring, beautiful, inspiring, annoying, fun, entertaining, hilarious, and enlightening. Along the way there were debates and conversations about relationships, attitudes, food, health, dating, children, art, sex, movies, working, religion, spirituality, just being, beliefs, ideas, government plots/conspiracies/cover ups, concepts, music....just about everything except the political campaigns of Barack Obama & John McCain. Well, only a little....and mostly in terms of, "Yeah...whatever!" ha!

I took several photos, many of which involved my guy's almost 2 yr. old niece "A" in some form or another. She was the highlight of the whole journey, throwing an occasional understandable fit in her car seat between her mother and me. If I weren't as old as I am and could have gotten away with it, I woulda been hollering and throwing stuff, too. All that sitting in one spot for so long. lol!

Us together playing camera...something we do regularly (slightly altered):

Her and Speck, the occasional house dog where we stayed in Dallas:

The child loves that dog, and he's such a sweetie.

A's my lil buddy, and we always have a good time together.

After returning Wednesday I went over and helped out with the clean up at my guy's place. There was a lot of water, branches, and general tree debris in his yard, and the driveway was pretty much blocked. A tree fell in a field next to the house and thankfully not on it. As previously stated there was no damage to my home. I wasn't too thrilled to find out that my internet and home telephone service had been knocked out and possibly wouldn't be back on for a week. Then on Thursday morning I went for my usual walk and was stunned to see a cute little house that I always made note of completely obliterated by a massive tree. After that my internet and phone issues didn't seem like such a big deal, and I was teary eyed for the rest of my walk. I think I must have felt what those home owners and others in that situation must feel.
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Overall everything went well for all of us. Given the generosity of my guy's parents, non of us (me, him, his brother, and brother's girlfriend) had to spend a dime on the trip. They bought us gas, paid for all our meals (and we did a lot eating...something I don't normally do), and even gave us cash to spend at the store. I felt like a kid, and it was great, lol! Then there was the hospitality of those who allowed 5 of us to stay at their homes (the parents stayed in hotels). People are wonderful. No, really. Or at least they can be, ha! Realizing what others went through, I'm grateful to have had such a smooth experience during this whole ordeal.

These past few days, I've been basically just chillin' out, figuring out my next move, and thinking. Thinking a lot. This week I'll have a new dress to write about. We'll see, though, cause it seems like people know something about this other hurricane that I don't. Driving around the city not only do I see massive trees just toppled over, but I also see homes with the windows still boarded up. Yesterday a lady across the street from me was boarding up her windows, 4-5 days before so-called "Ike" is even expected to be in the Gulf. So maybe sometime this week I'll be on my way out again, cause I don't do hurricanes, especially categories 2 and above.

peace