Updates

Things are back to normal at our house. I'm feeling sad for my beloved home state of Louisiana after Hurricane Gustav. There are still a few of our relatives and friends who haven't touched base with us yet after the storm. I know many are without electricity and some are still away from home. I've been hearing that the Baton Rouge area was hit pretty hard. My husband's grandparents had to evacuate from a town near Lafayette, and it was especially hard since Pop had a stroke last March and has been in a nursing home. They are back home now with electricity and are only missing a few shingles from the roof, thank God.

Fortunately my sister's family returned home yesterday and found nothing wrong. After almost completely gutting their house from Hurricane Rita and then again from a random flood a year later, they were especially grateful! My mom made the decision to leave our house yesterday and return to her home without the power on. After they arrived and unloaded the car, the electricity came back on within about 5 minutes! I was so relieved that they didn't have to be without power in the unbearable heat (like they did for several days after Rita). Besides a yard full of branches and debris, things were fine there too. The outer bands of the storm are still around and resulted in a tornado touching down in my mom's town just last night. I've heard that Gustav has caused nearly 40 tornadoes so far.

It's amazing that Gustav isn't quite over. It's still causing some bad weather throughout the state and in Arkansas and beyond. It was hard to believe that it was still at Category 1 strength all the way up to central Louisiana. Even our family and friends in the northern part of the state lost power for a little while.

After so much activity it's kinda sad for me to be alone at home once again. Yesterday I washed 4 sets of sheets and a big load of towels, and swept and mopped the house after my family left. Today things are quiet here but I'm still watching the Weather Channel. My TV hasn't been on anything else for days besides Monday night's season premiere of Prison Break! I'm hoping that Hurricane Hanna goes easy on the east coast, and I'm keeping a wary eye on tropical storms Ike and Josephine.