This day in history

I don’t know about you but I’ve spent the day watching the gulf coast get smacked around. Gawd, it looks awful. I keep making the mistake of going to Fark.com and reading the hurricane threads. They are addictive. I’ve done that in the past with the hurricanes that went to Florida and there were a lot of first person accounts, but not with this one. There aren’t any, the only first person reports are from people recounting how they fled.

I guess that if you could not flee you are at the stadium and I bet they didn’t think to get wi-fi before the rush began. I recognize that is a stupid thing to think about. It really wouldn’t matter if they had wi-fi if everyone only brought the stuff they wanted to not lose forever with them, I guess if it was a choice between baby pictures and lap top, I would go with the baby pictures too.

It must be surreal. Imagine if for real you were told “grab only what is the most important, take only what you can carry – you have an hour, go!” Its one thing to think about it theoretically, it would be quite another to live it. Walk around your house, perhaps for the last time and try to decide what is coming with you. The TV would be too big. The stereo would be useless and the cords would make you trip, the good china would slow you down and be breakable, paper things would be ruined in the rain, photos would be toast, framed work would be heavy and unwieldy. I don’t know what would the best plan just to take all your negatives? Bring your favorite pillow? And hope for the best? Ultimatly you have to be ready to leave everything.

Everything. How about everyone? What about your pets? Or is it best to lock them in the attic and hope for the best? I’m glad I haven’t had to face this choice with them. I don’t know where I would flee to.

What else have I been doing today? I’ve received birthday greetings from spammers and a forum I stopped going to three years ago. I also heard from my two best friends. One of whom I share a birthday with, it was great hearing from her, she never checks her email and since her two kids started school and other activities, I think she spends her waking hours behind the wheel. It was really nice that she took a minute from her more important duties to email me; it was nice to hear from her. I was mulling over the idea of renting a Dallas area under grad and having them sit by the side of the road at an intersection near her house with a sign that reads “Happy Birthday Kristin!./, it may have worked, fortunately I didn’t need to get Operation Happy Birthday underway.

Kitty got out momentarily on Sunday. I think he was really disappointed that there he did not find the forest or the nice beach that he explored the last time he got out of the house. He was clearly shocked to find nothing but Minnie and some not as palatable weeds. He spent the rest of the afternoon inside, begging for food and being annoyed with me. He got even more annoyed when I put his furry butt in the bathroom because his begging was getting on my nerves – he was even more pissed off once he got to the bathroom because I rubber banded the cupboard doors shut and he couldn’t get them open.

Speaking of frustration. I finally found a local group going up to DC for the rally, but they won’t answer their damn email. If we were all right wingers you can be sure they would have answered their email and offered me a scholarship for the bus fare. We are never going to win if we can’t organize ourselves sufficiently to bring others aboard. That is the problem with the left – a whole lot of talk, almost no action, almost no organization. The grass roots need to be landscaped.