Hurricanes and...........

It has been such a long time since I have written anything here. I was without internet access for awhile, and I still cannot go onto Paltalk. Which is probably not a bad thing. I do better when I stay away from that pit, but I miss the friends I have made there and so I will go back. I still find it funny that some people cannot stand me, tell everyone they come in contact with that they cannot stand to be around me, tell people they feel uncomfortable to be in the same chatroom that I am in, yet follow me from room to room. It never fails, almost as soon as I go into a chatroom, here comes this person. I guess it is true, people are funny. As soon as I go back onto Paltalk, which will be when I get my computer hooked up, I will continue to go into my favorite rooms no matter what the silly person does.

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I have spent the past week or so helping Leslie move into her house. Owning a house is a big deal for Leslie. I am 'boarding' with her for the summer and then will go spend the school year with my older daughter in Michigan. Next summer I hope to either be back into my house or will have sold it and gotten a small place somewhere near my daughters. I would love to live in the mountains, but right now I cannot see how I can do that.

Leslie had planned a trip to Utah to visit her mother, then Dennis decided that he needed to come visit the gulf coast, so Leslie asked me if I wanted to drive out there with her. She was going to show me the Grand Canyon, and as many other neat things as we could see. But, about 3am Friday her mother called to tell her that her sister Marlynn had died. Leslie took the first plane to Utah. I am here batting down the hatches and waiting on Dennis.

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Well, Dennis left us alone. Mississippi was lucky this time. Of course there is another depression out there and hurricane season has just started, so we may not be as lucky next time.

When I was working, most all of us would come to the hospital to wait out the hurricanes. This mostly turned into a big party, because all of our kids and spouses (the ones who did not have to be somewhere else) would be there and all of us brought in food and soft drinks and games and movies to watch. Our department was in the clinical building which had no patients (plus, the hospital would send many patients home or, if they were too sick to o home, to another hospital).....well, ICU was on the 4th floor but we were on the 3rd.......so we did not have to worry about noise. Everyone had blankets, pillows and sometimes, sleeping bags. We would put all the kids in the conference room and make tents etc. Someone always remembered to get a TV and VCR from the medical library so we had movies to keep the kids occupied. And, the food. This wasn't just chips and cokes. This was serious food. So much food that we ate it for lunch for at least a week afterwards.

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Speaking of work.......we used to keep a running game of Scrabble going. I love Scrabble. Sometimes there might be a card game going also, but mostly it was Scrabble. As Repsiratory Therapists we had a lot of downtime. We had several things we routinely did, but sometimes we were waiting for something to happen. Waiting to respond to codes. Odd too, I never had problems with responding to codes. I think it was because everything was moving so fast that trainig took over. When I had problems with my OCD at work, it was always the routine things. And, I think it was because it was routine. I would think....'did I do that today or was it yesterday.' or...'did I put that patient back on his O2? Or was that yesterday when I did it'....I spent a lot of time checking over what I did. And, it got so bad that I was having a hard time leaving the hospital. I would go back and check on patients. Finally, in 1999 I gave up and took a medical retirement. I miss it, but there was no way I could continue.

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The attack on London this past Thursday was horrific. I have two friends who live in the London area and routinely use the Underground. They are ok. Then, today there was the explosions in Birmingham. How can anyone believe God wants them to do these things? I emailed a friend who lives in Devon and was getting pretty worried because he had not emailed me back. Then, this evening I got several emails from him. He had gone to Portsmouth and was just getting home.

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I don't talk much here about my children, but I am so lucky. My children, two girls and two boys, make me so proud to be their mother. Even when I want to choke my youngest son for arguing with me. Then I realize that he is just 'having a go at me'. My kids and I have broken the circle of the rediculousness that I was brought up in. They value each other and show that by valuing others. God has truly blessed me with my children.