week of Sept. 21-27th

Another week of no power, cold showers and miserable nights with little sleep. I didn't sleep very well all week because it was so hot and steamy inside the house, but I guess I'm getting used to the cold showers and cold water shaving. It's not as hard as it was to get into the shower and I do feel better after a shower, but its not the same without hot water. I have a routine of where I leave my flashlights so I can find them in the dark. I have one flashlight that has a tripod base that I can use to light up the bathroom while I shower and shave and two small lights to find my way around the house.

Every morning, I arrived for work very early because I am afraid to go back to sleep. I got in a couple of mornings at 3 o'clock, but used the time to catch up on Internet news and checking my usual websites for messages. I also was able to check my G-Mail account to reply to any emails that I had gotten. I try not to check on personal Internet business on company time. Adam couldn't believe I was there that early but understood why I got up and came in. What else can you do when you have no power, can't make coffee, read watch tv or surf the net?

I kept in touch with Stella by phone all week long. It's hard to be apart this long like this. Of course, I tried to keep in touch with all of my friends who were concerned about me by phone but it was hard to carry on good conversations because I am at work. It was good to talk to everyone and i was very thankful for all the friends I have. I spent a lot of time this week with my neighbors who also didn't have power. Susan Froebel, whose husband Mark used to work for the light company, said that he probably could have fixed the problem if were allowed to, but since he no longer works for the company, he can't touch anything. They were staying in their travel trailer in the driveway like William and Louisa Stevens were doing. They both had generators, so they had a/c and heated water. I could have gone to Port Arthur and picked up Stella and the trailer and then borrowed Jeremy's generator, but that would have been more trouble and expensive than leaving her in PA with Bill and Ornell.

At least work wasn't too bad this week. Everyone is pretty well behaved, still in shock over the storm. I took a report of a theft by an employee of a company in Manvel and got an arrest warrant for him but so far he hasn't been located and arrested by the Alvin Police Dept. which is where he lives.

I went back over to Kim's house on Tuesday night to watch the season premier of NCIS which is one of my favorite tv shows. That turned out to be one of my short-sleep nights. I didn't get home until about 8:30 and then woke about 2:30 and went in to the office. That was the only night I went out anywhere. Most of the rest of the week, I came home and picked up stuff in the yard and piddled around the neighborhood until bedtime.

On Thursday I went to Best Buy to look at computers again. I had gone to Frye's first, but those people that work there have no common sense at all. The girl that waited on me was trying to make conversation with me after I briefly told her my story about retiring soon and living in the trailer. She asked me if I was going to retire this August or next year.....duh, I think we're in September and if I'm not mistaken, that comes after August, so it would be dificult to retire in August this year! I went to Best Buy and found a Toshiba that Stella and I had alreay looked at on sale further, and in fact, the display model was the last one in stock so I bought it. I think it's going to work out very well for us, and now I want to buy a desktop that I can network together for Internet use. Thats something to do in the future though.

I got Stella to come pick me up Saturday morning and take me back down to Port Arthur. It was amazing to see the water lines in the trees on the way down. The trash in the trees was 8-10 feet over the roadway in places. About the time we got back to PA, Nancy Jessen called me to tell me that we had power back on at home. What a relief!!!

Bill and Ornell took us to Sanderson's restaurant for some good seafood. Of course, they all had to brag about the good Cajun food that they had in Breaux Bridge. The owners of the park also have a restaurant and catering service and are furnishing food for 1300 workers a week. About $40,000 a week for disaster relief food. Of course, they have to transport it to Houston, but that's still a lot of money!

It was nice to sit in the air conditioner and to take a warm shower and we really hated to leave our friends, but Stella needs to get back home and get to work. We left Sunday about 12:30 and made an easy trip back home. We got the trailer back into the driveway and hooked up with no problems. Home and tired, but at least we have electricity. Still no cable or Internet, but cool air conditioning and hot water!