Hurricane Season

I can't believe another hurricane is heading for the coast. At least it's no longer a category 5, but three is bad enough. Hurricane season doesn't end until NOVEMBER.

I might whine about the never-ending grey in February, but I think I'm going to keep quiet this year. I will take that over 145 mile an hour winds, and flooding up to the roof.

Tonight I sit, toe in the air, chocolate in hand, and watch the hurricane. In case you were wondering, I had toe surgery today (nothing major, but I won't go into the gross and gory details) and unlike the last time I had this done, it hurts like crazy now the numbness has worn off. So, in addition to ibuprophen I have self-perscribed chocolate. I have been virtually chocolate free (except for the chocolate in my non-fat Mochas) for almost three weeks. But my toe was throbbing, and the hurricane is coming, and I am sorry (well, okay, not sorry) I needed it. Wanted it, needed it, same thing.

Since my toe is so bad, I think this is an ideal weekend to play World of Warcraft, and not clean the house. But, maybe tomorrow it will feel better.
Or not.

My toe and I are going to find more chocolate now.

Favorite Places to Read

I have been known to read in the shower, when walking from place to place (at home) and even while exercising. It's amazing how many leg-lifts you can do if you loose track of time. A book at the sports arena is not a bad idea either. The treadmill, on the bus, on a long car ride, the living room floor, in bed; all good.

Some of the best places to read are outside. On a bench or sitting in grass. Some prefer a shady tree, others a sunny beach. I don't have one favorite outdoor reading spot. I am willing to read anywhere, as long as it's not raining. I like a chaise lounge, but I usually end up laying it flat so I can lay on my stomach, propped on my elbows. My favorite position to read in. You have to be careful with webbed chaise lounges - elbows can sometimes poke through.

As a kid I had a great outdoor reading spot between the privacy fence in our backyard and the forsythia bushes. I made a platform out of 2x4 scrap wood with a back, so nobody could tell I was there. In time I had a secret jar of change buried there, an old umbrella, and a nice flat rock to rest my feet on.

Inside, when I wanted to read I would go up to unfinished attic and sprawl on the cedar chest my dad made in high school. In the winter, I would take my coat. I could read anywhere, but I liked going up there. It was quiet. No TV, no sister, no blah blah blah.

Now I have my own house, I still read everywhere. The bed is, of course, premium, but the couch or floor is also fine. Chairs, at the breakfast bar, leaning over the sink. Another favorite is the tub. True decadence is a bubble bath, a glass of wine, and a good book (not a library book - learned that one the hard way).

I always have a book nearby, the opportunity to read a few pages might be just a moment away. I have yet to read stuck on an elevator, or on a runaway train, or when locked in a freezer, but one never knows when a new reading opportunity may arise. And who knows, it may end up being a favorite.

Housework

There is nothing more boring, pointless and repetitive than the drudgery that is housework. Unfortunately, it still has to be done, unless you really DO live in a barn. And even then, you still have to muck it out a couple times each year.

As an undomesticated goddess, here are a few tricks I use to keep housework to a livable amount, (ie, not requiring a shovel when you finally get around to it) and not the focus of my off-work leisure hours.

Clean up 10 things per room every day. Okay, sometimes I don't do it every day. If there are less than 10 things to pick up in a room, then I fold laundry up to ten things. For example; Living room=1 glass, put the blanket back on the couch, take 1 pair of shoes to the closet + 2 towels and 5 pairs of socks. It doesn't take that long, and it makes a big difference.

I also clean during the week. Spending a whole weekend cleaning, or an entire week night or morning sounds like a bad idea. After a full day of work, I want to relax, or do something fun. My solution around that is cleaning one or two things every day in each room. Cleaning the bathroom mirror and changing the towels, or scrubbing the shower. By only doing a few things there is still time to chill out, or play video games, or whatever after work and when the weekend arrives the house is reasonably clean; the weekend is chore free. In theory.

To make things easy, I keep a list on the fridge. Weekly chores, like dusting and vacuuming; chores for every other week, like scrubbing the shower and mopping the kitchen floor, and monthly chores. REALLY cleaning out the refrigerator, not just the weekly scan for dated or furry green items, or cleaning the oven. Actually, most of the monthly chores should truthfully be under a "Twice a Year" heading.

The Saint does his share - he gets a break when it's the busy time of year, or when he's working on a "big house project". He gives me a break all the time; he doesn't really notice dirt, and if he finally does, he will handle it himself.

For keeping housework under control there are many other methods. The daily "whirlwind with a cleaning caddy", the "one chore day during the weekend". The housekeeper that comes once a week. My favorite, but alas, unlikely. My way works for me. Housework is still boring and repetitive, but it's done.

Someday I will talk about the difference between regular housework, and cleaning for a vacation, holiday, or company, which is a whole different ball of twine. But not soon, enough housework for now.

Words I have made up

I've always made up words. In my family growing up, words could be elastic. If we made up a word, as long as we could explain what it meant, and and it was within the realm of what my mom, the grammar stickler, could tolerate, we were allowed to use the word. Even in public. As long as it didn't sound like a swear word.

In some ways, I think Mom was relieved we made up words, instead of referring to things as "thinga-ma-bobs" or "whatsits", as our dad sometimes referred to his belongings. Often, when he requested his "doohicky", we would know exactly what he meant; remote control, or napkin, or whatever it was he wanted us to fetch for him.

We also had family words for things. The "Dirty Socks" for example. Imagine the embarrassment of visiting a friend's home when Italian food was served, and asking, at the table, for the Dirty Socks. The odd looks might have given you the urge to slide underneath the table, and ooze out the door. However, if you asked for Dirty Socks at the table in our house, you got the Kraft Parmesan Cheese. So named because my as a young child my sister took a whiff of the open container and said "Eww, smells like Dirty Socks". You know, the faux cheese in the green container, (I don't care what they say) with the handy yellow shaker top. Forever after, Dirty Socks.

As an adult, I do have a fondness for words. To me they sing, and dance, and when strung together adeptly they are a kind of magic.

I'm certain I have made up thousands of words. The Saint and I have lots of family word-jokes. For example, the stealers. Stealers is a word the dogs would use, if they could talk. Dogs are not not grammatically correct; they don't give a sniff of a clean fire hydrant for grammar. Stealers; those guys who arrive every week and steal things out of those tall plastic dog-food bags. They steal the best stuff - the most yummy smelling, the most played with, THE KITTY ROCA. What's worse, you can hear them coming from blocks away, the loud beep beeping as they approach, but no matter how hard you try to warn the people you live with by barking and trying to SHOW them the stealers - you still just get yelled at. Poor dogs.

Here are a few other words, not from a dog's point of view.

Cryful. It's not tearful, a restrained and ladylike feeling. Cryful is the boo-hooing, bawling, getting red eyes and a runny nose feeling. It's also a word I don't use in public - too childish, and a little too private.

Squicked. It's not quite as strong as furious, but it's stronger than piqued or irritated. It's also the feeling you get right before you want to climb on a soap box and start ranting about the last stupid thing the government officials did.

Skittering. Also, Skitter. I am not sure if this is a word or not. Spell Checker doesn't think so. It's what water bugs do on water. Also, spiders on anything, if they are moving fast. Mice, too. Also, cats on ice; they have traction, but not quite enough. Not a scamper or even a run - those are controlled - skittering is almost out of control.

Creeped. The grammatically correct word is crept. But creeped is so much more evocative, and, well, creepy. Moving silently and slowly. Maybe with bad intent, perhaps to catch the dog eating the cat food, perhaps for something much more sinister....

Jazzing up this Blog.

I need to do something to make this blog more interesting. Pictures, maybe. Possibly a different layout, although I don't know, I like this one.

If I was a tiny bit more educated in HTML I could play around with images. I know a few little tricks, but not many. Not like the under 25 group, who probably took it in high school or college.

A spider just ran across my desk. It was one of those black jumpy spiders that are usually fairly small, but this one was big. Big to me is the size of a plastic pop bottle top around. Anything bigger than that is huge. The only thing that kept me from screeching was that the poor Saint is sleeping, and has to get up in the morning, and also because my window is open and The Spider Scream would totally freak the entire neighborhood out. Really.

One of our friends compared it to someone being killed by an axe murderer. But, anyway, back to the blog.

So, maybe pink is not the best color. Too calming. Maybe I need to change the background to blues or greens....no, I think it just needs to be more lively.

I wonder where that spider is now.

Maybe I will consult with a friend who does this for a living...no, she'd probably want to charge me a consulting fee. And who can blame her, I'm sure she gets pestered all the time from people wanting her to take a look and fool with their meager little websites and blogs. It's so true - if you're good at something, people want your help for free. Now, personally, I'm always flattered when I get asked for help in my areas of expertise.

I am still sort of creeped out that the spider is skittering around on my desk somewhere.

I suppose I can take a little glance around the html world, and see if I can find anything cool, but not too challenging for my limited skills.

And since I keep thinking the spider is crawling up my leg every two seconds, I'm going to cut this short.

How we can help the people affected by Katrina.
Plus more than a few other things.

How to help.

Aside from the Red Cross there are several other agencies providing help; the Salvation Army, Second Harvest ; , NOLA.com has a list, in addition to being up to date on news, as do many other news sites. Just be careful and donate to an organization you know. Another agency I like is the Humane Society Disaster fund. Kids and animals depend on their guardians to care for them; but when a disaster like this happens, human life always takes precedence. It makes me feel better to know that the Humane Society, and organizations like Noah's Wish are helping the animals left behind.

The more than a few other things.

I have heard several comments that the people now stranded in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are at fault for being there after a mandetory evacuation. They don't realize many of the people who stayed behind had no way to get out. No car - no money for hotel if they did leave - no friends with room on their cars. Others too ill to move. I didn't see busses lined up to take those with no transportation to safety. It's true - some were stubborn and decided to stay and ride it out. It's also true that any disaster preparedness material says you need to bring your own supplies to a shelter. It's also true that people reported the water rose so fast in some areas they didn't even have time to put on their shoes. The reasons people stayed don't really matter; they need help now. Playing the finger pointing game doesn't help the thousands of people who are dead, and more importantly the ones who survived but are dying now because of lack of food and water, and medicine.

I don't care about looters. I make a distinction between thieves and those people who broke into stores for food, water, diapers, medicine, cigarettes (as a former smoker, I have utter sympathy) even shoes and clothes . Thieves are another matter. What are they going to do with a plasma TV, anyway? Stealing drugs I can even understand, but those idiots shooting at the rescuers? I don't care how desperate anyone is, killing rescuers is not going to help. If there really are snipers and the gangs of armed criminals killing, raping, robbing (who knows if that's true, or a media escalation) they should be delt with accordingly.

I feel the federal response has been appalling. I can cut them a little slack - it takes time to get everyone mobilized, get the rigs on the road.

But, food and water drops should have begun right away. There should have been at least a few FEMA and National Guard units ready to go BEFORE landfall. The storm did impact most of the roads around the stricken areas, but surely there was something they could have done on Tuesday, after the storm. "Help is coming" brochures, at the LEAST should have been printed up and dropped, with instructions for what to do, where to go, in my opinion. Hopefully the agencies involved will learn from these mistakes.

The editorial comment from someone, "I wonder how fast the response would have been if it was a middle-class predominately white city and it's suburbs hit by the hurricane. " made me wonder, too. New Orleans is 67% Black, 24 % White. There have been portrayals on the media that I find disturbing - the white looters "finding" food, and the black looters "looting" food. What is that about????????

All the politicians and their blah blah blah about "not knowing how series it was", and "several ongoing and unexpected disasters after the hurricane..." BS and covering their asses after the fact. All the back-patting makes me nauseated.

In the weeks and months I know the public will find out that the politicians in the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana and Federal Government had information about the risk of levee failure long before Katrina was a name on the Hurricane list. I knew about them, and I am just a normal person - but two of my million interests, not usually combined, are severe weather, and New Orleans. But if I knew than a category 4 storm would weaken and probably cause levee failure and major flooding - how could they NOT know???

Watching all this unfold has made me realize I need to update my own disaster preparedness. Obviously if a catastrophe occurred we would be on our own for awhile. Time to get a new tent. Go out and buy a water barrel. Have at least a few weeks worth of food for us and the pets on hand. Forget three days, apparently it might take a week or longer. I wouldn't want to have to depend on the government for my care, and that of my loved ones. From what I've seen, that's not going to happen, in spite of all the money we give them.

My thoughts are with all the people who have been affected by this horrible disaster. I wish I could do more. I'm glad to see the National Guard has arrived, in both Mississippi and finally New Orleans, and I hope the people there get the help they so desperately need.