Friday, September 02, 2005

Gainesville

On the way to go to my parent's house, we stopped in Baton Rouge to see my older son. Our area code is in Cell Phone Black Hole right now, so even though we can both call out, others can't call in, so we couldn't call each other. I wanted to lay eyes on him.

When we got to Baton Rouge, Older Son's roommate and Roommate's brother had just returned from Slidell with pictures. They drove in, took pics of the area, and drove back out. They said nobody was stopping them and things looked fairly calm. With that information, we changed our plans AGAIN and decided to stop at home, just to see what we could see.

Well, it took for-freakin-EVER to get out of Baton Rouge. We bought gas (I guess we were lucky to even get gas) so we didn't get to our house until after dark. But we saw no trees on our roof and, lo, there was no flooding, and no damage to the house of any kind except some minor water seepage at the slab. We were SO relieved! We simply couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

We stayed the night. Damn it was hot. Really hot. Very, very hot. The next day, we fixed the back door, which had blown open and then shut again (bizarre), cleaned up some of the trees and shingles in the front yard, and emptied the fridge. Amazingly, much of our food was still cold, and meat was frozen, so we were able to give some of it to a neighbor with a generator who was sticking around. We took some of the food with us and tossed the rest. Said neighbor will put our dumpster back when the garbage is collected.

We took a break to go check on people. One of my husband's quorum assistants lives right around the corner, and he was full of good data. We went to our church's storehouse, which was also open, and the people there were also full of good data. Then we went home to pack up for an extended stay away.

While I was packing, Randy came by. I was so relieved to see him and his DW! Their house was also fine, which was very, very good news.

We loaded up the car and left. We decided to come to Gainesville, Florida first, which is where my MIL and FIL live. We got here at about 12:20 a.m. Friday. I was never so happy to take a shower in my life.

I have not really heard or seen any news in about three days now, and I think that may be for the best. My daughter told me some things this morning that left me dazed. I'm not sure when I'll be ready to deal with reality again.

Today, DH and I had a lovely lunch alone, and he dropped me at the library to do internet stuff. We will probably stay in Gainesville for another four days or so. I think we'll head up to North Carolina next Wednesday.

5 Comments:

Blogger Miranda said...

Yay! The Ann family is well and your home was spared. Rest up while you are in Florida.

9/02/2005 02:52:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ann! We are so happy you and yours are all okay. We have been so very worried. Take care and hang in there. We miss you always and wish you well!!
Love, Julie

9/02/2005 03:41:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm glad that your house was spared. Too bad we're not in NC right now, or we'd invite you to our place there. (But right now its being rented to a couple that teaches at Duke.)

-Lis

9/02/2005 06:32:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great news, Ann. My family has been watching your news. It's great to see how well it's gone for you.

9/02/2005 07:51:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm very happy to know that you and your family are OK. You've been in my thoughts.

~Kitestring

9/03/2005 12:10:00 AM  

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