Pegody's Stinking Hurricane Adventure

The calm before the storm. I took this just before we left for Alexandria, LA

I made a short, poor quality video of my Alexandria, LA 'riding out the storm' visit, but it turned out rather disappointing. Nontheless, it's here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=O-4xosdn7kQ

While I was puttering around the house wondering what I was going to do about the impending storm, Cappy called and said, "Get everything into da truck and go on up to Alexandria and wait out the storm with Uncle Eugene and Aunt Marguerite; I already called them". Actually, I was much relieved. I've never ridden out a hurricane, close up or from a distance. I thought I'd already had it kinda/sorta settled in my mind, to just go across the street, as invited, to ride hurricane Gustav out with Jude and Sonia and their family, but then, watching ol' Jim Cantore, despite my better judgement, I got myself all into a confused lather. Cappy's orders came as an instant relief.

I did the best I could at stowing things around the outside of the house, but at the last minute, I grabbed the little red barn birdhouse, which was sitting on the porch glider's arm, and took it into the house, along with sundry other things I wanted kept safe while I was away. In the kitchen, with the birdhouse still in my hand, I noticed a swarm of angry wasps, who appeared to be forming some kind of posse...Oh-oh! I ran outside (leaving the door hanging open) with the 'birdhouse' aka newly renovated hornet barn and tossed it onto the glider, then made my own bee-line to the SUV. The dogs and I waited until we figured the coast was clear, then I sneaked back to the house long enough to close and secure the doors, then we hit the road. I had to kind of laugh to myself, thinking, "Well, I'll bet I'll never see that birdhouse again, or the wasps; it'll be long 'gone with the wind' by the time I get back".

First, we got to Aunt Gussie's house and stayed with her a couple of days, which was nice. She decided, instead of going with the dogs and me, up to Alexandria, rather to go stay with her doctor, who is more like her son. Actually, he insisted she go stay with them, much to her delight. I don't blame him; I'd keep her if I could...I just love her to pieces.

The storm was to hit the next day, and the gas stations in Aunt Gussie's town were already sold out of gas. During the night, however, a truck had made a delivery, so I mosied over to the gas station on the corner and topped off my tank. There were only a couple of pumps working, tho', and people who were waiting, had stopped being polite. One guy got out of his taxi-cab, walked over to another man, who was pumping gas, and started yelling and shaking his fist at him. I quickly finished my business, jumped into the Trailblazer and got outa town. I tried getting onto the recommended interstate 49, but at that point, they weren't letting anyone onto it, and even tho' there was 'counterflow',(ALL lanes headed North) it was a "parking lot". It was jammed packed full of vehicles, but nobody was moving...at all! Well, I figured I could make better time than that. Actually, I had planned on driving up one of the older routes, 71, and I'm glad I did. There was practically no traffic at all. It was just a regular Sunday drive. The dawgs and I had a wonderful drive, looking at cows and horses, or dogs in folks' yards; (their favorite views). It would have seemed like just another day, but for the fact that halfway to Alexandria, 18 ambulances (I counted them) were in a convoy, all headed south, then as we got close to Alexandria, we came across an evacuee shelter at LSU Ag, where many, many buses had already unloaded hordes of humanity. Just the sight of that jolted me back to reality.

We easily found our way to Uncle Eugene and Aunt Marguerite's house and made ourselves at home. Soon, another lady, Pam and her daughter, Katy showed up to stay with us, too. Then cousin Cindy and cousin Larry. It was fun visiting and catching up on the lastest news, all the while, in the background, the television was broadcasting the progress of Hurricane Gustav. Cousin Cindy and I went to Walmart to buy a few more supplies, then headed home. The store had a flurry of people, also doing some last minute shopping and already a few of the shelves were looking kind of sparse.

The next day day, the storm was due to 'hit'. We watched television and continued to visit that day, Monday. Around suppertime, while the others were about to eat, I only wanted a small can of asparagus, with some cheese or something. I couldn't find the regular can opener, so...aha, I spied the electric can opener. Have you ever seen something happen before it actually happens? It came to me that if/when I put that can under the can opener, the lights would go off. I chuckled, knowing it was a silly thought, crossed the kitchen, put the can of asparagus under the lip of the electric can opener, put the lever down and the lights went out. Pitch dark. "Good one", I thought. The lights didn't come back on. I remember thinking, "I want a 'do-over'!" Immediately Aunt Marguerite set about lighting the candles and hurricane lanterns, which she had strategically placed earlier in the day. I was impressed. I hadn't thought the wind had gotten strong enough as of yet, to have taken down the electric poles, but sure enough, something had happened. As the evening wore on, it started to get a little warm in the house. When we all went to bed around midnight, I really slept well. It was wonderful, and I slept til I felt guilty, until around 9:30 a.m. I thought everybody would think I was a slug-a-bed, but was relieved to see folks were only just getting up, as well. It was kinda warm...and quickly gaining ground on the warm scale. By noon, it was downright sultry in their big sprawling house. Going outside didn't help. It was hot out there. By three o'clock, it was really, really hot IN there. There was no relief from it. It felt as though we were immersed in very warm bath water, from the floor to the ceiling, breathing in the water, but we weren't drowning. Breathing was an effort, tho'; breathing in the warm bath water, breathing out the warm bath water. The dogs were panting constantly, too, and flopped anywhere they thought might have any promise of cooler air. A couple of times, I wandered outside, but was immediately met with a fiery gust of scorching hot air, so back inside I went. I couldn't complain...the others weren't saying a word about it, so how could this 'X-Yankee'? I tried reading, but it interferred with my concentrating on breathing in the hot, thick air. Napping was good...sleep was good. Lying down, feeling as though there were an inch layer of sweat encasing the heated body, and beyond that, the very warm bath water. I was surprised at how easily I could fall asleep for those three or four days. Uncle Eugene and Aunt Margerite, and the others are made of sturdier stuff than I. But I refused to complain...my goodness, they had taken us in...me and the brat dogs, and others, too! They were very gracious hosts. For that I am more appreciative than I can say.

When Hurricane Gustav finally made his appearance in Alexandria, I have to admit, I got frightened, and when I could have gotten some very good camera footage, I opted to hide out inside, while the others sat out in the 'breeze'. Tuesday and Wednesday were difficult, as we were in a total news blackout. No radio, or television, the phones didn't work. Nothing. I was worried about our friend, Melissa and her family, our friend, Pam and her family, our friend, Lona and her family, and all our neighbors, like Jude & Sonia, Steve and Monica, the Loups', Miss Annie and our wonderful friends on the local Forum.

HotHotHot...NapNapNap...walk the dogs up the street in the blazing heat, to the grassy cul-de-sac circle for them to potty, then back again four times or so, a day. The whole street was a loud roar, with the sound of hard-working generators coming from all the houses, powering their homes with electricity.

Finally, on Wednesday, one of the house phones started working, so family started calling so everyone could touch base and see how one another survived. Cappy called and said that it looked bad as far as power coming back on. He related that on the news it said that the electricity wasn't expected to be turned back on, for at least four to six weeks! Oh no!!!! I couldn't stay at Uncle Eugene and Aunt Marguerite's house for that long, putting them out that way. I told him I might as well, go on up to New York State, if I could find gasoline, because we were supposed to be leaving to go up and visit with Dan and family in Rochester, NY the next day, anyhow. He said he'd get back to me. Well...he got back to me and said to get ready to come pick him up at work the next day, but we couldn't go to NY because we had too much to do at home, and gave me the yard report about his pecan trees, etc. By then, everyone else had gone back to their own homes, cousin Cindy, cousin Larry, Pam and her daughter, Katy. It was just our hosts and da dawgs and me.

So, I kept breathing the suffocating 'bath water', along with everyone else in the house, and went to bed early, around 8 p.m., but had a harder time falling asleep, so just lay there in the swaddling of warm sweat and hot, thick air. I woke up sometime later, hearing MarkyBear somewhere in the pitch black house, whimpering. I had no idea about where he was, but surmised he was way out, past the long hall, through the long dining room area, somewhere around the enclosed porch area, wanting to get out to go potty. I tried whispering for him, "Mark!!!", but he kept insitantly 'mewing' that he had to go out. rats! and me with no flashlight, as I was told by Cappy and the radio and television to keep handy. I thought there was a lantern in the bathroom, mayhaps, with a lighter or matches. With out-stretched arms, I made my way there, but found no lantern, no lighter, no matches. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face, it was so dark. ("Ok...if I make my way down the hall and through the dining room, hands ahead of me, knocking precious knick-nacks off the wall and overturning lamps along the way, I might be able to locate the darned pup".) I knelt down and began slowly crawling on my hands and knees along the carpet, feeling the familiar area rugs along the way, as guideposts as to my location. Down the little room division line, which I hadn't really noticed before in the myriad times I had walked over it, to the open glass-sliding door and found MarkyBear, who was thrilled to have found me down on all fours right in his face. I was suddenly aware of a bad smell...a very bad smell right there next to the enclosed porch area, and whispered, "Mark, what did you dooo?" But he still wanted out, so I crawled along through the doorway out onto the cool linoleum floor, found the door to the outside, stood up and followed him out into the cool refreshing night air. Oh, it was wonderful! I sat out there and drank it all in, the sky revealing a few twinkling stars, here and there, but they were quickly gobbled up by the still present clouds, accompanying the hurricane, which was waning somewhere farther up north of Alexandria. I was startled from my reverie by a clawing on the door next to me, looked to see a kind of white blur inside, stood to let SparkyBear outside, who seemed to be 'harumping' for having been left to fend for himself inside the big dark house. I didn't know what time it was, but would have been delighted to have spent the rest of the night sitting out there, but knew I needed to get some sleep if I was going to travel all that way in the morning to go pick up Cappy and drive home. As soon as we got back in the house, I smelled that awful pile of whatever it was again...darn! I can't believe Mark would have done something like that! I pawed around on the porch, lightly trying to feel for a lantern, which I thought for sure, I had seen right there. Yep, there it was. Nope, no lighter or matches there, either. DangDangDang. I hope I don't 'step' in doggy-doo-doo with my knee as I'm crawling back through the house or then track it all along their carpet. Back on my hands and knees, I gingerly felt my way around, this time with 'laughing' dogs, who thought it was great fun to have their 'mother' as part of their pack on an adventure wandering around on the floor in the black dark. "Lord, just don't let them step in it and drag it all over Uncle Eugene and Aunt Marguerite's carpet...pleeeeeze". Oh it smelled terrible. ("Uncle Eugene & Aunt Marguerite!!") Now what to do? I could just imagine them getting up, walking along unsuspectingly and stepping in a big pile of dog cah-cah.

I had forgotten to mention that upon our arrival to their house, the first thing SparkyBear had done was to 'potty' in their fenced-in back yard, and in doing so, the big wad he was waiting to finish, hung onto his fur and stayed there. He stayed in position for what seemed like forever, then looked over his shoulder at me with pleading eyes, that said, "Hellllp". I tried everything to get him cleaned up, but the more I tried, the more embedded it became in the white fur on his backside, spreading into a big huge, stinking smeary mess. Even Aunt Marguerite started bringing paper towels and dampened rags to try to help with the dark growing blob. What a way to start the day as a welcomed house guest. Eventually, we got him cleaned up.

The prospect of another dog mishap involving poor Aunt Marguerite was more than I wanted to deal with. Panicked, I stood up in the darkened dining room and prayed...my only recourse as I see it now. (It's usally my only 'out' in any situation.) "Please, Lord, let me find some kind of light so I can find the mess Mark made, so Uncle Eugene and Aunt Marguerite don't have to step in it...pleeeeeeezzze". Just then...what? Light? Uncle Eugene was coming out of their bedroom with a flashlight. I hope I didn't startle him, but nontheless, there I stood, in the dark and said softly, "Uncle Eugene...?" I told him I was afraid that Mark had had an 'accident' and that I needed to find it. We never did find anything that I was afraid had happened. He said that it was five o'clock a.m. and he was going to work. I went back to bed and slept a few more hours. Later, Aunt Marguerite and I found that the foul smell was from things which had defrosted in the refrigerator on the enclosed porch. (whew, then.)

I created a 'staging area' in their kitchen breakfast nook and began loading the SUV, while Aunt Marguerite 'ran herd' on the dogs for me, who were anxious to go home, and knew what we were up to. She walked us out to the curb, and I knew I wouldn't need their leashes because they'd get right in the Trailblazer, wanting to "go get Daddy and go home". True to course, SparkyBear jumped right in and assumed his position on the center armrest compartment. MarkyBear ran to the next door neighbor's yard and rolled in a big pile of some other dog's manure, getting it stuck all over in the fur on his back. That found me, once again, with a big nasty stinking brown swath of dog poo to deal with, upon our departure. We left as we came. I only had a package of those damp hand wipes to try...and try I did, to do my best to clean him up, but left with an obvious tan residue still tatooed to his back, and the strong odor of someone else's dog doo to permeate the beautiful air-conditioned LONG ride home...four hours, of it. It would have been bad enough had it been the smell of my own dog, but to have it be the stench of some other dog. Where was the justice in that? The whole ride home I was left to ponder which was worse, breathing hot bath water, or icy A/C dog pooie.

Because I was told that the roads were once again slow rolling parking lots where people were trying to get back to their homes, I, once again, took the back roads. I should have taken more pictures, but just didn't have the luxury of stopping many times for photo ops. I listened to the radio the whole way, and it sounded as though I was returning to a war zone, with gas lines miles long and waits as long as seven hours in some cases. MRE's and ice were being handed out by National Guards. Driving the back roads was like driving through a dark green tunnel much of the time. I drove on, under, around and through downed power lines and in some cases trees were tenuously resting on power lines, which I hoped wouldn't fall as we passed under them. Trees were down everywhere and everything was 'painted' with green from all the leaves which had been ripped from the trees during the storm. Over the radio it said that flooding was imminant in the areas I was driving through. I could see that it was true, and only hoped that I could be driving ahead of the buildup of water, avoid any of it and not be trapped along the way. People I passed looked shell-shocked, stunned. A few times, I beat the road crew and had to drive around downed electric poles or trees, wondering if I'd actually make it until I'd end up having to turn around and drive miles and miles and miles back the way I came, wasting precious gas and time. A couple of times I had to stop and ask people directions because the map was confusing. People were more than willing to help, and one young man even drew me a map. I thanked them all profusely and asked God to bless them in their recovery.

Eventually I made it to Cappy, recovered him, and we made our way home to see what devastation awaited. Our yard looked terrible. Trees were leaning way over, and as you see from Cappy's post, we lost one of his beloved pecan trees. But...we still have each other. Things on the patio were blown over, things were blown away. But not the light-weight red barn birdhouse. It still sat there on porch glider, right where I had tossed it, and there were the same tribe of angry hornets! We still had each other, Cappy and I...and we still have them, the angry 'bees'. Well, that just stinks, doesn't it?

But you know, as long as we do have each other, and all our friends and families are fine, that's all that really matters, isn't it?

Hurricane Gustave and now Hurricane yIKE's Near, Too!

While we are almost breathing a sigh of relief that hurricane Ike might not come this way, we are also still trying to get things back to normal from the last hurricane; that being Gustav. Considering how badly other people are still having it; that being no electricity or food or water OR gasoline, in the parishes of Lafourche and Terrebonne, not to mention how badly Baton Rouge was hit, as well, and having as of yet, no electricity (blessed A/C), water or food, we have been truly blest. Cappy worked like a dog trying to get the pecan tree cut and stacked for firewood. It took him a few days in terrible heat. The other pecan tree isn't looking all that well, especially today when the high winds have been kicking up from Ike, down there in the Gulf of Mexico. Cappy's father had these two pecan trees transported to our yard and professionally planted shortly before he passed away. He and his Dad were very close. "Raymond" was his best friend in the whole world. These pecan trees mean more to Cappy than you could possibly know. While he was lovingly cutting the one tree into proper sized pieces to fit into the bbq pit, I know he silently shed a few tears out there in the heat, which disguised themselves as sweat dripping off his chin. He said by measuring each stick and having them carefully stacked, that it was his way of best honoring the tree and his father's memory. He said, in that way, it would be like having his Dad with us as we bbq in the future, using that dear ol' tree.

Usually, I would have had Cappy's beloved Abita Amber beer all iced and ready for him while he sweated all day out there in the yard, but there was an alcohol ban for the week after the hurricane, so he was relegated to drinking ice water...not a bad thing, but he really wanted a refreshing 'cold one' all week. (I hadn't had time to go shopping for groceries beforehand and didn't think to stock up on his favorite beverage, because I had high-tailed it up to Alexandria, LA for the hurricane. On my way back home, I drove through a lot of awful debris and wreckage, and was nervous about running out of gasoline, because I was listening to the radio the whole way, and let me tell you, there was very little gasoline to be had anywhere. I heard people saying they had been sitting in gas lines for as many as seven hours!!! Thank the Lord I picked Cappy up at a place near one of his offices and we made it home with gas to spare, because Robert, his co-captain had thought to bring a couple of gas cans full of gas for us to use to get home. That is a good man!)

Now, with Cappy at home this week, we finally we got the yard relatively back in good shape, so we took Tinker Bayl, his Jeep, for a small road trip to Thibodaux to Walmart to try to find a few groceries, and along the way saw a lot of damage done by hurricane Gustav. We made this little slideshow of our Gustav aftermath. I, Peggy, still have my side of hurricane Gustav to complete, perhaps in a few days. Until then...the slideshow @ YouTube, (cuz dis blogger don't wanna upload 'em anymore, I guess.) ALSO: note somewhere there on YouTube, that you can click on the option to view the slideshow in a better quality...I recommend that. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CAfZTUAL3IA

Cappy's Gustav Story

I spent hurricane Gustav safely moored in one of the company's fleets. I was secured to a fleet of our barges, which were tied to a lot of big cyprus trees on an island. The name of the island is Graveyard Island; I aint superstitious but, wouldn't a Safe Harbor island or somethin' been more comforting?? Being between the island and the bank, we were safe from most angles; the wind could blow, and we were very well tied down. We spent the day before securing the boat and barge and "battening the hatches". We duct taped the windows and waited the storm out. As the rain and wind steady increased I was much relieved that we were on "da good side" of the island and it blocked most of the wind. It was only after the Eye passed over us, that the wind began hitting us on the stern(the backside), but it wasn't too bad a ride at all. For me, Katrina was much worse. Even though the winds I experienced from Katrina were not as strong, my location during her, wasn't protected from the wind and waves, so I really took a beating. I was alone on the boat during Katrina and was getting pounded by waves and wind and actually feared loosing the boat. This time wasn't near as bad and I had wonderful company. It was sure nice to have young David, my tankerman on board with me. He is an intelligent level-headed sorta guy, and I didn't hafta worry 'bout him freakin' out when da wind started to howl, and howl it did. I heard a boat nearby say the wind was sustaining 86 mph, but felt certain it was gusting well over 100 mph. We sat safe and sound behind the island and our only minor complaint is that when it finally quit raining, the boat was covered with cypress needles leaves, small branches and mold. It took us the better part of the day to scrub her back to ship-shape. When Peggy picked me up Thursday evening after it was all over, it was all I could do to hide the tears of relief and joy that we were safe and together again.

Pickin' Up Da Pieces

We got home Thursday afternoon around 5pm. Peggy drove from Alexandria, Louisiana, where she had sheltered from Gustav with family, to Belle River La. and rescued me off'n da boat. We are very thankful, and happy to say the electricity got home an hour before we did.
The yard is all messed up, and after spending all day yesterday trying to put it to rights, we barely scratched the surface. Please be patient with us and we will both tell yall our stories of riding out the latest hurricane. We are very busy trying to get our house and yard back to normal and it may take a few days til we can sit down and blog. Till then, know we are safe and happy and thankful and sweating our butts off in da yard. Speaking for myself, I'm impatiently waiting for them to lift the alcohol ban so I can get a good cold beer.

Am on the Lamb

I was all set to ride the storm out with Sonia and her family across the street. She said she's lived here in our little town all her life and they have never left for a storm. I guess Cappy knows I'm a nervous nut, or the kids up in NYS are, so he's having me go on over to stay with Aunt Gussie over in South Central Louisiana, and maybe from there if it looks like it's going to get bad, try to haul her up to Alexandria with me to stay at her brother's, Uncle Eugene and Aunt Marguerite's house.
Soooo, I'm rushing around trying to secure the yard, so that missles, like potted plants or bird baths don't go flying across the street at Sonia and Jude's house during the storm. I've got the SUV packed to the gills with stuff we'd want to keep, no matter what. Photo albums, and the like. In all the packing, I left little room for the two curly white dogs to fit. LOL...the guy who stopped by here last week from AT&T laughingly said they look like sheep. Yeah, they're little lambs alright...SparkyBear the Brat is watching my every move, packing their food, etc. and every time the car door opens, he jumps in. MarkyBear is watching with one eye as he's grown tired and is mostly napping. So, I just wanted 'yall' to know what I'm up to. Cappy insists on, once again, riding it out on his tugboat, tying up somewhere 'safe'. When they can't find a platform to tie up to, they tie up in the trees...strong trees. It's what he calls, "Chokin' a willow".
Alrighty, I'm outa here..."move over SparkyBear or I'll sit on ya...all the way to Aunt Gussie's house, ya Brat". (ON the 'lamb'...get it? well whaddaya want? I don't gots time fer poetry here.) God Bless!

Pegody and the "ArkyBears"

O, We of Little Fay

Just a few scant days ago, on the news, there were a few people who were actually packing up and moving "outa Dodge" for the rainmaker, named Fay. True, the tropical storm had taken some lives, but for our area, it didn't appear that the storm was going to be all that alarming. Well, we were all keeping our eye on 'her', but when she finally got here, all she did here in our little town, was rain heavily and blow a little bit. I guess we were 'lucky', but it got everyone's collective adrenlin up, enough to make sure we were ready in case, in the future, somewhere down the road, 'the big one hit'. Before everybody got a chance to 'high five' one another about their successful 'practice run' with Fay, there came on the news a sudden awareness of some'one' more ominous lurking in the Carribean, who could very well be headed our way, on the heels of Fay. No breather in between...the 'further down the road' was already upon us.

We don't like the looks of the track of this 'Gustav'. It appears that it will enter the Gulf of Mexico and build into some kind of monster headed directly in our direction. Ok, now what to do...now what to do? Make sure important things are packed and ready to go, in case. But if I've already been through this before in the last seven years that I've lived in the New Orleans area, how many times have those folks who've lived here all their lives been through it? And now, they are asking one another in hushed tones, "What are you gonna do?" Some say, "Just ride it out...we are staying home, as usual". Some make a grimace and say in an almost whisper, "I don't know". Then to lighten the mood, it's always, "Heck...we don't even know if it's even going to come this way; you just never know".

I know one thing. I always get more upset and frightened if I listen to the Weather Channel. During the hurricane season, I've kept the tuner glued to the Weather Channel, and have always taken what they've been reporting seriously, and couldn't figure out why everyone around me were just taking the whole thing as business as usual. Well, about four years ago, I packed important papers, memorabilia, food stuffs, etc., etc. and waited to see what to do. Finally, at one point, Jim Cantore and his staff, were practically yelling into their microphones, to the people who lived in our area, "Evacuate...evacuate NOW!" Then as time wore on, they'd invoke the name of the Lord into the mix, "In the Name of God, you people don't know what you are dealing with...get out and get out NOW!!!" So I took SparkyBear and left town around three o'clock in the morning for....well, I didn't know where I was headed. Cappy said not to just go to family, who also live along the coast; what good would that do...go north...wayyyy north. So SparkyBear and I did. All the way I could almost feel the hot wind of the hurricane breathing down my neck...I was terrified. Along the way, when I'd pull in for gas, I was amazed that the stations were still open, and even more amazed at the calm demeanor of the people who worked there. "Hurricane? There's a hurricane coming? Really." Even when I told them how bad it was supposed to be, they were still unruffled. I wondered how they had gotten that way; so complacent. When I got into northern Texas, tho, I had a very hard time finding a place to stay; all the rooms having been booked up by other people who were running from the storm. Finally, I found a room at a hotel in a little town called Gilmer, TX for SparkyBear and me. I was also worried about having passed up Cappy's relatives...their towns...on the way to my safe haven. What about them??? Shame set in. I prayed that they would all be alright, and forgive me for deserting them like that.

When I unpacked in the hotel room and turned on the Weather Channel to watch, with anticipated horror and dread, all the devastation wiping out the area around our home and surrounding area, I was downright shocked! And angry and felt betrayed in the mix. There, on the screen, were Jim Cantore and others from their network, wearing blue slickers, out in the hurricane, laughing and playing; frolicking, one of them grabbing their crotch and doing the Michael Jackson 'moonwalk' in the high winds, having the times of their lives, practically doing cartwheels in the surf along the water's edge. There they were, having scared everybody else out of town, having a big old wonderful time in the deserted cities. Like the hurricane was a piece of cake...nothing to have feared at all. All that was lacking was for them to be looking into the camera and telling those, like myself, who were now sitting in hotel rooms, far away from home, "Gotcha!!! AHHHHAAAAAHHAAAA!!" So not much for that 'storm'. From that, I understood how that many years of that kind of dirty trick; crying "Wolf"...year after year, could make the public grow complacent. "Hurricane's coming? Big deal".

August 29, 2005. Hurricane's coming? Big Deal....what's her name? Katrina? No big whoop. Well, finally, the local media and public officials got involved and ordered mandatory evacuations; however, as Mr. (Mayor) Nagin says, "opportunists" decided to stay and take advantage of the situation, by looting the deserted city. But, too, there were those who had no way to get out of the city. The buses, who were supposed to bring people out, to safety, were never used. One of the bus drivers, when interviewed later, said, "Mayor Nagin said for everybody to get out of the city, so we did"...leaving their buses and people they were supposed to transport, sitting right where they were. The helpless victims sitting right there, alongside the 'opportunists', in the "soup bowl" that is New Orleans. I, on the other hand, got 'fooled' again into getting the heck out of town, mostly because a young woman we knew, had no way to get to her family in Utah, so I drove us to Texas, again. The hotel room that was reserved for us, was given to the first person who stopped in and asked "Ah-beed" for it, so on we drove til we got to Dallas, where another room that was reserved for us, was actually ready for us. (The young lady's step-father had some clout, so he was the one who reserved it, in 'stone' for us...God Bless him...I was exhausted from driving the whole way in one day).

From that hotel room, we watched the ridiculous Weather Channel doofuses, once again playing patty-cakes, or whatever out in the rain in New Orleans. Grrrrr. They got me again. The City of New Orleans and surrounding area had survived Katrina, but it was the levee which broke that flooded the City and killed so many people. There is much that has been said about all that ad infinitum. I do hope that the people, in the states to the east of New Orleans had evacuated, because it was there, indeed, along the coast that the real damage was done by Katrina, herself. Just terrible devastation. But we didn't hear much about them. We didn't hear much about the other loss of life and property that took place all along the southern reaches of Louisiana, either. The good and honest and hardworking people, who didn't wait on FEMA for anything, but pulled themselves and others up by their own bootstraps. The real people of Louisiana. (I'd better leave this all alone).

So, here we are again. The Weather Channel is about making me sick. They had gotten folks all upset about little Fay...at least she was little when she got to us. Now they are working themselves up into another lather over Gustav, probably wondering which blue rain slicker to wear, getting all packed, tuning up their voices to go singing and dancing in the rain.

This morning, the mail lady asked me...and my son, Thom, who is sitting safely up in western NY, asked me, "What are you going to do?" I said, "I don't know". And I don't. I asked the mail lady what she's going to do and she said she didn't know, either. I know I don't have faith in the danged ol' Weather Channel. I know Whom to put my faith and trust in, tho'. As for that Jim Cantore, he can go on out in the middle of the hurricane and let his smile be his umbrella. I hope he gets a pocketful of liquid sunshine and a snootful of it, too. Grrrrrr.

Red All About It

Seeing this picture reminds me of a Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the others; one of these things do not belong..." This was taken on yet another trip to spend money getting Cappy's Jeep tinkered on. Even before I got the Jeep for him last Christmas, he had been ruminating about, "if we ever do get a Jeep, I'd want an older one, and of course, that would mean we'd have to adjust this or that on it, having it in the shop, getting it tweaked to our liking". He was right. The first thing that happened was that we took the "tuxedo" top off it, left her sitting in the driveway as we drove the SUV to Thibodaux to pick up a few things, came back to find that there had come a tremendous rainstorm in our absence, which then rendered the expensive radio/CD player useless, plus we had to bail out water, because the floor mats were covering the drain holes in the floor. An embarrassing and expensive lesson. In this photo, we are picking her up at a shop where they had just installed a new radio. See, she is again wearing her "tuxedo" top.
A few days before that, she was in Thibodaux, spending the night getting new tires.
We found a wonderful place in Gonzales, called SEARCHERS,which specializes in refurbishing old Jeeps, so we took her over there, where she spent a few days getting all tinkered on and in good shape. Actually, I had bought her over there in Gonzales, so the guys actually knew her, having worked on her in the past.
So, she was all set and 'good to go', looking all purdy sittin' in our driveway for a month, wearing her sharp black "tuxedo" top, while Cappy was out on the boat. Unfortunately, when he got home and fired her up, he discovered that, once again, the torrential rains, which are frequent here in South Louisiana, had gotten poured in through the windshield caulking and drowned the brand new radio, and her insides were all wet. So, we bailed and aired her all out again, had her back in the shop for new window caulking, seatbelts adjustments, and took her for several music-less drives to keep her motor purring. On one of the trips to Baton Rouge, we had talked about earlier, we picked her up a radio at a nautical store, that would withstand all kinds of weather; the kind they use on boats. Alrighty then. Cappy made an appointment to have it professionally installed, and the morning he went out to drive her to her appointment, he came in laughing, saying, "God has a sense of humor". It seems the radio had dried up and the Jeep was sitting out there happily blaring Lynard Skynyrd. Appointment canceled. While Cappy was back out on the boat, and I was on a shopping trip to Baton Rouge, I returned the nautical radio, as per his instructions.
The last time Cappy was home, he drove her back to SEARCHERS in Gonzales, where she spent the night and had a new, sturdy security trunk box installed, so that whenever we go on road trips, although it's kind of impossible to lock a Ranchero Jeep's doors, we could at least put any valuables in the trunk box, out of sight. The next day, Cappy took off her "tuxedo" top and put on her "bikini" top, then decided we should put out for a short road trip, perhaps down the long road below New Orleans along the Mississippi River, Route 23. He asked me if I'd like the doors on or off. I said that even tho' they weren't much security, I'd rather have them on. Before we left, I looked at the weather radar and became very apprehensive about going anywhere. He was so excited about going, and "pshawed" my hesitance, saying, "Naw, it'll be fine, c'mon lets GO, Cher, alon`". So, off we went, music blaring, Cappy's sporting a black dew rag, and my hair flying free. We had a wonderful time, in traffic, driving along toward New Orleans, then he noticed that there was thunder and lightening ahead, so decided we'd better turn back. Oh well, we'd just road trip in another direction, no problem. ...Problem. The dark 'red' storm I had seen on the radar was now in front of us, as well. We were surrounded. Cappy said, "Well, we'd better just go on home, then, and go another day". Uh huh. Driving back the other way in the heavy traffic, suddenly the sky got black and terribly windy, then the rain just poured down. It took to raining sideways on my side of the Jeep, the bikini top offering no protection, but lifting up in the wind to allow the torrents to fly on in, soaking us...particularly me, I thought. When we stopped at redlights, the top would buckle and drop a couple buckets of water down inside the window onto us, on either side. Then the lightening got terrible, flashing constantly; we could see it and hear it at the same time, just outside the plastic 'windows'. The wind was so bad trees were about bending over, the sky became a sickly green, the windshield wipers were going full blast, but not accomplishing much, visibility was very, very bad, and cars...the ones we could almost see, were creeping along, in the dark, wild fury of whipping rain. I just knew there had to be a tornado in the mix, somewhere, but even if there was, it would be upon us before we could see it. As far as I knew, it was lightening and raining on the inside of the Jeep as much as it was on the outside. Once, I thought I got hit in the head by lightening because I had a sudden, blinding headache. (I guess I didn't, but there was such a froth of loud confusion and water everywhere.) It was so scarey, I couldn't look anymore. I just covered my eyes and prayed. Cappy was over there laughing, having the time of his life. I was not amused. At all. The only thing that kept me from freezing to death in that water bucket was the fact that I was fuming. I was ticked. I knew we should never have gone for the ride in the first place. And now we may just never see home again. It went on for what seemed forever and got, somehow worse than ever. My senses were on overload, with no escape. So, I just prayed. Our faith teaches us to have Peace, when all around us, there is no peace. Now either that's for real, or it's not. Maybe I was delerious from the terror of the situation, but it's as if, as I was praying, I heard from somewhere wayyyyy back in my mind, "Don't you trust me, Peggy??" And in all the turmoil and rushing water flying in sideways, the question hung there;... getting louder in my ears. My eyes were 'squinched' shut, and my heart was racing, still in fear, but I mouthed the words, "Yes, I trust you....but this is crazy stuff...this was not using wisdom, coming out in this kind of weather." I looked over at Cappy, and he had his mouth wide open laughing his ol' head off. At the same time I could imagine The Lord, with his arms around both of us, His head over next to Cappy's laughing along with him in the midst of the storm. I just rolled my eyes, and said to myself, "Not funny, Lord. You are siding with Cappy". The thunder and lightening, and rain and hail kept up til we practically got home, and it was just awful, but at least I had a modicum of peace, now, that had been dropped into my spirit. As we drove into our town, the clouds parted, and a sunny, blue sky appeared, just as we had left it a couple of hours before. Like nothing had ever happened...except we were drenched, and had to bail the Jeep out again. The only thing that had dampened Cappy's mood, was that during the storm, the brand new radio had drowned. Again.
During my sleep that night, the name for the Jeep "Came" to me. Like a whisper. "Tinker Bail". Cappy has always liked the "sexy" little cartoon Tinker Bell, anyhow. When I told him that the Jeep's name should be Tinker Bail, he was, well, not smitten with the name. He said, "It doesn't speak to me". I thought I'd let him mull it over. I sat down to the computer to write a little, while he went outside to check out the Jeep, changing her top back to either her raincoat, or back to her "tuxedo". A couple of minutes he came back in and just stood there beside me, til I noticed. He was DRENCHED. He said, as he was taking the top off, a big pile of water came down on him. I asked, "Does the name 'Tinker Bail' speak to you now?" He said slowly, "yeahhhhhhppp".
So, we came up with the little drawing, of Tinker Bail with a tool belt and a pail. Now, as to the spelling, I was thinking that the word "Bail", to other readers, along the road, that it might have a connotation of someone trying to get out of jail; making bail, therefore we came up with another spelling. Sometimes cute little girls like having their names spelled differently, so we'll do that for Tinker Bayl. It's appropriate, too... saying her name sounds kinda like a Southern accent, which is just too right, given the circumstances, don'cha think?
And I think Cappy's right; God does have a good sense of humor.

In Da Dawg House

Since Cappy's been out on the boat, I've had plenty to keep myself occupied. I worked to get things back to normal after the Seafood Courtboullion and Jambalaya family reunion. Cleaning and reorganizing. Now I'm going through the closets, etc., with a fine-tooth comb, either taking Cappy's mantra to heart: "To da Road!", or bagging stuff up and delivering them to Goodwill. In doing so, I rediscovered the gifts I have been stashing since...well, even before last Christmas, for this Christmas.The next time Cappy gets off the boat, we are planning on taking a road trip to western NY to visit family. (YEAH!!!) Since it usually costs us a lot of money to mail the gifts to NY, I hit on a brainstorm to go ahead and finish my Christmas shopping, wrap everything, and take the Christmas presents with us when we go. Now what a swirl of disorganization I've created for myself. My winter paper blizzard has come early, due to the computer room resorting I started before I unearthed said gifts. Now the gifts and wrapping paper, and lists are comingled with ...well, gosh...everything. I know there are better systems for doing this, but since I've already taken the plunge, I'm going to keep going. Or dah tryin' anyhow.
My curlie white companions, who are usually at my side, are mad at me presently. MarkyBear, our 'cow' boy, who should weigh around 20 lbs, clocked in at the vet's at 42 lbs. and SparkyBear, who would do well at ~15 lbs is about 29 lbs. Geepers...I wonder why they are fat?! They take after their 'parents'. Well, the vet didn't say anything about Cappy or me, but she is having one fit about Mark, so now, they both are on a diet and excercise plan. No more treats. No more me cooking for them, which I had been doing, ever since that Chinese pet food scare. MarkyBear had even been throwing up back then, so that really worried me. I cooked for them, pampered them and downright spoiled them, to the point that they totally disdained dog food. They still do. When, this morning, I cheerily put their bowls down, as I always do, saying, "This is for SparkyBear..and this is for MarkyBear", they walked, grudgingly, to their bowls, took one whiff, looked at the other one's bowl, snorted, walked away, threw themselves down, each in a different corner and glared at me, then moped. Even as I speak, they are not in here with me. From where I am sitting, I can see the legs and tail of one of them in the hall, and don't know where the other one had flopped, pouting.
MarkyBear has been having 'hot spots', too, so he's just not been happy, all around. Cappy said that having Mark groomed with a real short haircut would make him feel better, because of the heat, too, so today, I loaded up both 'boys' and took them to a new groomer. Mark, to get the 'works', and SparkyBear to lend moral support. While they were there, the girl said that I could come back later for them, if I had shopping to do. So, off I went.
I wandered around 'Wally-woild', picking up some very good bargains on my quest to, as afore mentioned, finish up my Christmas shopping. Good deals! I have tried to adopt Mr. Bebe`, one of our friend's techniques for getting on the better side of the store clerks. It has got to be something I'm doing (but I swear, I don't know what) that sets them off. Now yesterday at Rouse's, I smiled pleasantly at a a Miss Rebecca, and said, "Hello, Miss Rebecca, I hope you are having a good day". She smiled back, but seemed kind of nervous and kept furtively looking back toward 'the office' as she ran a basket load of my groceries across the scanner and bagged them. Just as I was about to pay for them, she told me that she had forgotten to mention that the computers were not accepting debit or credit cards just then. Well, that's all I had with me. She told me to shove my stuff over to the customer service department, run to the bank and get some cash, come back to the customer service and pay for them. nice. Still kinda/sorta smiling, I wandered, slightly confused toward the door, and noticed that there were several other carts there, laden with defrosting groceries, as well, waiting for their 'owners' to come back from the bank to retrieve them. Resignedly, I got that taken care of and came home. Home again, Home again, jiggety jig, I always say.
Today at "Malwart", I was getting such good bargains, and SMILING. I thought the clerks had pep rallies every morning to get them all in good spirits. No? The only one who smiled back was the lady at the jewelry case, who waited on me. The rest of them seemed downright surly. Not a usual occurance at that store, I thought. Although the store was getting busy, I found a short checkout line and soon discovered why. I noticed the gal waiting on us, was having a difficult time with the customer ahead of me. Or was it the computer she was angry with? As I was putting my things on the conveyer belt, keeping a big distance, between the person ahead of me, as I turned away, I heard a loud bang, turned to see the cashier had loudly slammed one of those divider thingys between my things and the lady ahead of me. There was at least a foot and a half on either side of it. She glared at me, and the lady ahead of me looked at me apologetically, so I said, "Gosh, I wasn't going to crowd my things in there". The cashier snapped, "If I don't put it there, I'll get myself all confused". I was thinking, "we aren't supposed to be afraid of our checkout people, are we?" and was almost relieved when a gal came up behind me, who was only holding a couple of items, so I let her go ahead of me, thinking maybe by the time I got to the cashier, she'd have time to cool down. It was not to be. She fussed with that woman's debit card because the computer was fighting with it, although the information on it was correct, they said. She was clearly aggitated, and I was seriously thinking about either putting my things back into the cart and finding another line, or just leaving the store. Too late, she grabbed my first item and tried to scan it, but once again, the computer was being beligerant. "Well, Miss Courtney, it looks like you are having a bad day, eh?" She actually smiled. She got the computer to work and everything else sailed right through. I was thinking Mr. Bebe` might have something there, about reading the label names and addressing them pleasantly, by their name. Miss Courtney began telling me about her miserable day, and I smiled, nodding my head...poor thing. Then she said she was going to go to Houma after work, get drunk and get 'laid', even if she couldn't find her boyfriend. (!!!!) TMI!! TMI!!! Wayyyy, too much information. And there was more....but, I dragged my blushing self out of there, saying I hope her day would get better...I think I even did one of those "...and have a nice day" things. Yow! I was wondering if all the ladies had somehow managed to all get on the same 'cycle' and were all "PMS-ing"? I nearly made a clean break of the store when the usually sweet gray-haired lady, amid the loud shoplifting alarm that was going off, said sternly, "You! You come back here so I can check your cart!" (and I've know this lady for years. I often stop to chat with her.) It seemed while I was shopping, that every few minutes that alarm kept going off, so by then, I was almost oblivious to it. "Oh! That was my cart that set it off??" As she started pawing through my bags, she said, "Yes it was". People started stacking up, as she went through every single bag, to no avail. Then she said, "Alright, let me see your bra". I was taken aback. My bra??? Then as she pointed to one of the bags in my cart, I remembered, oh yes, I was purchasing a new one. Sure enough, some kind of BIG plastic dangling clip was still afixed, so she had to write everything down about it, and told me I could cut it off at home before I wore it. I surely would have done that, and tried to get her to smile. Well, she almost did, but she had a lot of other people to tend to, so I slunk out to my SUV and drove back to the groomer to pick up my dogs. Well, they were glad to see me. Til we got home, where their dishes still contained the miserable dry diet dawg food. It's my own fault; I should have never let myself become a short-order cook for a dog.
What a day; what a day. One week down of Cappy being away. Hurry home, Cappy; the natives are restless. (yes we are;... yes we are.)

Our Annual Family Jambalaya 2008

Well, they dressed in style and we went hog wild, me oh my oh; son of a gun, we had big fun on da 'bayou'. What a wonderful two weeks! Cappy was home, we rushed around getting ready for the family reunion aka Jambalaya, then friends and family began showing up to help, then we party'd!!!
Grandson, "RJ" arrived Thursday night at the airport, then the next night, son, Dan, with fambly in tow arrived. (I had to laugh, because I had been talking with son, Joe, who said, "Gee, everytime I try getting ahold of Dan, I can't; he doesn't answer his phone, then when I go look at the Blog, I see his face on there". All I can say, Joe, is, "Brought yerself on down here". We'll spoil you rotten.) As Cappy said in the last post, I, (Peggy) had been taking photos all along, but as soon as Dan and Jennifer & the kids got here, all bets were off, so we don't even have pictures of them being here for the Seafood Courtboullion, but they were here. The next day, (Saturday) although I didn't take my video camera, (for I still have so much to learn about editing, etc. with the danged thing) I did take plenty-plenty pictures of the 'peeps' at the Jambalaya.
The family reunion was a lot of fun, as usual, but we missed those who couldn't make it this year. We are grateful for Cappy's sister, Maria and her husband Darryl for being such gracious hosts for opening their hearts and home to us. We are one rowdy bunch, to be sure.
One thing that made it extra special was that there was a young man in attendance, who is a cultural exchange visitor from France. He took quite an interest as to how the jambalaya was prepared. Seeing his face as he tasted it for the first time was priceless.
As usual, the gathering started out at a fast pace, because that's how things flowed, then after the meal, people slowed down, and got more mellow to let their tummies digest. It was just one wonderful day, all the way around.

And to son, Joe, yes, that's where Dan has been again. Son of a gun!


Da link: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-Al6xigfVE4

Our 2008 Seafood Courtboullion

Our family reunion weekend always starts on Friday. Family, who travel aways to get here, often drive in on Friday afternoon, so as not to miss any o' da doings on Saturday. Peggy and I spend Friday doing all the prep work for the Jambalaya and cook a big pot full of seafood courtboullion (coo-bee-yaw`) for the family, as they start drifting in, in the evening. This year, a friend Stephen R. came over and was a great help chopping, deboning marinating, drinkin', jammin', and visiting, as we prepared the 30lb. of pork 15lb. of both, sausage and onion, for the jambalaya. While doing that, we also smoked 6 slabs of pork ribs on da bbq for the non seafoodies. While Steve and I did that, Peggy and her friend Lona L. sat inside visiting, while fixin Peggy's coleslaw, and her amazing BBQ sauce. I gotta tell yall her sauce does my Ribs proud. I hadda smile when I noticed one of the neighborhood kids with a bowl of rice with Peggy's BBQ sauce on it. He was using the sauce for gravy. Think about it, the kid had all that seafood, slaw, bbq, amazing bread pudding, etc. he coulda ate but he CHOSE Peggy's sauce over rice. That just shows ya how good this stuff is. We got started choppin' at 12:30 pm and had a good crowd by 5:00 pm,then ate and visited till after dark, at which time we topped it off with a big back yard fireworks show for da kids. It took us forever, but we finally got a slide show put together. I must tell ya though, that Peggy was in charge of pictures and did a great job.... that is until grandson Chase showed up. Then the camera forgotten it was maw-maw time. Hope yall enjoy the slide show here's da link:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dn0FWGBpN8A