Home Again, Home Again

Time: 10:45 pm
Outside Temp: 80.8 F
Inside Temp" 83.9F

Finally, I made it out for a little 35 mi. ride this morning. I headed from Ft. Walton to Destin, mainly to sightsee rather than for training. It was rather windy and the traffic along Highway 98 was going way too fast for comfort, but hey, I needed a ride. I had left before 7am, but by the time I returned the troops were ready to deploy back to New Orleans. The only fly in the ointment was that one of the two cats who had been living in the garage was missing. For the better part of two hours we tore the garage apart, crawled underneath the car, probed dark and dirty corners, and finally, finally found the frightened feline who had crammed herself into an impossibly tiny space between a shelf unit and the wall. After a few unsuccessful attempts I finally got my hands on her and soon thereafter we were on our way back to NewOrleans. The traffic was a bit better than I'd expected. It was pretty bad from Mobile all the way to the Mississippi state line, but after that we were mostly flying along at 70+ mph all the way into New Orleans. As we drove up to the house we were rather surprised to see that one of the neighbors had already cleaned up most of the fallen branches and leaves, and one of the other neighbors was out there with a leaf blower cleaning up the street. We had picked up some ice and a little meat on the way, so once we unloaded everyone came over and we had a big porch party.


There is no power here in our neighborhood, but fortunately the neighbor had two generators, so we put one between our house and our other neighbor's, moved one of our window units over to the neighbor's house (so the 2-year-old would sleep) and hooked up a big box fan for our house. We have an ample supply of gas, so we should be OK for a couple of days at least. Hopefully the power will be restored sooner rather than later. Of course, the first thing I plugged into the generator was the router, so I should have some occasional internet connectivity. I am literally typing this with the light of a battery-powered camp light. Outside, the streets are pretty quiet and very dark except for the flashing blue lights of police and national guard patrols. OK, I have to admit it, I like it. I once took a vocational aptitude test back in high school, and one of the top occupations for which I was apparently suited was "military officer." Go figure.