More after Ike life

Frog finds lost sofa

Ike plucked this sofa from someone's home and frog found it on Nasa Rd 1 and claimed it. Rather poignant, don't you think?
Life here in our house is getting back together. The debris is gone, the frig is running, laundry is done. Parts of the fence are still missing and there are some large branches dangling from our trees. Our insurance adjuster is scheduled to come Tuesday and I'm trying to be optimistic in spite of reports from other folk.
But life around us is still lagging behind. There are still people without power, water, and often jobs. Our favorite Mexican restaurant is still closed and it is doubtful that Margarita can reopen. She was struggling as it was and the present state of the economy doesn't help. Such is the story of other businesses in Ike's wake. Our nearby grocery finally opened to a waiting group of loyals and I noticed a woman living in her car in their parking lot...no house, no $$$ and likely no job. I saw another doing the same in the parking lot of a local park...at least the lights of parking lots offer some degree of safety. A friend who lost everything was offered 6 months of housing in Alpine, TX by FEMA. She would have to quit her job and move hundreds of mile west of here. FEMA claimed that was the closet hotel housing they could offer. I am aware that our economy is getting ready to break but Ike's wrath has seem to have fallen off the radar here.

But back to the economy, we spent yesterday packing up a friend who has gone bottom up in this economy. He has worked hard all his life, great guy and is courageous enough to take a hard look at how he got to this point. He is temporarily taking a sabatical to the North to help a friend with some rennovation and we wish him well though we will miss him.

Geez...this is a rather gloomy post. I am off to church and perhaps will return in a lighter frame of mind and get busy posting pics about our Alaska cruise which has been rather overshadowed by Ike I'm afraid.