Ike Revisited- One Year Later

At 2:10 am this morning, one year ago, Hurricane Ike came on shore in Galveston. Last night was totally different as opposed to the one 365 days before it. Now, we were watching dvd's and waiting for the time to mark the anniversary. Then, we were scared half out of our wits, the electricity gone, and all gathered in the lower story of our home wondering if the second storey of the house would stay together as the center passed to our west by five miles. Now it is a steambath outside, but then, 60-70 mph winds were gusting outside. When I woke up this morning, my south fence which I share with my neighbors stands, and they have a solid roof over their house. Then, half of the south fence had been knocked bown, and a major hole knocked into our neighbors roof. Now, you hardly see a blue tarp indicating some kind of roof damage, and yet then, 2/3 houses had a tarp of some sort for roofs that had some sort of "modification" done to them, and rain threatening to soak the residents.
Now, Galveston is almost completely rebuilt, minus the fishing piers. Then, in the daylight, you could'a bought the whole town for $5000. If it weren't for the scrappy people that stayed, putting up with porta-potties, no electricity, no water, no ice, and most of all, no air-conditioning for a couple of MONTHS, how could Galveston get rebuilt, along with the ocean-side hotels, which are almost fully repaired, by the way.
As I'm gazing out my window, how different it all seems. How much does time seem to change things, bringing about a new time, and season.

Locked In Combat

A bit of sunshine: I battled a gigantanormos cockroach a few nights ago, and won, evntually. The sucker wouldn't stay dead. After I thought I'd killed it, I made the mistake of throwing it in the trashcan. I went out of the room for a while, and there it was again, on the floor, kind'a woozy-lookin' sayng in a crazy voice: "Come on, is that all you've got???" So I responded in a typical KO fashion with my shoe from four feet above. All of this was made funny by my one self-not-understood fear: Cockroaches. So there we were, two mortals scared to death of each other, wishing one of us could be somewhere else at the time. It was not a pretty picture.

Early Retirement

Ever feel like life is passing you by while you're stuck in front of a red light or a lightpole? Take your pick. They're both the same. Well, that's the way I feel in this tropical nightmare, Houston. Sure, it's fine for the quick commute to the beach, and for the necessary jobs that we have, but what elae? Our social life was 300 miles North of us, but since then, all of our friends have moved on. I expected as much, but we (my family and I) expected to do it with them, and not rely on Facebook to do it for us. Instead, we have become strangers in a strange land, to quote the Bible. We don't have many friends down here, and we feel detached from the ones we made up there. For example: One is married now,and one to be married a few days from now. Another one has had a baby only four days ago, and she was giving me and a friend dancing lessons only three years ago. Makes me feel old. Tempest really does Fugit when you're busy, and that's what I've tried to be, but I'm also keenly aware of what I'm missing in the amount of old and new friends. I know this is a touchy-feely post, but it has to get put down in one way or another.