Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Gustav II

Well, after all the preparations were made, the house was clean, all the laundry was washed and put away (something I usually put off doing under normal circumstances) and the supplies were laid in, I was ready for Gustav. The weather radio alarm work me at 5 am on Sunday and I don't think it shut up for more than an hour for the next two days. When it got up to the eight hundred seventy-something-th tornado watch/warning, I quit listening. No kidding, the announcer was giving the watch/warning number every time he came on. Surely to God we didn't have more than eight hundred. Maybe they were on a cumulative total for the area for the year. I know that weather radios are a good thing and can save lives but after a while that alarm noise makes you a little testy. I shot some video through the patio door during one of the downpours. It really wasn't a foggy as it looks, I just haven't cleaned the door glass in a while. I'm creative, not tidy.

Thankfully, Gustav missed us - not so good for the folks in southern Louisiana. Mostly we just had some strong gusts of wind and heavy downpours that didn't last too long at a time. The power went out briefly Sunday night - just enough time to light a candle and turn on the battery powered TV. The taller half's BFF came over Sunday and set up the generator for me. I knew if I had all my ducks in a row the storm wouldn't be any problem. Now if I can just make that luck work for the rest of the season. You hear that Ike and Josephine?!

The taller half called, finally, to say they were safely docked up in Contraband Bayou - don't you just love that name - near Lake Charles That took a load off my mind, however, we still don't know how the car fared. Probably not a new car in my future, just the joy of driving a moldy smelling Ford.

Through all this drama, I did get to spend some peaceful time working on a new afghan. I'm using a really nice Bernat yarn. It's variegated in shades of soft blue and green with white - Bernat calls the color denim. The pattern started out as a traditional granny square then I started improvising. After a great deal of counting and scribbling pattern ideas, I came up with an open-work diamond shape that reminds me of the shapes in an argyle sweater. I have to check my count every time I turn a corner to make sure the spaces are lining up correctly. There's a list in my work basket with the pattern counts on it for those foggy moments. Now if I can just remember not to try and watch a sub-titled foreign film while I'm crocheting. I forget that I'm supposed to be reading and then realize that I don't have a clue as to what's been going on for the last 10 minutes. In my uni-lingual defense, however, let me add that I do recognize most all of the bad words in whatever language is being spoken. At least that's a start.

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