Contraflow

When the entire bottom of the boot evacuates, it's bound to cause a bit of congestion. Highway officials thought they had it figured out. Contraflow. It's a word you won't find in Webster's. But we can dissect it and figure it out! Contra, meaning opposite or against, and flow, meaning to move in a stream or to have a smooth and uninterrupted continuity. Hmmm...that didn't exactly describe OUR experience. Contraflow turned all the lanes of I-55 into a one way escape route, with all lanes heading north, but it certainly wasn't smooth. The logjam of vehicles at the crossover near Brookhaven, had us creeping at no more than 15-20 mph for more than an hour. Those traffic engineers need to put their thinking caps back on and figure out a better way to merge 4 lanes of traffic into two. A trip that would have normally taken three hours took almost nine!


Mississipians were very welcoming:





























The cute boy in the back seat was extremely patient, all things considered:

Evacuation Preoccupations

Or “What We Did While Waiting For Gustav To Go Away!

This time I was prepared for the boredom. As hard as it is to admit, while at Sam’s early last week, I spied and bought the first book in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series and placed it on top of a case of bottled water. Yes, I did. A vampire novel no less! Written for young adults. And not so well written at that. If I hadn’t have been so bored at our hotel in Jackson, I might not have persevered through the first few chapters. But it was raining outside. Then right about page 428 I found that I couldn’t put it down. So I read it until the end...and might just pick up the next book in the series!

All Eyes on the Tropics

These words are not what I want to hear! Never welcome, but especially not now! We're just beginning to restock the fridge, took a few boards off the windows, and finally have A/C. It can't be happening again.

These past few days have been trying. We returned from our evacuation to a dark, hot and humid house and sat on the porch, forever trying to find a bit of tepid breeze. During the daylight hours, we had chores to keep us busy, refrigerators to empty and yards to rake, but dusk to dawn was miserable. With nothing to do, we set off for a neighborhood coffee shop that had not lost power. There we found the condensation on the glass panes a welcome sight. We sipped iced coffees and teas, plugged in our laptops, and recharged ipods and cell phones, getting more than our money's worth of electricity. Kevin was especially susceptible to the misery of life without electronics. When power was restored at ten minutes to nine on September 4th, we were absolutely giddy! WTG Entergy!

Memory Tag!

I got this from Vickie's blog:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember that maybe brings a smile to your face!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It will be fun to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you are playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Yay!

Woo-hoo! We drove back through our VERY dark neighborhood from PJs to find an Entergy truck driving down our street with a spotlight on the lines. He followed the line from one end of our street all the way down to Jefferson Hwy. A minute later everyone was jumping up and down and screaming! We had lights! We flipped on the A/C and it's beginning to cool off. The best surprise is that once the electricity was on, we found out that we had phone and cable and internet too. An unexpected pleasure! Wheeeee!

Oh, and we did get mail today. I was shocked when the mailman drove up this afternoon!

The newspaper carrier delivered our paper today too...along with the last three days worth! So I had something to read while sitting on my porch today.

Still No Power

Ick! I haven't showered since we've been back, so I'm contemplating going somewhere to shower tomorrow. We're supposed to limit the amount of water we put into the sewerage system since the power is out at not only residences, but the lift stations that move the wastewater to the treatment plants. We flush only when absolutely necessary and try to put minimal amounts of water down the sink. Tommy washed the pot we cooked dinner in last night in the yard with the hose! Hee-hee!

I was excited to see energy trucks at the pole near our house today! They've been working in the neighborhood for hours though, but nothing yet. It is stifling hot inside. We spent most of the day on the porch, but the mosquitoes would eat us alive if we slept out there. I'm at the coffehouse again enjoying their A/C, a nice cold iced tea, and getting my money's worth in electricity. We have two computers, two phones and two i-pods plugged in recharging! ROFL!

We are all so spoiled. Kevin is definitely not used to entertaining himself without electronics for an entire day! I hope that *I* survive the complaining!

Pioneer Woman I'm Not

We got home today to a dark, hot house. Spent most of the day clearing up the yard and street. SO many branches and tree debris. Just one piece of siding peeled away...at the very top of the house, same place where it was replaced after Katrina, No big deal. The fridge was easy to clean thanks to the garbage bag trick. We cooked dinner on the propane BBQ. But now we are hot and bored and sitting at PJs cofeeshop trying to cool off. For some reason they have power here. The windows have condensation and it feels so good to be so cold! I don't want to go home! It will be nice to sleep in my own bed, but I'm afraid it will be so hot and humid that I won't be able to. Anyway, we hope to have power and cable and telephone and all that good stuff soon! I wouldn't make a good pioneer.