The grandparents decided not to evacuate.  We settled the kids into the hotel room, where we know they will be safe.  They were sent with cereal and milk and fruit and wheat bread and peanut butter and #2 Son's favorite, Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.  Plus, breakfast and lunch are served daily, and there is a snack bar with some food available.  They will be comfortable and have fun playing with the game systems, and are now old enough that we can leave them there without having to worry about them playing rocket ship in the elevators and making people angry by hogging them.

As i ran to the shelter Tuesday morning to get more formula for the two babies still on the bottle, there was a sprinkling of rain.  Already? i thought, but it stopped quickly and was followed by a rainbow.

All day the sun played hide and seek; i would think the clouds had moved in to stay, and the sun would come out again.  Beyond that initial sprinkling, there was no more rain then.

By 8pm, it still wasn't even raining here.  The day had a strange feel to it, very unreal.  No panic of jammed streets as people try to flee, and the constant media coverage on the radio seemed hyped, forced, and contrived.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset, what we could see of it through the trees, as usual.  The breeze wasn't even particularly notable by then.

No, this isn't something to take lightly, but it's coming ashore as a Cat1.  Katrina was a Cat5, and was still Cat3 strength as far inland as New Orleans.

The memories are close, though.  The screams of the lady at the hotel, who was watching the first images with all of us, when she realized the home that was burning to the water line live on the national news was her own.  The images of people being found on roof tops, the Superdome roof in tatters, the call after call on the radio of people begging for information on loved ones.  Hardest were the calls from families of the first responders who weren't allowed to evacuate, when it had been two, three, or even four days without hearing anything.  My stomach still churns and i have to stop and pray when i think of it.

Fear wanted to grip me, but the sun kept peeking through, even to sunset.

We've prepared what we could, and now we wait.


Today is

According to Hoyle Day -- death anniversary of Edmond Hoyle

Be Kind to Humankind Week:  Willing to Lend a Hand Wednesday

Birthday of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Chop Suey Day

Colombia County Fair -- Chatham, NY, US (be a kid again at the 172nd annual fair; through Sept. 3)

Day of Loose Talk -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Patron of baptism, bird dealers, converts, convulsive children, cutters, epileptics, farmers, French Canadians, lambs, monastic life, motorways, printers, tailors; over 70 cities and countries around the world; against convulsions, epilepsy, hail and hailstorms, spasms)
     Head Day -- Iceland (a weather omen day; whatever today's weather, it will stay the same for at least 3 weeks)

International Day Against Nuclear Testing -- UN

Judgment Day -- according to "The Terminator"

La Tomatina -- Buñol, Valencia, Spain (annual citywide food fight festival in which around 30,000 people take to the streets to pelt each other with tomatoes)

Lemon Juice Day

More Herbs, Less Salt Day

Runic Half-Month Rad begins (Motion)

Slovak National Uprising Anniversary -- Slovakia

Thiruvonam Festival -- KL, PY, India (ten day festival of Onam)



Birthdays Today

Michael Jackson, 1958
Elliot Gould, 1938
John McCain, 1936
Richard Attenborough, 1923
Charlie "Bird" Parker, 1920
Isabel Sanford, 1917
Ingrid Bergman, 1915
Preston Sturges, 1898
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., 1809
John Locke, 1632


Today in History

Era of Diocletian (Martyrs), the last major time of persecution for the early Christian churches, begins with Gen. Gaius Aurelius V Diocletianus Jovius becoming emperor of Rome, 284
Japan mints its first copper coins, 708
The last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa, is executed by order of Francisco Pizarro, 1533
The first Indian "reservation" is formed by the New Jersey Legislature, 1758
Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction, 1831
The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery in its empire, 1833
Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War, 1842
The first motorcycle is patented in Germany by Gottlieb Daimler, 1885
The chef of a visiting Chinese Ambassador invents "chop suey" in NYC, 1896
The Goodyear tire company is founded, 1898
The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers, 1907
Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California, 1911
The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, 1949
Speedy Gonzales makes his debut, 1953
The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, 1966
Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party, 1991
Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, 2005