I'm hanging at the library where the kids wanted to come today- Nathanael especially- he is checking out Walden Pond, the 1001 Arabian Nights, and The Invisible Man. No it isn't for school- it's stuff he's actually interested in.

I guess that Katrina being the hugest hurricane in record human history is going to leave New Orleans looking nothing like the place we know it as today. This is the kind of storm that changes river courses, lake shapes, and all other kinds of topography for good. I understand the dyke and drainage system is built to withstand only level 3's and below. Katrina is now a 5+. I think some are giving it a 5 1/2. This is amazing since on Friday I had heard it was a sizeable storm, enough to close lots of Miami for a couple of days (our warehouse in West Palm was open but our colleague was at home shuttering his house) and everyone was back to normal within a few hours of its departure. Well oncein the Gulf it moved so slowly and built up such a precise eye that it's going to pack the biggest punch in human history. And if by some miracle it misses New Orleans, which everyone is ordered to evacuate, it's going to hit Mobile or if it veers west, I guess Galvaston and S. Padre Island, and I guess other places I don't know about. So y'all in the bayou, WATCH OUT!!!!! This is bigger than Camille and if you work for Bubba Gump Shrimp, get your boat ready. Everyone else move outta the way.

I'm either too busy or toolazy to write here lately. Well today I finally saw the last installment of Star Wars...at the Super Saver. Took Micah and his friend Matt. Micah's seen it a few times but Matt hadn't. Work is busy but the last two days have been a little lighter. Kids are back in school and life looks like a go.

This job has kept me so swamped, so busy (not complaining- yet)---I literally have twice as much work as time to do it in, and I can't really stay past the time I'm supposed to- and even when I delegate some of the work (which I absolutely have to do with much of it, especially Home Depot orders which are easy but time-consuming) I have practically no time even to breathe. It is probably the busiest job I've ever had. I have to do so many different, unrelated things all the time, and constantly switch gears, put out fires, and prioritize and reprioritize every 30 seconds. Everyone is always having an emergency and everyone needs it fixed two weeks ago. :) The pace is not even a quick trot, more like a full speed gallop. But with a lot of turns and obstacles. Some things I can just plow through, but there are a lot of LITTLE but important things that I constantly have to stop and do NOW. And when mistakes are made, I have to find a way to fix them, whether or not I made them. (That's one good departure from other places I've worked at- when mistakes are made, people don't point as many fingers at people, they work instead to solve the SYSTEM and correct the problem from that standpoint with the person.) Some things I can't fix. I just can't. I have no way to.

I did find mistakes people were making in one thing (long description) but long story short, once a co-worker pointed out the errors I found, I became in charge of doing that procedure from now on...instead of the one who was doing most of it...

I hope and pray I do well in this. I just pray and pray for strength. God knows how to do this job and handle it. I have to give it to Him and trust that He will train my brain in how to think for this job.

Dropped off Micah for a week romping in the woods of W. Va. He needs the fresh air and wildlife and creek and frogs and snakes and turtles and all of that (pray he doesn't get bitten). Nathanael was going to stay, too, but found he had some things to do- piling up- was willing to miss the band practices but not his Spanish III exam (so he just moves on to Spanish IV- he did the whole Spanish III course this summer, and did well, understands it all very well- I really want him to be using the subjunctives well, too, and he is doing well with those- Spanish uses them so much more in speaking and writing than English-)...he didn't know which day he needs to do that- well anyway- he's finished the coursework and read a short novel so now he takes the exam but we don't know when. Sorry for the run-on. My blog entries tend to be long run-on sentences anyway. blah blah blah.... so anyway...

A lot of people I know right now are going through difficult times-Virgi and Doris with their legal case - mold damage to their house, lawyer negligence, insurance negligence...my online friend Amy's about to lose her house with 5 kids and her husband's getting laid off and there's nothing where she is that will pay anything- the company that he worked for for about 12 years is just screwing over all their workers...and of course my brother is going through some struggles even Hercules could not fix. He's got an impossible situation right now and the safety of Sierra and Hayden is first and foremost. My parents have been travelling since retirement to countries all over the world, dozens of trips. Well they have paid for a trip to Peru and while they are in Peru in October I will help my brother when he flies (he's a private pilot)- Long story as to why. In the meantime, after Peru my parents will not travel much for the forseeable future because they (my mom especially, since my dad has neither the energy or the concentration...he's aging faster than my mom...but they're both aging and cannot do what they used to...) will be primary in caring for Sierra and Hayden. And it's not going to end. It isn't ever going to end. I am praying for a miracle because bar one Hayden will never stop needing someone to look after him 24/7. And everyone just loves Hayden. Sierra and Hayden are so precious and innocent, Sierra loves her daddy and is SO trusting. Every man she knows is a good man. She doesn't know what abusive ones or molesters are. So she is very trusting and is never wary. Of course if Hayden were abused he wouldn't be able to tell. What easy prey they are and that's why everyone (and the judge) agreed to keep them away from anyone potentially dangerous. Not their mother but perhaps acquaintances. No need to elaborate. Don't want to hurt anyone who reads this.

Things are progressing well at work as far as I know...

Micah's 12th birthday- and for it he wanted to do the longest yard sale thing- so we did, and he came away with old bottles and old Star Wars collectibles. He's really into the antique dealing. Old coke bottles, old liquor bottles, just old stuff. Sometimes it drives me (who doesn't care for old stuff that seems like old junk) crazy...it's junk junk junk and I hate clutter...but clutter it is, though for him it's a treasure. He's his own little person.

Next day we all went to Oxford, with his friend Josh (who pretty much lives with us for, oh, 4 days at a time...) accompanying us. Everyone had dinner and cake and as usual we played Scrabble afterwards (Mom, Nathanael, Dad, and I). I tried to have a discussion with Dad- on a scientific topic- he was trying to convince me of something I didn't refute, but I was trying to tell him something. I realized having any discussion EVER with him is 100% pointless when at one point he claimed I had said something OPPOSITE of what I had said! From that point on it was just no use. I don't explain, I don't discuss, I just let him have his opinion no matter how much I disagree or even AGREE (when I try to point out something else). It just doesn't work. Mom says she doesn't bother and I'm like, who do you even talk to? You can't talk to him. He just talks AT you, not with you, and regurgitates the same old stuff he has for the past 30 years, nothing new, that's why I'm pointing out the futility of discussing ANYTHING with him rather than even mentioning what we were discussing, because it could have been any matter; the result is the same:
I SAY something. What he HEARS me saying is completely INDEPENDENT of that. I could say pigs fly and it would NOT matter. He has done this now in science, politics, etc. etc. etc. to everyone so it's wasting good oxygen to try to tell him ANYTHING. How many people are there like that in this world? He will not listen to people but watches TV 16 frickin hours a day. WTF!!! So why bother.

OK enough about him. It happens to SOME people when they get old.

Kids are going bonkers. Whiny (especially Micah). But tonight the extreme whininess and frustration over a broken VCR led to a good cooldown talk and a little humor and some thoughts on the nature of God.

Love those boys!