Our Little Isaac Adventure: During/After

So we are all sitting here running off a generator and for the past couple of days no phone, (not even cell), no Internet and no cable.  Funny thing is about a half an hour ago niece #4 notices the lights on the router were on and we are all now jumping for the computers.  Oh my gosh I had forgotten how isolated you can feel after a little hurricane.  The power, I'm hoping will come back on up here in a couple of hours.  Now as for my house on the Southshore, well, the levee was over topped in two different areas, one of which was three miles away from my house, but all is well.  Sadly one of my neighbors' sons got 5ft in his house in Braithwaite, (he only had 6 inches for Katrina).   Anywhoo I know this is all disjointed and whatnot, but I'm waiting for the cable to go out, (things tend to go on and off for the first couple of hours sometimes)

Mom's place.

Across the street from Mom's place.

My backyard.  It's gonna be a while before we see electricity.

One very unhappy kitty.

Forgot to shut the cat door.  Everything blew off the counter and the stool went down and of course water.

Buh bye car wash.

Our Little Isaac Adventure: Waiting...

Nothing much to tell.  The electricity went out for about an hour and then came back on.  We lost a small limb off the half of a tree left after Gustav.  The cat went missing.  We found him behind a tote in the closet.  Perhaps it will amp up a bit later on; right now it's just six people, (one very hyperactive child included), a gazillion cats, and we are already annoyed with each other.

Our one casualty.  A moment of silence for the limb please.

A couple of videos, ignore me in the second video, I was on the phone with the boy.

Our little Isaac Adventure: Prep

I've got a love/hate relationship with hurricanes.  The storms are awful for me because I HATE lightening, (Have I mentioned that I was indirectly struck by lighting while in the bathtub?), J and the boy are first responders so I am left to fend for myself, and I do not enjoy sitting there in the dark waiting for the roof to come off or the water to rush in.  I do love the storms for their power and beauty.  They are gorgeous creatures who command respect.  Just look at that sunset!  Nothing prettier than the purple, lavender, pink, red and gold sky before a storm.

I've packed up my stuff, loaded it into the car.  I've picked up the stuff in my yard so that the fern doesn't fly through Miss J's bedroom window.  Most people are staying this time around.  Everyone is trusting the levees.  I hope they're right.  I'd stay except I'm the one who can work the generator so I must head north to Slidell.

Sis #2, our awesome neighbors: Miss. J & her son P and J. The sky was literally lavender although you can't tell in this pic.   In the back you can see the dirt pile that never ends.  

Hate evacuating and despite surprising Sis #2 with how little I'm taking with me, I am surprised over how much I did pack into my little car.  Heck what business do I have being attached to any material item I own when I choose to live where there wasn't a spot of dry land after Katrina?  I'm going to do some purging after this.  Some people horde, and cling to each and every little piece of paper claiming that it holds some memory.  I've learned that those little mementos can be a burden when you have to evacuate every three years.  I've also been left with very little in the memento department after Katrina anyways so that helps. ; )

My stuff packed and ready to roll.

Poor Sis #2 she's lived away from Southeast Louisiana for several years and she must think we're all nuts.  She called me yesterday asking what color I wanted to paint the back hall in Mom's new house.  I'm all like, "Have you been to a store today?!"  She's all like, "No, " and I hear her calmly chewing ice over the phone.  I'm telling her the area is running out of gas and there is a frenzy for water and canned food and she just sits there calmly chewing ice and I swear I can practically hear her thinking we are over reacting.  So imagine her surprise when today she learns that traffic is bumper to bumper and that the only gas available is the premium priced stuff.  She's not experienced the post Katrina frenzy over a storm.  There was no heading out to Kenner to return a rental car today.  She found another place in Chalmette and she wanted to kill when they let the guy ahead of her off on filling the tank because he couldn't get gas.  Don't blame her.

Gas frenzy.

Boarding up frenzy.

Tomorrow the storm will arrive and I'm not looking foreword to the experience.  Anyone who says riding out a cat 1-2 storm is nothing hasn't ridden one out in a while.  It's nerve wracking and when you listen to all the call in radio shows it makes your hair stand on end.  There you sit and there is always some nervous nelly, (Mom), who jumps at every THWACK and THUMP and asks, "WHAT'S THAT?  Someone go check."  Yeah, suuurre I'll run right out to determine which of the seventy broken limbs flying about hit the house.  (Alright so it turned out a tree broke in half and hit the roof, but still what was I supposed to do about it in the middle of a storm?)  I prefer to sit in terrified silence pretending I don't hear anything.  Kinda like MiMi...

Shhhhh I don't want to hear about tomorrow's car ride!  Isn't that the cutest widdle brown nose ever?

Hurricane Preparation Vent

I believe Weight Loss Wednesday may not happen this week.  It all depends on Isaac.  J, who is with a local sheriff's department, could be called in as early as Mon. AM and so today we are scrambling to prepare.  I hate the scrambling part and it pisses me off that we have to scramble at all because on my end it's all organized.  I've got lists, pre-made hurricane totes with supplies, and more lists.  The one thing that's got me scrambling?  The damn generator.  We purchased a generator after Katrina and for Ike and Gustav that thing was a wonderful thing to have.  It has an electric start so that I'm not struggling with a pull cord, (the men in the family all seem to be in the EMS business and so us womenfolk are on our own) and can power a TV, freezer, microwave, and box fan all at the same time.  Basically it makes you feel like you are living the high life post hurricane while the other poor sots are fanning themselves praying for a non-existent breeze.

Anywhoo, the only thing I entrusted to my mother was the storage of a special generator cord, the charger for the electric start battery and the owner's manual.  I placed these important items in the armoire and told all to leave it there.  Of course it's not there and J, bless his heart, is heading up to the Northshore to set us up.  I'll be evacuating from the Southshore up to the Northshore so I won't be one of those folks you see on the news swimming in the street, unless the lake pours into Mom's place and so I have life vests in the attic along with the axe, (it's something Dad & Paw always had in the attic after hurricane Betsy).  I've given up on the search and J says we will have to go shopping for a new cord.  It's hard enough having to pull everything together to evacuate, but to have to evacuate, prepare J for the stay and then to prepare for us to hunker down is really overwhelming when the best part of the plan, (a generator), is a dud.

Weight Loss Wednesday: Quick like a bunny!!!

Gotta make this fast.  J says to make a quick shower, but instead I'm running the water and doing this, (bad me).  So here we go...

Exercise	Only if you count the million times a day I’ve gone up and down a ladder and stairs, and yesterday’s moving 10, 48 lb boxes of flooring from condo to truck and from truck up 14 stairs.
Water	Averaging 2 glasses a day.
Food	Fast.
Confession	It’s all bad.
Congratulations	I’m not dead yet.
Starting Weight	151lbs
Last Week	139.5
Current Weight	138 lbs
Weight loss	13 lbs
Dream weight	115

Weight Loss Wednesday: Sick, but still moving.

Remember that house from last week?  You know the one that has about ten years of animal fur and dander build-up?  Well cleaning it has made me sick.  Some say it's the chemicals from the cleaners and others say it's the fur/dust/dander.  Who cares what made it happen the point is I'm sick and I have to keep on working.  So there I am in Home Depot, runny nose, swollen tongue, sore throat, and my left eye is watering uncontrollably and sending tears down my left cheek, trying to do a special order.  The poor man who took my order leaned as far away from me as possible as I blew my nose and croaked out measurements in my new and hopefully temporary man voice.   You would think that being ill and working, (kill me now) that I wouldn't have much of an appetite.  Well Sis #1 is in town to help and is trying to make up for a year without oyster po-boys.  It's been a while since I've seen anything that wasn't fried.  So here we go...

Exercise	Still working my butt off trying to get this house in shape before Sept. 6th.  Lots of up and down stairs and carrying 48 lb. boxes of flooring.
Water	Averaging 4 glasses a day.
Food	A week of po-boys.
Confession	A week of po-boys.
Congratulations	I opted for a shrimp remoulade salad once, (not exactly the best option, but it did have veggies
Starting Weight	151lbs
Last Week	139.5
Current Weight	139 lbs
Weight loss	12 lbs
Dream weight	115

I'm not unhappy with my .5 lbs.  I think the only reason I've lost weight is because my appetite isn't in high gear seeing how I'm miserable and sick.  Frankly my diet has consisted of allergy pills, bits of po-boys, multi-vitamins, and orange juice.  When Sis #1 heads back home this week : ( I just may lose more weight because the po-boy diet will have to end.

Weight Loss Wednesday: Who needs exercise when all you need to do is move into a dirty house?

Mama has purchased a house.  It is a dirty, funky, smelly house.  It is full of fur.  I don't think it had been cleaned in the entire ten year period that the previous owners occupied it.  It was a bargain, (no one else wanted it because it was so dirty, funky and smelly), and so between shoveling sand, working on the closing, packing boxes, and cleaning the new house, (three people, one bathroom, in six hours, and I am not lying, six hours to clean one bathroom with three people working), I can barely move.  I forgot to mention moving 1,700 pounds of laminate flooring.  Yes, 1,700 pounds.  I know this because the flooring company printed the total weight of the shipment on the invoice.  I think I heard the truck groan when they put the pallet on the poor old girl.  I am swollen; I am sick, (ten year long fur/dust buildup = allergies), and I can no longer feel my right index finger.  So how much weight have I lost as a result of all this marathon labor?  Let's see...

Exercise	Who needs exercise when they are working like a man 10 hours a day.
Water	Averaging 3 glasses a day.
Food	I'm so tired I have no idea what I'm doing with food.  I recall Sis #2's friend's husband feeding us a salad with dried cherries, and somewhere in there there was some pizza, (the traditional food of moving).
Confession	Pizza, but who can turn down pizza after 10 hours of manual labor?
Congratulations	Well, there was the salad.
Starting Weight	151lbs
Current Weight	139.5 lbs
Weight loss	11.5 lbs
Dream weight	115

Yup, .5 lbs in a week.  I have hauled dirt, flooring, packed boxes, cleaned walls, hauled buckets, all week and all I lost was HALF A FREAKING POUND!  I would cry, but I just don't have time.  Sis #1 is coming in this evening so now I have to marathon clean my house with the help of J and Sis #2 and here I am hiding in the bathroom to put out this post on time, (yay that makes two Wednesdays in a row now).

Weight Loss Wednesday: Yay a pound!

   

Remember that dirt pile, you know the one I've been schlepping at for the past six months?  Well one of the neighbors finally complained, (bless their hearts they really have been patient to have waited this long), and we, knowing this has really gone on too long, promised to put our noses to the grind stone and move the rest of it into the back yard.  So on the hottest day of the year we moved dirt.  All day we moved dirt.  I cannot stress enough how much moving or how much heat/humidity (heat index 114F 69% humidity), we did that day, but I lost two pounds in one day.  So without further ado...

Exercise	Shoveling dirt and hauling wheelbarrows full of dirt is quite adequate.
Water	Averaging 3 glasses a day.
Food	Cutting back on the carbs and aiming for more veggies, (yuck).
Confession	July 31st, I just had to have angel food cake for Harry Potter's birthday.
Congratulations	I opted for salad instead of a hot pocket.  Hey, any small victory will do.
Starting Weight	151lbs
Current Weight	140 lbs
Weight loss	11 lbs
Dream weight	115