The surreal life, hurricane style.

It still feels strange to do regular stuff. We spent the other day driving to the New Orleans, stopping first to try to get a blue tarp roof for our home. This was followed by a trip to my uncle's house to commiserate, to empathize, to see it - the damage - with our own eyes. His neighborhood never floods. Well, it didn't until Katrina. And now my elderly uncle has the undesirable task of cleaning and repairing - without electricity - what's left of the fruits of 60 years of marriage to try to make it habitable for my elderly aunt. It's just so sad. So horribly terribly sad. And so surreal.

Then we went to our house. We plan to make regular trips, to clean, to pack, to pitch out, to thwart looters, to be home again, if only for a little while. It's so empty - the city. So quiet, so still. Nothing even close to what it was before. I still can't believe it's all happened.

And then when we arrived back here, KTG invited me to accompany them to Chili's for drinks (yes, home of the baby-back ribs). I wanted something fruity and ordered a daquiri. I could barely taste it. Ok now, I'll fess up, I had two cause it was 2-for-1 night. And I just I tossed them back like a glass of water. I just might sleep well for once. But the point was it seemed to be normal on the outside but on the inside I still felt strange. Still homeless. Still jobless.

I wonder when I will feel normal again? ever?

I am currently looking/trying to purchase a home in this area - about an hour's drive WSW of New Orleans. Close enough to make frequent trips but far enough away that life continues as normal usual.... malls are open, movies play in theatres, grocery items still on the shelves. Regular city life. If only I could enjoy it more.

It would be nice to be in a home of our own for the holidays that will soon be upon us. ~K~'s favorite holiday is Halloween. She keeps asking where we will go trick-or-treating. Meanwhile, all of our decorations and her gorgeous "headless ghost" costume. Gone. Gone. gone.

My mom's favorite holiday is Thanksgiving when all of the family gather under one roof. Well, I don't think there's a roof where we all can go. We don't have room here and my dad certainly is not going to travel, especially not now.

I don't even know if he wants to participate. Not since the state representative for elder abuse stopped by to check on my them as my brother apparently reported me for mistreating my folks. (I'm not writing this from prison - obviously it all turned out ok.)

And my favorite holiday is Christmas. Too bad though that I lost all of my Xmas decorations and collectibles in the flood. Some were family heirlooms too. We'll just have to start over.

But the worst thing is that this is the third time I've bought supplies. You know the basics for home living - toilet paper, paper towels, envelopes, air freshener. That sort of stuff. Every time we move, we end up having to leave more stuff behind.

And last night I heard that the hurricane hunters are going out to check an area of tropical depression in the Atlantic.

Please. Oh please. Let it be nothing. I don't think we can keep doing this.