Hurricane Katrina came through a week ago. Not a lot of damage was done to Ridgeland. Some trees down, fences gone, occasional roof damage to homes and businesses, but nothing serious. We received heavy winds and rains. Our power went out Monday around noon. Emily and I had prepared for loss of power, water, gas and everything else, but we were not prepared for the boredom. You can only stare out the window waiting for the wind to knock down the tree in front of your balcony for so long. We played a game of Scrabble and for the first time ever I was able to use all 7 of my tiles in one move. I used them to make the word "remedial". We played Monopoly and Yahtzee. But mostly we worried about Emily's parents. Her mom was on duty at Gulfport Memorial during the hurricane. Her father was holed up with their dog Ginger at their rental house in Diamondhead. We were only able to hear news on them from other people because the phones were so crazy. Emily didn't get to speak to them until Wednesday I think. They were fortunate not to lose anything. They came to see us this weekend and we had a good reunion. I'm finally getting to go back to work and school tomorrow. I was stuck in the apartment for the week because there was no school and no power at work and I didn't want to use gas to drive around town. I was able to get some fresh air this weekend though. Anyway, things are settling down here. We were only without power for about 24 hours. We checked the thermostat when the power came back on and it was almost 90 degrees in the apartment! The gas scare is settling down. Fortunately Emily and I both had full tanks before the hurricane so we haven't had to wait in long gas lines. But I'll leave it at that for now.
Richard
