How Far Will Happy Go

This is a tough article to write. There's just so much devestation around us that it's hard to think about being happy. Or even where to look for it. When you look into someone's eyes that has lost everything material, what do you see? You see despair, hopelessness, frustration, fear. It is the immediate affect of the disaster that has caused this. I remember that feeling when I lost a house completely to a fire. I was in shock as I stood there and watched everything I owned burn completely to the foundation.

But look deeper into their eyes. I mean really,really deep. You will see determination, stanima, strength, hope, love, thankfulness and a strong desire to rebuild their lives. You see survivorship. Real, true surviving. Something about our basic human nature keeps us going even when we want so badly to give up. But we go on. Because we know, this too shall pass. Some will not make it. We will have to say goodbye in some form or fashion. And it will be hard. But we will always cherish their memory.Something that nothing, not a storm, nor fire, nor death can ever take away from us.The wonderful memories. As the days pass, we will catch ourselves smile just for a moment on no particular day. Then it will happen again. It will take time, but it WILL happen. It may take years, but someday we are going to be sitting on our porch swapping war stories of how we survived. And the kindness that thousands upon thousands have shown us.We probably won't even remember their faces, but we will remember that they were there. We will help each other rebuild our lives. Even if all it means is that you got a hug, just when you really needed one. Yes, Happy will find it's way back into our lives. And this time we will appreciate it more than ever. It's still there and it will be the one little thing that will help us through this. It will take over the despair and become normal again as we see the progress that we make.

I pray that we each stop for a moment and reflect that yes, even though we may have to suffer for a month or so without power or water, or we lost everything, we survived. And we should be proud of that fact and feel blessed that we have the chance to recover. Even if ninety percent of your day is so horrible, please don't forget that 10% that keeps you going. That's the part that will be the happy part of the day. It's still there. Even if it's just a little bit right now. It's still in our hearts and our souls. Just please try to appreciate that small part of being happy when you catch yourself being there. It's like a Kodak moment in life. Don't miss it this time.

Oh yeah, baby...I got lights now!!!! As everyone knows Galveston and Texas City took a direct hit from Hurricane Ike. Thankfully we made it here in Texas City although we did lose our beloved dike. It's going to be hard to imagine Texas City without our dike. But we are safe and we survived it. For that I will forever be eternally grateful to God Almighty.

The strangest thing is that all the trees that fell, missed the houses by a few feet or even inches. It was just really odd. All of my trees in my back yard are gone. I had a 35' tree completely uprooted. It tore down all the power lines to my house and the one next door, but it missed the house next door by inches! I had huge tree limbs lying on my back step, but they missed the house. The only damage I got was from pecans. Yes, pecans. My neighbor has a pecan tree and it threw so many pecans off of it that it knocked some shingles off of my house. Marie, there has to be a song there somewhere.

I am so proud to live here in Texas. I have never seen the type of kindness that there is here. Neighbors helping neighbors, people helping people.I wish that life could just stay this way. It was actually joyful to watch it. I cried at the way that people treated each other so kindly. Sometimes it was the little things, like letting someone go ahead of them in line at the store, or a neighbor who did have power with a generator letting the other neighbors use it to charge up their cell phones. I was even out there in my wheelchair raking up leaves in my neighbors yard and mine and getting everything to the curb. There are a lot of elderly people on our block, so we just all chipped in and cut limbs, raked leaves, bagged them, so by the time they got back home, they wouldn't have to worry about anything. Now my back yard is a another story, but oh well.

Since all I had to listen to was a battery powered radio, I heard about a couple who, he was in the military and home on a short leave and their wedding was orginally planned for Friday. Well, obviously, everything had to be cancelled because they no longer had a town to be married in and now they were running out of time. Within 2 hours of this story being broadcast on the radio, the couple had a complete wedding donated to them by various companies that were fortunate enough to have power. Everything from the limo driver, to the wedding dress and the tuxedos, bridesmaids dresses, flowers, linens, catered reception, honeymoon suite. You name it, they had it. I was so overwelmed with the generosity of the people of Houston and the surrounding areas. It was beautiful to see such goodness in so many people. I just had to share this happy story with you all."Happy" made it even through a hurricane.

Oh, and I pray that you all made it through it. Please let me know how you are. I'm going to be worried about you all until I hear from you.

Well, I woke up to a phone call from the city that said we are going to take a direct hit from Ike. It's suppose to come in as a Category 2. That's a piece of cake. It's just going to be a bad storm and being from up north, I'm used to tornadoes, so I know how to prepare for those. Comet and I may end up in the bathtub with a mattress over us or on top of the table. Texas City has assured us this whole time that we did not, repeat did not have to evacuate. Now they call and say oops. It's too late now to evacuate, so we'll just hanker down. I think that I send a storm surge photos to my loved ones so that they can track what my neighborhood will look like during a surge of certain levels. I don't care as long as I can use my computer but when not if but when we lose power, I'll be off the air for a while.This will all be over in about 10 hours starting at about 1 am tonight. It is suppose to start storming today and then it will hit in the middle of the night. So I figure that I'll sleep through most of it. I talked with the Emergency Management Service here first thing this morning and they have no plans for shelters. But they are ready to go as soon as the storm is over. But if you hear a big boom, that will be the chemical plants blowing up again. I feel bad for Galveston, because they will literally be completely under water. They are going to disappear off the map. So the bottom line is I'm going to hanker down and be happy that I have a home to be in and that I feel your prayers and I appreciate it. As long as I have power I keep everyone informed as to how Comet, Happy and I are doing. Love to all. Somebody post something today here, just to let me know good things are going on in the world. It would mean a lot to hear good news over the next couple of days. I want to see how many people are reading this blog. If you are out there, please of all times, leave a comment of some sort just so that I know that Happy is still making his rounds. There are people all over the country reading this, so it would really help if you would leave a comment and let me know if Happy reached you!!!

Okay, that little pep talk I gave myself was a little premature. I ended up in the hospital the next day with two different types of pnemonia in both lungs. I just started running a fever and next thing I knew, I was in the hospital. My white blood count was over 30,000 so I guess that I was pretty sick. At least it's down to 10,000 now. Medicare kicked me out when they found out that the antibiotics that I was taking as an IV, could be taken as a pill form. My doctor tried her best to keep me in for another 10 days but they said no. So I was released Monday in critical condition and I am home by myself trying my best to take care of myself. Jeez!!! Oh and let's throw a hurricane on top of that. There is no way that I can evacuate. I'm just too weak. So I'm stocked up as best as I can be. I live in Texas City, TX which is about 25 miles from where Ike is expected to strike. Actually, I live 10 blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. Let's hope it doesn't get a puff of wind at the last minute. Well, I guess I'll find out how long I can tread water!

I think the funniest thing that I learned when I was in the hospital is what my dog does when I'm gone. My friends and my adopted son both were checking on her during the day and night. So one didn't know that the other was feeding her and giving her dog cookies. Man, she was working them both! One time, my son came to check on her and she had taken three of the big throw pillows off of the couch and had them laying in front of the TV. Now this is about 150 lb Golden Retriever. She's huge! That's because she bats those big brown eyes at everyone and grins from ear to ear and every one who comes over, she has trained to give her a cookie. Spoiled brat is what she is!!!! I don't have any idea why she would take the cushions off, when she could have just had the whole couch to herself. Now people don't believe this part, but she knows how to change the channels on the remote. She knows that if she hits the big button in the middle, sooner or later, she will hit it just right. She is addicted to soap operas. I don't watch them, but when I'm gone and come home, she's watching her soaps. She's so funny.
So I guess that we flood really, really, really bad here, she and I will climb up on the kitchen table and I'll just read a book. As for Comet, she can sleep anywhere. It doesn't bother her. So I'll check back in with you and let you know where Comet ended up sleeping. Does any one else have a dog or cat that watches TV? Or changes the channels????