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OK, I’m back but ready to hit the “hunker bunker” if need be.

I was really upset earlier tonight because my daughter said something about the babysitter’s family attending some sporting event between Pineville and Tioga High Schools. When I checked my e-mail earlier and saw the first NWS tornado warning heading straight through Pineville and Ball, I tried to contact my daughter but she didn’t answer her cell or text me back for quite some time. At that same moment, someone watching the TV in the break room at my job announced that a tornado had just touched down in Tioga. I finally got through to the sitter and learned that she had kept the younger children at home, but the teenagers went on their own to the game. When the teens returned home, they were soaking wet. Everyone parked their vehicles up on top of the lawn because last week they were underwater from the flooding two days after Gustav.

I was scared to drive home to Pineville because I expected all sorts of flying debris in the road, but we made it OK. Still, there’s this ominous clicking sound coming from the drainage ditch behind our apartment building, and a small lake is forming in the backyard. I hope no one has tossed tree branches in the ditch which would impede the flow of water, or it’s going to be a major mess back there this weekend.

We still have some MREs left over from last week, so we have no intention of venturing outside tomorrow — it’s the general consensus that things are about to get considerably worse as the weekend progresses. I’m just grateful to have Saturday and Sunday off, because the morons at my job refused to close early — again. You’d think they would have learned something since the place flooded after Gustav. They were barking over the PA system, “Please disregard the rumors on the floor that there is a curfew. THERE IS NO CURFEW!!” Sheesh, God forbid that the Mayor of Alexandria should take preventative measures in the face of multiple NWS tornado warnings which specifically mention Alexandria and Pineville in them and include the times that the tornados will arrive!!

OK, rant off. My breaks at work were too short to get caught up on these threads, so I’m doing that now before the power outages start (though I am kinda morbidly curious if my new backup battery works).

The accounts of Galveston make me very sad indeed. I went with my daughter and a family friend to a group luncheon at a place called Fish Tales on Seawall Boulevard last summer and was planning to go back there again someday. We rode on the ferry and walked on the beach and couldn’t get over the number of seagulls. Doesn’t sound like we’ll be able to return any time soon; it’s heartbreaking.

Prayers for everyone tonight...this song keeps going through my head: Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground (also covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers).

http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/stevie_wonder/higher_ground.html