Random Thoughts

Sometimes, often in fact, after writing a blog post and reading comments, I realize I wasn’t very clear in what I’m trying to say. I should learn – Vince never seems to understand what I’m saying. Apparently, I write/talk the way I think . . in disjointed, “makes no sense” bits and pieces of sentences.

The Okra:

There was a bit of confusion the other day when I said I’m getting a ton of okra. We don’t eat it with every meal . . just every other meal! Not really. But, I doubt we have a garden again – at least not any time in the near future. We don’t have a well at the new house, can’t have a well at the new house and water is expensive. Most of the time, there’s sufficient rain but sometimes there’s not. When I was there a week or so ago, I did have to water a bit. Paying for water makes it a bit expensive to grow vegetables. So, all the okra I get now, I freeze dry it. It should last for at least 10 years. I mean – the quality should be fine for at least 10 years. I do not mean that I can harvest enough this summer to last us for 10 years. I would love to leave here with 100 quarts of freeze dried okra but by the time we move that much stuff . . again, it’s cost prohibitive. Life is tough! 🙂

Perspective:

I talked about perspective the other day. Here’s something that I think is really funny – in a weird way. I’ve never thought about this before but when something happens – especially something that’s not ordinary for me, I tend to interject my entire life into that situation. Now, it’s moving. Almost every single thought is about moving. I use some specialty pan and I wonder if I use it enough to justify keeping it, moving it, and cluttering up the new house with it. I look at books and wonder if I’ll miss them forever if I get rid of them. I picked up wrapping paper that I bought on sale after Christmas last year and wonder if I should give it away and buy new paper when I get there.

But what I was really thinking about – I’ve seen so many pictures of damaged houses from the hurricane on Facebook, pictures friends and family have sent me, that now when I see a picture, I’m looking for damage – even if it’s a house that’s not in Louisiana. Last night I was looking at a youtube video of cross-stitched houses and found myself wondering if I’d see one with a tarp on the roof. That tells me it’s time to change the channel and stop looking at pictures of the damage.

There’s so much to think about these days. Sometimes I think my brain is overloaded!

Family:

For those who have asked about my parents, they’re going home today. They’ve been gone since a day or two before the hurricane hit so they are more than ready to be home. Still no power but they do have water. They have generators and they have a window air conditioner. Mom has a sewing room that’s separate from the house and they have a mini split a/c in there. They can run that off a generator and there’s a bathroom in there so they can either sleep in there or put the window unit in a bedroom in their house and sleep in there. They have the holes in the roof covered so no more water is coming in. The front door won’t open and close . . something happened to the house during the storm and it doesn’t seem to be “square” any more but they still haven’t had contact with their agent or an adjuster so they’re just waiting. Their stove is electric and I doubt my dad has it hooked up to run off the generator. They have canned foods that they’ve canned and MREs are plentiful in the area. Lots of churches from all across the south have big trailers set up to serve meals so there are hot meals being given away in plenty of places. They’ll do fine. My biggest concern is security. It’s a crazy place down there now.

OK . . that’s all I’m thinking about for now.