Not one single raindrop...

That's what we got from Gustav, and that's not a complaint. I watched the news on CNN the other day, and saw all the cars lined up on I-10 as the residents of New Orleans and the surrounding areas in Louisiana tried to get out of their state. Just a couple of years ago, we were in the endless traffic on I-45, driving away from the coastal area here before Hurricane Rita came through. Luckily then, as now with Gustav, Rita didn't do much to this area. But everyone left anyway, after seeing what Katrina had done to New Orleans.

This time, I saw only two houses with their windows boarded up with plywood... the one house on our street whose owner always boards up his house at some point during hurricane season (and any time the wind is strong enough to fly a kite), and a house on the next street with not only plywood up against the glass, but two-by-fours nailed up across the plywood sheets. Guess he didn't have much faith in the weather reports about Gustav.

So for right now, Gustav is a memory that never happened. Now we've got to watch Hanna and Ike, and heaven only knows what "J" storm will be following them.


The political stuff.... I don't know which is more entertaining-- listening to my next-door neighbor V talking about the Republican vice-presidential candidate, or listening to my cousin L talking about the Republican presidential candidate. V gives me her opinions on the governor from Alaska as we walk around the Greenbelt after dinner. L tells me about McCain's military career over the phone as I page through a magazine and mumble "Mmmm" every few minutes.

And to both my cousin and my neighbor, when McCain first introduced the "regular hockey mom from Alaska," I said "How on earth can she even be thinking about taking such a job when she has children to raise, and especially the baby who isn't even a year old yet?" And then, the very next day, we hear about the situation with her seventeen-year-old daughter. I won't even go into that situation because I agree with Obama.... the families, especially the children, should be kept out of this whole thing. So in my opinion, the mother from Alaska should straighten out things in her own house before she tries to straighten out anything in the country.

My cousin L tells me that the vice-presidential candidates will have a televised debate pretty soon. Well, that should be interesting to watch, but I haven't made up my mind yet if I will take the time to watch it. I don't think there's a single thing that the hockey mom can say to make me think that she shouldn't just stay up there in Alaska and take care of her children.