What a week!

What a week it's been! Hard to believe just last Thursday my daughter and I were spending some "end of the summer" time relaxing in the pool. Well, relaxing until I realized there was a snake swimming with us! He might have been small, but he was fast! I finally managed to net him so we could swim in peace.

The rest of the weekend was spent packing and taking care of last minute things. Even though my daughter is in an on-campus apartment with a kitchen this year (and is a good cook in her own right), I prepared some of her favorites dishes as a farewell. I also baked bread and tried the blueberry muffin recipe using chocolate chips this time. Yum!

Sunday was spent driving and moving in, all the time keeping an eye on Gustav. Monday we drove to my sister's house for a fun visit. We went out for lunch with her, my niece and my two great-nephews. Always an entertaining crew!! By that time I knew if I wanted to get home before all the rain I had to get going. I dropped my daughter back at her college at 4:00 and arrived home at 9:00, only driving in the rain for about the last hour.

It still amazes me that a hurricane making landfall 300 miles away can cause so much damage! We ended up with 9" of rain at our house. My husband said it was the first time he had ever seen water going over the spillway of our pond in addition to the two pipes. As of yesterday, there were 90,000 Entergy customers without power in Arkansas and no telling how much flooding and wind damage. After getting 10" of rain on our bean crop a few weeks ago, we're still waiting to see what the wind did to our rice crop this week.

Every evening our inside dogs go out one last time before bed, always hoping there will be a bunny in the yard to chase. Of course it was Tuesday evening with the wind blowing and the rain falling that their wish came true. The chase was on the minute the door opened and no amount of hollering on my part could stop things. Unfortunately, the rabbit didn't manage to escape in time. So... there I was in my nightshirt and raincoat trying to corral dogs (by this time my outside dogs were trying to get involved on the other side of the fence) and dispose of the rabbit.

Yesterday, after taking the summer off from my craft group, I arrived at the church to find that our craft room had flooded! Our church serves as a Red Cross Shelter and some of the evacuees volunteered to help clean things up. What a blessing! I recognized some of the faces and realized many were folks who had stayed at our church during Katrina/Rita.

Hopefully things will now settle in to the usual busyness of fall, without the added drama. Here's a fun distraction to end with: Flying Use your mouse to steer.