With hurricane preparations swirling in my head; wondering how I will get all my work done – and DVD finished by my Austin trip on Monday – I came home to discover messages from my mother… who was in pain and went to the doctor. She’d just arrived here in DC from the Outer Banks, where she had been packing up the house for a couple of days for the evacuation she knew was coming.
Long story short, I arrived at the HMO offices to discover that they had made only a half-hearted attempt to treat her, and, recalling what happened the last time she was ill, she threatened a possible lawsuit – and then they suggested that she not go home, but go instead to the emergency room. So, that’s where I’ve been since 4pm. We decided that I probably needed to get home, have something to eat, and batten down the hatches before Isabel arrives; so I handed off the my stepfather. We still don’t know what’s wrong – so I’ll be up waiting for a phone call. Tomorrow will certainly be a stormy one.
Gene(see, this is the second post in which I’ve called you by your first name, I feel like you’re a friend already),
First of all, I hope your mom is ok. The stress of evacuating probably had something to do with it.
I’m watching the news right now and it looks like the Outer Banks is getting bashed around quite efficiently. This looks like a replay of Hurricane Alicia, which hit Houston in 1983 and was a sissy cousin compared to your Isabel. But Alicia caused a hell of a lot of damage. A tornado went down my street that night and ripped very old trees right out of the ground. Downtown was a mess of glass shards from hi-rise windows. I slept through the tornado because my band had a gig the night before and, of course, a huge “hurricane celebration” was in progress at the club we were playing.
We didn’t have electricity for 3 days afterward or gas for a couple of weeks, and much canned food and fast food was consumed. Bleccch!
Anyway, hope mom isn’t too sick and that you have plenty of water, meds and batteries.
kat