Home, a minute...

Glad your back sniper. Stay safe and take it easy.

Hi Sniper take good care of our ugly little man and his good wife. Be safe and don't overdue things. lol gail

Sniper, you amaze me! Even amidst all your devastation you're still able to crack a joke. I guess that's why we love you so much....
Take good care, and I'm watching Ike & Josephine just for you. At least at the moment he seems to have decreased some, lets hope
he blows his self out....LOL

Hi Sniper, glad you see you back. you are are always in my prayers.

teddybear

Sniper, It's great to hear that you and yours are doing OK. I sure do have a lot to be thankful for . . . and I hope your clean-up goes well. Hugs, prayers and . . . Blessings!

I had a minor set back in my plans today. We were going back to MIL's to help her ,,,,but,,, I had to pass a small kidney stone this morning. It was not large but did put a crimp in things. Matthew,,I still dont want to be king of stones...MIL did promise us she will do no yard work until we can get up there. Neighbor came over this afternoon and helped me cut the tree off of my tool shed. I think I will fix it myself , much later of course. The insurance will not pay me much anyway. They have a new twist. Its called hurricane deductable and its goes up to,, out of reach,, when ever a storm hits us. I dont know why we pay for insurance here. Its useless and expensive. almost as useless as FEMA..
We all have been hauling limbs and debris across the road for the parish to pick up. Its turning into a mountain now and most of us have not even made a dent in the mess. Dont get me wrong, I am grateful to have a house in the middle of all the mess, I am just getting too old and decrepit to do this over and over. I dont think we will do any more until we see what Ike is going to do.
By the way, just for the record, no one lives here!!!!! While watching the weather channel coverage, on our little three inch battery powered TV , just after the storm hit us , they said it would have been much better for Louisiana if the storm went into the south central coast because no one lives there..That makes us , no ones , right ? I can tell you that I am one no one that would have loved to kick that SOB square in the,,,,,,,,south central region. Ever see a weather man rotate on a microphone ????? Sort a brings a smile ...

Take care Sniper!

Oh Sniper...a kidney stone after all you've been through! I'll start doubling my thoughts and prayers for you!!! I'm amazed you're keeping a sense of humour with all you're going through - you're a remarkable person.

Wishing you all the best,

Bev

I am curious about something. So far, I have not seen very much TV and I wonder how or if the national news is reporting on the damage to La. I know many thousands of people are without power and some may be over 21 days before they get it. There is flooding in the central, upper and eastern parishes. Some have never had flood waters before. There is a great need for the basic things in some places and none at all has come to some. Yes I know it does not all run like a well oiled clock and we are being helped a lot better this time than we were for The last two, but still, look at what we do for other countries and how fast we respond to their disasters. The local news today gave places to go to for water and MRE's, but there is no gas in some places and no power to pump it if it were and no way for some people to get there. In Baton Rouge there are people dying because they are running generators inside there houses. Carbon monoxide is a killer. There have been fires started when people try to poor gas in a running generator. Some one was burning charcoal in their sink to heat food. Today a lot of people bought gas only to have there cars die, more water than gas in the tanks. We have been warned of people selling generators that do not work, contractors being paid for roofing and they are never seen again. Any of this make the evening news??

Thanks Marie, but I am nothing special. The people here have been rebuilding like this for more years than I have been and with no help at all. In fact I think they expect to get little or no help. When we got home, our neighbors had cleared and mowed our front yard.We cleared the front yard of one that is not yet home. When hurricane Andrew left us with no power or water for 18 days one neighbor had a gas stove and she cooked everything that was thawing from our freezers for the whole neighborhood. We flushed toilets and took baths with rain water from another neighbors sugar bowl ( a large bowl used to boil sugar back in the 1800s). We boiled water on crawfish boilers and took turns with the generators we had. I was working 16+ hours a day but always had a hot meal to come home too. We covered missing roofing with tarps as I could find them in near by towns that were not hit as hard. After Lily , Katrina and Rita we went yard to yard with one neighbors 4 wheeler and my trailor and loaded tons of water lilies and other debris and hauled it away . The women work as hard as the men here too. We have done this for many years and for storms like Camile, Betsy, Hilda, Juan, Danny, Leo, Andrew, Lily, Katrina, Rita, and many more like Gustav. If we have anything left we will clean up after Ike too I guess. The trouble is my body just wont do what I need to do and I wonder what will happen when I can no longer help . I dont think I could stand to have everyone else help me and not be able to give back.

MMMNAVY, those boys with the big red 1 have pulled my butt out of the fire before. People here are lucky to have them. Wish we could show them a good time and feed them some good eats.

Sniper,
Watch for disaster hopping contractors. Several were arested here after Katrina, who were wanted here in OK for scams following the big billion dollar tornado out break May 3,1999. They ran to Katrina, then returned here after they ran the scams in LA. We hear this on our local news from time to time, mostly after they stand trial here and are being sent there to face charges . Many were scammed here in spite of local laws requiring contractors to have previously pulled permits in the towns and citys where they were pulling permits for tornado repairs. Still people poured in here . When folks want to go home so badly, sometimes permits seem like a small inconvience, and people handed over the money, and bent the rules, it makes these scummies more diffacult to bring to justice.( It's embarssing to admit you bent the rules and cost yourself) Some people are really looking for work, and we tend to be good neighbors, so some really just want to help. We still issue a good number of new building permits, and hopping contractors have little reason to be hopping from here, so, just tell your friends and neighbors to watch for these Hoppers. I wish this was all over the national news, and folks had the chance to protect themselves. Guess it is to ugly/real to make good copy. UPDATE There will be lots of work here due to flooding, some related to Ike.

The best to you and Camella, I'm in AWE!

Thanks vietvet for putting me onto the new thread, I was keeping track and getting worried.