Please Stay, Chilly Weather

It rained yesterday for the first time since Ike hit. I could almost hear the people of Galveston and Harris county biting their nails as their roof tarps and new roofs were put to the test. That rain meant that my insurance adjuster had to postpone her visit until Thursday. That's not too bad though, since I don't have work to go back to yet and can deal with a change in appointment. I am tentatively set to go back October 20th, over a month after the hurricane.

The rain did bring in something exciting - cold weather! I guess it's more chilly, than cold, but I still love it. I opened the windows yesterday after I let Callaway outside and realized it was colder outside than it was in my air conditioned house. It is 67 degrees inside right now and I'm loving it. We usually keep the thermostat set around 76-78 degrees, so this is a delight. It is probably a short lived cool bout, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm sure that everyone in who is still without power is enjoying this.

After I opened my windows yesterday, I started cleaning the house. I also like being able to open the windows when I clean so all the cleaner fumes don't stay in the house. Again - LOVE IT. Anyhoo, after cleaning I headed down to Galveston to hang out with Ariel for the rest of the day. We went grocery shopping. Twice. Ariel and Robert invited Travis and I over for dinner that night and she needed to buy the food. When we got to the first grocery store she realized she had forgotten her list. We sat at the front of the store while she tried to remember everything and re-write it. She did pretty good and only forgot three items, which meant back to the grocery store for us. Neither of us had anywhere to go, so it wasn't a big deal. The second trip we just walked to the store across the street from her apartment and made sure to keep our eyes peeled for muggers.

The island is still in complete disarray. Many of the stoplights are still not working. There are still boats lining the interstate and sporadically across the island. There is more and more trash everyday as people work to gut their property. Ariel told me that they have started a new trash dump right when you first enter the island. I'm going to drive by today and see if I can get a photo. Here is a pic I took with my camera phone of the existing trash pile. It takes up a lot more space than my little phone could capture, but you get the idea. See the crane on top of the pile? It smells horrible all over Galveston.

Robert said that a 65-year old man that is working with him to gut a business in downtown Galveston got sick a couple days ago with some respiratory infection. It's probably related to the mold spores and who-knows-what-else in the air. That place really scares me right now.

Ariel's apartment complex is working on rebuilding the first floor. There are refrigerators lining the parking lot that need to be carted off. At least her building has been gutted from the floor up to 4 feet (that's height of one sheet of drywall). Ariel was mad because she walked around her building and picked up all the trash only to have her downstairs neighbor throw every piece of trash that they had out the back patio, plus their washer and dryer. Another guy threw out his red velvet couch, without cushions. I know people are mad about what happened to them, but the least they could do is bring their trash out to the street. And in bags maybe? The island looks like crap as it is, can't they just do their part to help it along?