Since I last wrote life has been interesting. Becky wrote about the bad storm early last Saturday morning …….I was raised in Nebraska, lived in Kansas and Missouri ever since and I have never witnessed a storm like this one. Flashes of lightening first woke us and then the distant rumble of thunder that sounded like a war zone. (I don’t claim to have ever been in a war zone but I’ve seen lots of movies……)

The way the trees were whipping around in circles and the terrible clouds boiling with fury we knew we were in for a major storm. The amazing thing about it is the fact it never quit flashing lightening or thundering. Just a mass of anger approaching and then directly overhead……..and long after it left us we could hear it rumbling on to the folks East of us.

The lightening display in the rolling clouds is still imprinted in my mind……at times it was so sharp and close we could hear the sizzle of it as the thunder blasted in the next second. Hard to write about something so massive and powerful but Nature sure has the clout to hand it out. I guess it’s one of those things you’d have to go through to appreciate the full extent.

Unfortunately the towns around us took the full brunt and had downed trees and power lines to contend with. Some took the straight wind damage and others had an F-1 tornado to thank. I’m thinking we must have skirted by on the fringe of it all.

I’ve been battling allergies or something that likes my bronchial tubes. I’ve had symptoms of hay fever……and Mandy has slipped back to making a potty mess in her carpet lined cage where she sleeps at night. Not a happy sight when I look in her room each morning. She was doing so well until Tuffy died and now she apparently has some intestinal upset. So I’m on morning maintenance duty.

Ever since Tuffy died the other two house cats have been disoriented in one way or another. They’ve taken up all of his individual habits as if to carry on his memory. It’s strange to see them doing what he always did but maybe that’s the way kitties deal with the absence of a buddy. They say animals don’t “think” but either I’m a silly old lady or they do more thinking than science knows.

Napoleon has been coming up on our front porch and looking in the door mornings and evenings as if to ask for his bread. The cool weather brought on by the Perfect Storm has given him a bigger appetite…..last evening he was at the garage before I noticed he was around so I grabbed two slices quickly and called him……he turned and came on the fly……guess he was pretty hungry. Rocky told me he had been on the porch, waiting, but I hadn’t seen him. It takes a neighborhood to raise a peacock.

There is never enough sad, bad or terrible things that go on without something being a real joy. As you know I’m an avid football fan and last night was just wonderful to watch the happiness in the Super Dome as the Saints came marching in and took their fans to an emotional level that rocked the city. It was a win-win time for all and I don’t think the Falcon’s were even bitter about losing on such a historical night.

At times it seems that justice is blind and lady luck has turned her back….prayers seem unanswered and life gets hard. But ever so often, the right guys get the breaks and life looks hopeful once more.

Last night I was one of the biggest Saint’s fans. God bless ‘em.

Until the next time,
Essentially Esther