if you're wondering what happened after Oct. 2005...

Go to our other blog. We haven't posted here in a while.

Meanwhile, on the Other Apoclyptic Front

Hurricane Wilma. Reading the updates. Cancunkev posts pictures from his condo (or hotel?). You can see that Señor Frog is going to take a massive hit. In the first set of pictures it has already lost an awning. And the waves are taking out not just the beach, but the edge of the pavement as well. Later photos show a retaining wall being completely washed away, and the roof over Cancunkev's patio collapses. Still he uploads photos! Finally the visibility goes to 0 and the generator is scheduled to go off.

It sounds from all the reports I have read that the Mexican authorities have been efficient at getting people out of harm's way. Of course we will not know for sure until the storm passes, but every indication so far is that people are safe. Kev promises more photos tomorrow when the eye passes. It looks like it will linger over the Yucatan before turning around for Florida. That will be terrible for the residents because they are supposed to get an inch of rain per hour. The Gulf is really getting a pounding this year.

Mayhem, panic, cats and dogs living together

Right now, I'll bet the British are glad they kept their antiquated quarantine laws. The bird that was carrying the virus was in quarantine. Time to go vegetarian?

One month to go before we'll be in Britain. Apparently, the H5N1 won't be dangerous to humans unless it mutates. 150 million people is a very very big number.

I just read the article more in depth and am confused. Do they think the bird caught the virus from other birds in quarantine (the ones from Taiwan)? Or is there bird flu in S.A. as well?

Can this be true?

The BBC expects 50,000 people will die in Britain of bird flu?? Maybe someone at the BBC is getting a bit hysterical and jumping to conclusions? More likely the folks at CNN didn't think Americans would care, since they were not at risk. Not as heartwarming a story as a little sick girl pulled out of a collapsed building. I noticed that the CNN article only quoted Turkish officials. I hope for their sake it is contained. And for ours.

september remember

The hurricane missed us. Sorry Port Arthur. And New Orleans for that matter. Next week - October, all over. So hopefully this will be the thump on the head for Homeland Security to get their asses in gear. It is certainly the thump on the head for us. We have to take the boat cruising, hopefully with a destination not in the constant path of hurricanes. There really is not a lot to recommend the Gulf Coast, besides its proximity to Austin. And now they want us to pay Texas registration on our documented boat. Really. Do you know, Lewes has existed for 350 years and never been hit by a hurricane? We need to check out slip rates -- chances are the New Yorkers have driven those prices up too, but you never know.

By the way it is in the low 70s here. Time to bring out the sweaters. :-) Wish we could come home for Halloween this year though. It couldn't be as much fun as it is in Georgetown. Well if we weren't going to Morocco we could probably justify an airline trip, but you can't have everything.

Went to open studio last night and had to paint again because I forgot my eraser. I think I'm starting to prefer acrylics for sketching over charcoal. One advantage with paint is that when it dries, you can stick your drawing anywhere. Charcoal is forever skidding off and smudging everything. There was no model so we all took turns for 20 minutes each. (with clothes on. of course.) It was a little like being at the dentist's office. Excruciating and sleep inducing at the same time. I have had that feeling in traffic, when first learning how to drive: it is terrifying.

this morning

Didn't sleep much last night. Just checked and the path of the hurricane seems to have turned north. Is it enough to hope that Palacios will be spared the worst of it? Still too soon to know for sure though. There are so many people in Houston. I hope that everyone who left in their own car checked to make sure their neighbors got out. The poor Katrina refugees. They have to go through a second evacuation. Let's hope that New Orleans was the wake up call, and we don't have a repeat of the atrocities.

Did I understand correctly that inland Texas will get 15-30 inches of rain?!? I can't imagine that much water even in our swamp of a neighborhood :-)

David has a fever and headache but it seems to be getting better. If he does we might go and get a set of bed sheets (we only brought enough for 1 kids bed) and a box to hold the very cool new lego set Arthur chose for his birthday. We can't afford the $200 Mindstorm Robot set, but the record & play set (Arthur calls it the "Repeat Robot") is only 20 bucks. There is a book of 12 robot ideas. The robot brain wil repeat a simple action you record on it. We'll try to upload the picture after breakfast.

There is an offer for a Lego magazine (really an ad catalog). You can get it in French and we were really excited to order a copy, but the fine print says you have to reside in Canada. The English Language Nazis strike again.

Rotten Rita

We are watching the reports from weather underground and holding our breaths.