Go Away Ike, Tina's not here!

First off, I do not want to sound like I am making light of the devastation that Texas and surrounding states have suffered as a result of the hurricane. It truly is horrible. Even though what we have felt in the Midwest is really NOTHING compared with what the coast is receiving, I do think it truly shows the awfulness when even the Midwest is also hit.

Here is a video I shot this afternoon before the worst of it hit:

I felt like I was under attack because the black walnut tree 20 feet from my back door suddenly began raining walnuts and other debris onto my roof. Before the storm I had a bunch of leaves in my front yard but as you can see from the video, I won't be raking leaves! I lost my cable, internet and phone connection around 2 pm and the power sometime after that. Ugly. If we got this much damage from all these miles away, I have a hard time imagining the horror of what Texas received.

Ok, note to Kristen and Kate (Kate--I don't think I have your email or I would be emailing this instead!). I finished Eclipse and I am heart broken! I am so, so sad. Seriously, I wanted to cry but I was rushing off to meet my FCC families for an Autumn Moon Festival (yes, even without electricity!). I am sad for all of them, but especially Jake and Bella. I have never been in love with two men at once, but I did make the mistake of falling in love with my best friend (because he assured me it would be ok--I should not have fallen for that line!) and I am all too familiar with how horribly wrenching that pain is. Anyway, I'm sad but I don't know if I should just jump in and start reading Breaking Dawn or give myself a few days to digest it all. Some books just do that to me--I read The Lovely Bones a couple of years ago and I loved it, but I was terribly blue about it for several days. At least once a year I pull it out again to read, but I usually avoid parts of the book that make me cry. Same thing with Steel Magnolias; my version of the movie ends right after Julia Roberts has the baby. Real life is hard enough without adding fiction.