Bringing everyone up to date...

For those of you who continue to be interested, Ted and I are still waiting for news from the Texas Windstorm adjustor concerning our property on Bolivar Peninsula.  We are hearing rumors that power is to be connected to some parts of the Peninsula today, October 8, 2008, but we have not been able to confirm that for certain.  Most of us do not have power poles left in the ground and certainly no meters to connect to even if we get the power to our streets.

We were told yesterday that the Bolivar Peninsula Water Department is working diligently to restore water, but that it would likely be about 45 days before that could be accomplished.  So, we wait.

Power and water are the first two steps necessary to allow residents to return to the Peninsula and begin the process of rebuilding homes and lives.  Please continue to pray for the families of the missing.

In the meantime, here in Branson, we found a delightful used book store, a little like my favorite in Beaumont, Red B 4, and so I shopped for quite a while finding some replacement books for all those I lost.  Have to be very careful with all purchases here because of taking everything back home in the car. 

Weather continues to be amazing — just cool enough for a light blanket at night and very pleasant in the daytime.  The trees on the mountain sides are putting on quite a show, too.

I sincerely appreciate all of the communication from family and friends scattered across the nation.  Today would have been Mother and Daddy's 60th wedding anniversary. Wow, time really does fly, doesn't it?  

They were married in the #10 Atlanta Georgia Fire Station by a chaplain friend of my grandfather's.  Uncle Bill, Daddy's youngest brother, and I sat in the cab of a big fire truck during the ceremony and I remember thinking that it was the most exciting thing I'd ever done. In those days, the firemen still slid down shiny brass poles when the big bell was rung signaling an emergency.  At the end of the ceremony, the captain rang the bell and the firemen came down for some refreshments with the family.  I vividly remember that six decades later.

Until the next page turns,

Brenda