As hurricanes go...

I guess this one wasn't as horrible as it could have been - but it was not fun either.

Howdy! Sorry I've been gone so long, but this is actually one of the first chances I've had to post. I'm back at work after my 1 day off since Ike hit. We've been on 12 hour shifts since the day of the storm and I am working 6p to 6a. Good thing I have not been battling fatigue issues with the MS, and what I'm feeling is just regular fatigue!

My men/women in blue down here are busting their tooshies on the streets - I've been in the office handling the younger violators and other issues with my investigations. All of us are running on generator power in our bodies, and most of us dealing with home issues as well.

On the home front - lost the fence and 1 pine tree in front... luckily when it split in half it decided to fall towards the street! The tree in back lost most of it's limbs in the back yard. We have some type of roof issue as we have water on our ceiling and already had to kill some black mold.... bleach is a wonderful thing. Luckily, we only went w/o power for 5 days. One of my co-workers still does not have power on the North side of town. Did you know brick is porous enough that it will get "soaked" through with the right combo of wind/rain? Well, apparently Ike was enough of a combo for our house - we'll see how the adjusted handles that issue - it's covered but we might have to vacate the house depending on what they deem the "problem" to be... If it molded the sheetrock, then all the insulation and all affected walls must be re-done - hence a home evacuation for a while. (That's worst case scenario and I'm trying the reverse psych trick on it!!!)

My partners' sister fared okay and only lost a part of the fence. My parners' parents lived on the island's west end. They got lucky. Our home, the sister's home, and the parents' home caught the clean side. We are doing the happy dance and singing our praises!! I feel for the east end of the island and Chambers and Liberty county (where a couple of friends have lost quite a bit - but no lives hurt/lost!). But, L's parents have a home to go to when the island gets livable again. They lost the dock, the boat (I suggested we put a pier under the bow side and make a downstairs bar of it - B liked the idea as 1/2 the boat is over the canal and half on the bulkhead - I'll get a pic posted as some point!), and all the downstairs.... including a fridge & freezer that's probably in the bottom of the canal... but all the windows, doors, stairs, and roof are okay.

We had an co-worker lose an aunt when the tree that crashed through his house fell on top of her room. We've had numerous co-workers lose their houses and had family/friends' houses lost. We, luckily, have had very few co-workers injured during the response to the emergency. Myself and my partner experienced first hand the goodness in people's hearts - and I will have tons to post about our neighbors later - as several neighbors took time away from their damage to help me with mine when they realized what hours I was working, telling me and my partner to just accept it as thanks for a job I do... I'm cried then, and I'm tearing up now just typing about it... I've had confirmation that there is so much good in this world still - among neighbors and strangers alike, as I see all the volunteers stepping up to the plate during this time and doing what they can, when they can, for complete strangers.

I have MS, it doesn't have me. We here in southeast Texas had Ike, but it did not get us. We will do whatever we can to make us thrive again - and it will be bigger and better than ever... Galveston will be even better than it was - because it will be. We, the citizens, will make it so.

So, now that I've typed your eyes off with this post - Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers during this time. I'll be back to posting normally again soon. I'm adjusting to my new normal after Ike, just as I adjusted to my new normal after my dx.

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