Not for the Faint of Heart...

We went into my parents' house back in Lakeview for the first time yesterday. What can I say, it was pretty devastating, and the smell was aweful, but having seen pictures of other houses, I had braced myself. The door had been kicked in by search and rescue teams and the only sign of life was the faint chirp of a smoke detector with a dying battery...and the flies in the kitchen that had congregated since the freezer door was cracked open. Furniture was just all over the place, in positions you couldn't fathom how it got that way. One of the things that caught my off guard was the floor - as I was walking around I noticed big bumps running the length of the room under the carpet - it was the hardwood floors that had buckled because it expanded so much from being waterlogged. On the good side of things, my mother's china cabinet hadn't fallen over, so some of her china was salvagable. Everything in the attic was fine (some of my old toys were up there!), and we emptied that out today. Anyway, here are the pics I took of the house - I put descriptions under each picture - its hard to make out what some of them are. Walking around the house without much light, things didn't seem as nasty, but the flash really brought out how bad it really was.

Routines

Been back from Germany for a week now and finally getting back into my normal routines. It was weird, even the little things like brushing your teeth before taking a shower in the morning seemed to be out of wack and took a little while to just become second nature again. Anyway, its been a bit of a rollercoaster week. My sister decided not to go to Austin Community College for reasons I'm too embarrassed to mention in writing for the world to see. So she and my mother will be going back to New Orleans, or actually Metairie where they will stay with my aunt and my sister will go to UNO (at their Jefferson campus). At least they'll be out of my circle of worry there and can do something productive! We'll also be going to see what we can salvage from my parents' house - preparing myself for devastation in my face.

On the happier side of things, this weekend I attended the Texas Classic Car Show at Rudy's with siraj, my father and his buddy Dom who also evacuated here. Good time had by all, and it was nice getting to share it with my dad, since he enjoys cars almost as much as I do :) Anyway, pics here.