Rooted in Mississippi

Once again, we are approaching EGA National Seminar and there is a hurricane aimed at the Gulf Coast.  Three years ago, all of our lives changed when Katrina hit.  Lisa, Cynthia and I were scrambling for gas. Ben and I were cleaning up debris.  It seemed so surreal when we made the decision to go to Atlanta and leave our loved ones behind to deal with things.  Yes, we had already paid for the event and we were planning to stay with my mom, but it was still a tough choice  When we finally got gas, after getting into line at Sam’s at 4 AM, we felt like it was the right one.

It feels sort of ominous with Gustav passing over Cuba and Haiti and then heading into the Gulf Coast.  I can only imagine what the people in New Orleans are thinking and feeling with most of the projected paths coming straight through their city with its barely patched levees.  I was relieved to hear that the mountains in Haiti helped break up the system and take away some of its power.  Maybe I am falling prey to alarmist newscasters who want you to remain glued to the television.  It is hard to know, but by time the remnants of Gustav make it to Jackson, I will probably be in Louisville.

At least we are better prepared now than we ever were before Katrina and I am no longer “key personnel” at a hospital. I am more worried for other people, especially on the coast and in NOLA.  If our electricity has not been right since Katrina, what does that mean for them?  How much of our infrastructure is sub-par?  How much of an insult can it take before it all falls apart again?  Deep thoughts, I know, but the idea of another hurricane coming so close to the anniversary of Katrina weighs heavily on my mind.

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I met Lisa for lunch at Keifer’s, then made a trip to Joy’s to get a skein of Needle Necessities to finish off the other side of my Dragonfly biscornu. As usual, I found a few things on clearance that I thought I could use. This picture is of my haul over the last week. Everything, except for that one skein of Needle Necessities, was at least fifty percent off. I got a variety of odd cuts of linen in different counts and colors, which will be good for stitching smalls.

I am looking forward to EGA National Seminar, in part because my stitching enthusiasm is back. Also, Cindy found me a Gazelle 2 floor stand in Chicago! The timing is good too, I need something to distract me and keep me interested in needlework. It is hard to believe it has been two years since Katrina and National Seminar in Atlanta.

Now for the requisite doggy cuteness. This was actually taken a few nights ago. Princess has been modeling Louie’s behavior; when I get up, she sometimes sneaks into my spot on the sofa.  I am currently working on the project sitting on the TV tray table.

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For the first time, I had some trouble upgrading to the newest version of WordPress. When I went to reactivate my plug-ins, it gave me the write post page and when I went to the write post page, it gave me the plug-ins page…only none of it worked. I went back, held my breath while I deleted a bunch of files off the server, and then reloaded the latest software. I am glad to say, everything seems to be working again. If anything is funky on commenting, please let me know.

Now for the important stuff! We meet with Princess (the aforementioned Katrina dachshund) and her foster mom today. The whole family loaded up in my little wagon, stuck Canine Lullabies Volume 1 into the CD player, and headed for Hattiesburg, which is about halfway for all of us. I am pleased to say that the visit went swimmingly!

The boys got along with her, although there was not as much commotion as I expected. Dachshunds tend to get very excited when they meet another dog with whom they can see eye to eye. I think all of them were a little subdued after the long car ride, plus it was hot as blue blazes out there today. Princess is almost exactly the same size as Louie, but a tiny bit grayer, with larger eye spots and a shorter snout. You would never have guessed that he is twice her age.

That said, the most important thing is that Princess and my husband hit it off immediately! She jumped up to greet him before she even noticed me and when he was walking back from a bathroom break, she started wagging her tail as soon as she caught sight of him. He talked about her the whole way home and even at dinner. Not surprisingly, both her foster mom and I noticed the connection between them immediately. She and I talked about it extensively when I called her back tonight. We are all in agreement that this looks like a good match. Now I have to pass the home visit and Princess has to get re-vetted, but it looks like we will get to be her forever family! She has officially been moved to the “Adoption Pending” category. Yeah!!!  Keep thinking those good thoughts for all of us!

In one of those odd coincidences, we met her on the one year anniversary of her being turned over to rescue, which why she has to go through the veterinary process again. She was very lucky to have had such a wonderful foster mom all this time and I really look forward to the next step in the process, because that will bring us closer to having her come home to live with us.

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I am headed to Atlanta for an informal family reunion. All of my mom’s kids will be there, some of the husbands, and most of the grandchildren. Too bad the boys do not like long drives or I would take them too! Instead, they get to stay home with daddy.

Speaking of the boys, Oscar is doing much better, but his stool privileges are still revoked. He has to take the dachshund elevator (aka mom) to get on the sofa now. Sometimes he likes to make me do the chicken run…you know walking bowlegged because you are squatting, with your torso bent toward the ground and arms extended toward the floor…like you are chasing a chicken.  We have been talking about adopting a senior or special needs dachshund, but Oscar’s trip to the vet was a wake-up call.  Neither of them has ever been alone and this is probably the best time to bring in a companion dog.

I spent a lot of time looking at dachshunds who need placement and some of the stories are just heart wrenching. It never occurred to me that so many dachshunds would wind up in need, but there are a lot of them.  I found two males (Bart and Sam) at the Humane Society in Greenwood and contacted the shelter, but they are not neutered. I also found a female Katrina dog from the coast and a male in Baton Rouge that was surrendered because he did not like children. I am really interested in finding a good match, a dog that will fit in with the boys and be a good companion. The foster mom for the Katrina dog has already called me, so we could talk about her some more. She is about seven years old and a little overweight, but otherwise in good health. It is a long process, made longer by the fact that I am heading out of town shortly!

Oh, and thanks for all the birthday wishes.  I was an early summer birthday and the youngest of five, so it tended to get lost.  When Minnie was alive, she always made me a cake.

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Since I am feeling better and getting back into the swing of things, I thought I would play along with “Getting to Know You” Wednesday at Create a Connection today.

“If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you be? You’d be able to do what you love and make money. Your spouse, children, significant other, pets-all would be able to come with you.”

I loved Provence, especially Arles. I did fantasize about living in one of those wonderful old places, playing dress-up with the Arlesians, and eating that incredible food on a regular basis, but I could never master the French language! The world is big, there are lots of places I would love to go if I could pick up my life and transport it with ease. I look forward to seeing more of it in the coming years.

More realistically, we used to daydream about retiring to the Mississippi Gulf Coast one day. Of course, that was before Hurricane Katrina. With the new rules and building regulations, we could never afford to build there. I also used to want to fix up my husband’s family cabin, but I have come to realize that there really is no point. The property has been repeatedly vandalized, because it is secluded and times have changed since his grandfather built the place.

There is a silver lining. I genuinely like my life here in Jackson and am perfectly content to stay.

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Okay, so Karin arrived at my house at 6 AM and we drove to Cynthia’s, then we continued on to Ocean Springs for ROC Day 2007.  I had brought some cash, thinking I would be tempted to spend it with the vendors, even though I am on board with the whole use your stash in 2007 campaign.  It was good to see so many people in attendance.

After we left Ocean Springs, we stopped to shop a bit in Gulfport, then drove along I-10 through Long Beach and Pass Christian.  Karin had not seen the area post-Katrina.  It was a somber drive.  So much is missing.  A lot of the debris is gone, so it is just a matter of what is missing more than what is damaged.  Miles of businesses and homes are just gone.

As we drove back, Cynthia somehow missed I-10 and after what seemed liked forever, Karen noticed a sign that said Parrish and thought we might be in Louisiana.  I started to laugh cackle hysterically and a little inappropriately, so Cynthia pulled into the Dedeaux Community Grocery to ask where we were and how to get back on track.  I could not stop laughing.  We were indeed still in Mississippi and on a back road that would take us to Cynthia’s eventually.  Whatever it was, it helped us all shake off some of the sadness from seeing how slow Katrina recovery is in some areas.

Later that night, we arranged to meet with a lady in Hattiesburg, who was selling her spinning and weaving stuff due to ill health.  At this point, most of my sanity resolve was gone.  I ended up buying a Wee Peggy spinning wheel, ten cones of 100% Alpaca yarn, three cones of nylon, and two spinning books.  Cynthia and Karin bought a LOT less, and we were already talking about going back for a second look.

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Cynthia already posted this, but I thought I would put my own stink on it.  My husband and I have visited the D-Day National WWII museum in New Orleans and it is a fascinating experience.  They have a lot of first hand narratives, incredible memorabilia, including film and audio clips.  I have been wondering how they fared post Katrina. 

During WWII there was a Red Cross “Knit a Bit” program for folks to knit socks, muffler, watch caps and more for our troops and POWs.  Now, Cynthia discovered that they are doing this “Knit Your Bit” project and I love the idea.  I will have to go upstairs and check my stash to see if I have the right colors.  What a wonderful remembrance for our WWII vets. 

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Hurricane Katrina was not enough to make the Mississippi Gulf Coast give up hosting ROC Day 2007.  They moved the event to Ocean Springs, but it will be happening!  Register now to show your support! 

I had a blast at ROC 2006 in Lake Charles, LA.  It was a joy to spend my money with vendors and spend my time with other fiber fanatics.

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We made a trip down to the Gulf Coast together, ostensibly to pick up a loom, but I also wanted Ben to see the damage Katrina left behind in the area where he spent so much time as a young man. We went to see the cabin and it was in surprisingly good shape, but there were a ton of trees down all around the property. This is a photo of my husband ahead of me, trying to find a way through the debris.

If you are interested in all the pictures, then you can check the Katrina page on my website.

We tried to get to some property that my husband owns co-jointly with family in Henderson Point, very close to Annie’s restaurant. My husband has very fond memories of Annie’s, but it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. There is a Before and After on the Biloxi Sun Herald website. We both wondered what the property looks like and where exactly it is situated. It was just too close to the washed out bridge to Bay Saint Louis and the road was blocked, so we gave up on the project. Henderson Point was one of the hardest hit areas on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and only a handful of houses remain and there are all sorts of new building regulations that will hamper rebuilding. Apparently, there was another way onto the peninsula, but we gave up long before finding it.

As I mentioned, the reason for the trip was to pick up a LeClerc basic floor loom from a potter and sculptor in Saucier. Checking the LeClerc Loom History page on Camilla Valley Farm, I think it is an “Initiation” model just based on the photographs. Right now, it is still in the back of my station wagon, but it is very basic with a minimum of parts. It is just a guess, since I have never seen it assembled. It was pouring rain when we got back to Jackson, so I left it there when we got home.

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On Monday, I was surprised when I came home and found that the back yard had already been completely cleared of the last of the Hurricane Katrina debris. It has been nine months…nine long months…I was just so excited that I went out back to snap a photograph. Except for a distinct lack of grass and other ground cover, it looks pretty good considering.

Of course, then I took a trip down to the Gulf Coast, and somehow I lost my enthusiasm for the clean-up. Things are still so awful down there. There is so much destruction, so much that is just simply GONE. I felt a lot of shame for ever complaining about my yard.

I also finished my last watercolor painting from Laurel’s class. I might try to take a better photo this weekend during the day. As you can tell from this photo, it is still wet! The subject was obviously glass bottles on a table. A combination of colors and varying degrees of transparency. I enjoyed the class, but I feel like I have barely scratched the surface.


Just one more day of work! I have to file my final expense report, finish up a lot of things, process out and, of course, there will be a party.

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