"Do Not Travel to Houston"

We spent the last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Henrietta at GranSan and Grandad's house. We made our yearly trek to participate in Pioneer Reunion. This year Grandad was the Pioneer Association President, which meant that the whole family -- all EIGHT of us, including the grandparents -- got to ride in a very small convertible through the parade. But the boys loved waving at the crowd, loved watching the parade, and loved the rodeo. So all in all a worthwhile trip. We would post pictures, but still have no internet access at home. Which brings me to the title of this post. We headed home Sunday morning and around about Fort Worth saw the message on one of those TxDOT electronic signs they have along the interstate now: "DO NOT TRAVEL TO HOUSTON OR BEAUMONT. HURRICANE DAMAGE." That did make us question the wisdom of our plan to return, but both Cort and I needed to get back to work. Things are mostly the same as when we left. The first thing I noticed is all the debris that is piled up on the side of the streets has turned brown. There are also more stores, etc. open -- I had no problem finding milk, which was a good thing since I had to take all four kids by myself to hunt for some. We still have no power, but we now have some fans and even a window A/C unit -- all six of us are sleeping in the master bedroom, cozy but comfortable.