Wow, 114,000 dead. Unbelievable. And the losses continue to accumulate. Nature. Awesome, beautiful, powerful, deadly. The hurricane season was hard to comprehend, this surpasses that by far.

Well, in my little protected world things are some better but still experiencing small glitches! This morning it is a forklift alternator. So far no one has been able to cross reference it. I had figured someone in Lubbock would be able to do it but Rian has almost run out of contacts and to no avail! H is for Hitachi! To be "American made" anymore just means the components were assembled in the good ole' U.S. of A, they don't say where the components come from!

I was needing some supplies yesterday that the farm store had run out of and Krl needed to go to town, our laundry had built up over the holiday and it just seemed the logical thing to do was to go to the laundromat instead of trying to accelerate the process with the small washer/dryer in the trailer. So, if you are going to drive two hours to town and back you had better make the most of your trip! Enter grocery list. I took Krl to the laundromat and helped her lug all the clothes inside, then I headed to Wal-mart and other stops. I believe I cris-crossed Walmart several times over. I tried to do my list where I would only have to go to the pharmacy section once, but I found I had to make repeated trips. Some of it was just dumb on my part, like picking up just on salt and not Epsom salt (no, Epsom salt is not in the spices!). It was a beneficial trip, we shouldn't have to go back to town until we need dog food and that means Midland and Petsmart!

Speaking of hounds, Krl and I are are going to be grandparents again! We are expecting grandhounds! Ollie called me and told me they were invitro-ing Witleigh, her English bulldog with ten fertilized eggs! She is excited!

For Christmas, the GM gave Krl and I a ham, not a half ham, a whole ham. It is huge! In the past we have always found a meat market that was willing to cut it in half or into ham steaks which made it much easier to store. Living in an RV you have limited refrigerated storage. We had actually lucked out because while the weather was cold we had it in a thermal bag in a cooler outside our door. Said cooler had ice and water, totally engulfing our prized ham. Actually the way it worked we had an Igloo cooler filled with a block of ice which had our ham inside. We didn't have to worry about it until yesterday when the thaw finally made its way through on the top side.

Krl and I were doing a stroll down memory lane, remembering times gone by, before we became spoiled to all the amenities we take for granted! I had to tell Krl my memories of the Roscoe Locker Plant. The community center sits on this site now. The Locker Plant would slaughter and process your beef or hog and then store it for you. You had large drawers, much like a bank deposit box except they were larger and it was much colder! Every so often you would make the trip to the locker and get what meat you needed or a storable amount. It used to be one of my favorite place is the summer! Another favorite memory is of the old ice house! My grandad and I would go by and fix our water jugs. The iceman would take a block of ice and put it in the grinder and fill the jugs totally with ice which we would then fill with water! On a lucky day, my grandad would pick out a water melon and have the iceman put it in the vault to cool until later in the day! Oh, for the good old days!

FATHER I continue to ask YOUR blessings of all those affected by the tsunami and quake. Be with those who have suffered loss. Be with the relief efforts! I pray for calm and order for those living in these areas. FATHER, I pray for Hag, for Lillie, for Maria, for Rene', for Carol, For Michelle, for Aimee, for Rusty and Kim's baby, for Kristy's sister-in-law and her baby, I ask that YOU bless them with YOUR healing. I thank YOU for blessing S & P with child, I pray YOU will be with them through this pregnancy. FATHER I pray for those of us ailing spiritually. Help us to surrender it all to you and to lay it at your feet. Fill us with YOUR spirit. I call upon YOU LORD!