Hurricane Rita

Rita is a category 5 Hurricane, very frightening. I hope people evacuate. If not I hope they are well prepared for the worst and have supplies for several days.
To think that it's hurricane season until the end of November.

Deer Hunting

This morning I got a call from a friend that we allowed to bow hunt on our land for deer. He got one only after about an hour this morning, practically sitting on our deck. He just finished telling me of all the details of how it happened, and it just made my morning. First arrow shot too
(this picture is on the west side of our home where he got the deer)

No Matter What

When you love someone, truly love that person, even if they mess up or do something stupid, or if you're the one that causes the mess up, doesn't change the fact that you still love them. I would like to think that they could come to me and we can talk and work it out together. To not come to me thinking I would judge them isn't right, or because they might not want to 'hear it'. I may say yeah you messed up, but then let's choose the best way of dealing with it. Together I feel we can tackle anything. For someone not to call me for help, do they think of me as such a monster that I would harp at them over their mess up? I hope not. Sometimes the very act of what got you in the predicament you're in, is what puts you in a different thought pattern that effects your decisions in a bad way. It makes you see things not as clearly as you need to be seeing them. Please don't push away the folks that really love you. Most of us trip a few times along the way in life, no one is perfect. What's important is that we learn from it and pick ourselves up and continue on. Communication skills are very important, I often learn that my intentions are misunderstood, or taken the wrong way. Please don't misunderstand this, I love you, no matter what.

Forever Changing History

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks

Talking to our aunt that lived in Chelsea, not going out because the air was choking. Our sister in law being confused by learning planes crashed into the twin towers after she walked to work only a few blocks away, thinking how it was too clear a day for this to happen. I was working an International conference in Denver, so we set up large TV's to keep people informed of what was going on.
Remembering this day, keeps us strong, focused and united in fighting terrorism. We need to make sure that our borders are closed and monitored, monitoring our airports, train stations and subway systems as well. We need to remain vigilant in our reserve to be aware of our surroundings and report any strange behavior.
I remember a time when you wouldn't worry about such things, but today our world is a more dangerous place. We need to just live smart.

Blog Spam

Man I returned to check out my blog, and was excited about seeing 4 comments. I should have been suspicious that I got 4 comments within a short time of writing. Interesting that it zero'ed in on my previous comment of the Katrina Hurricane
So I've enabled the little wig dealie, hopefully this will help.

Katrina Emergency Preparedness

Let me first preface this comment by saying that I hope you don't think I'm a terrible person for harboring these feelings.
Why folks didn't follow the mandatory evacuation is beyond me. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the satellite photos of this hurricane demonstrated that this was a big one. The fact that we're hearing about rapes murders and looting is very tragic too. The fact of snipers shooting at the helocopters that are trying to bring relief is just craziness. Having to use troops to contain order rather than have everyone doing relief effort is stupid.
It seems that the folks that stayed behind for whatever reason mostly seem to be a mixture of thugs and those not having resources. What we're seeing now is the ignorance that has been breeding here over many years. These folks seem to rely on the government to help out in every way. I never understood watching folks walking in the water back and forth staying in the town, why they didn't keep walking north out of town I'll never know. Anything would be better than staying in New Orleans.
Most of all the disaster plans encourage folks to have a family plan intact, to be ready themselves and knowledgeable in how to access information. The local government failed miserably as well, going off the deep end. It is sad that precious hours and days were wasted because of this. Why the local government didn't activate school busses to assist folks to get out before the storm hit is curious. With the evacuation site being the Superdome also below sea level is pretty crazy as well, also that no supplies were taken in preparation to the Superdome anticipating refugee's arriving.
I know this sounds horrible, as I like to think I am compassionate in alot of ways. I guess what I mean to say is I would like to help folks already making some attempt here. For it to be expected that everything be done is crazy especially in such an all out emergency. I'm not refering to the elderly or sick, I'm mostly refering to the able bodied.
To not see these guys help each other out is frustrating to say the least. I feel like we are failing the folks that were just too ignorant to leave or that decided to stay for other strange reasons (that escape me) and are stuck with these thugs. So much for emergency preparedness. Meanwhile I hope folks survive this tragic situation.

With New Orleans being below sea level, it makes me wonder if it would be good to rebuild the city to a higher ground. I know they will probably rebuild it where it stands, but it seems to me to be a bandaid, and that this tragic situation could happen again with the next horrendous storm.

I also wonder about the folks evacuated to Houston, they probably won't have the funds to travel back to New Orleans, especially after several months of starting school and jobs and most probably will get established in Houston.

My heart goes out to all of these families that are suffering so much in these very difficult times.