October 2005 Archives

My sister and the boys and I went to a Pumpkin Patch at a local church today. I had to take a picture of Samuel in his costume next to some pumpkins- for posterity's sake! He didn't mind having it on today for those few minutes- we'll see how he does tomorrow night. In case you couldn't tell, he's Pooh dressed like a bee.

Our store is 99% finished! Just some finishing touches left. The guys have been booking weddings and measuring people already. They open officially on Nov. 1.

Anyone do late movies any more? This is the late show here tonight. Actually, it’s a DVD we bought a few months ago. We’ve both seen it several times since we got married. It came up in conversation once and I discovered that Patsy had never seen it before. I couldn’t get over it. It was a fairly well watched favorite in the Ferrara household in the days of Sunday afternoon movies and Saturday night late, late shows. She loved it. I don’t mind light romantic comedies that much but the bar on them is so high that I’m usually disappointed. I love it, too. This one is a classic and one of our faves. Break out the popcorn. Its Showtime.

I'm just trying out my brand-new computer. Christina ordered it for me on-line and it was delivered to my door a couple of days later. That's the simplest sort of shopping trip and one I can relate to since I was in the kitchen doing something else while she was taking care of business. She talked me into getting a speaker and I'm glad she did. Beth sent me a singing turkey in honor of Thanksgiving, plus I received a very beautiful picture memorial to the victims of the hurricane and it was set to music that was just perfect. She was quick to point out that I would have missed both of those messages if I hadn't listened to her good advice. (I don't know why I try since I have never won an argument with her in all these years.)

I spent an hour with my insurance adjuster this morning. It's taken a long time for him to get here, but I was in no hurry. He's putting me in for a new roof on my house and also on my separate shed. I was surprised at this because it looks perfect. He went up on it though and told me flying debris had gouged it in many places on two sides. He thinks I should get a whole new roof though because it's so hard to match shingles. I also need new gutters on two sides where the tree knocked them loose. I have a very high deductible, plus a displacement advance of funds, and I'm just hoping the final estimate will go beyond that so I won't have to pay any of it back!

Katie and I saw a movie called, "North Country," about the coal mines in Virginia, Minnesota, this past weekend. It was good but I think they made it a little rougher than it really was. I can't believe Minnesota men would behave so crudely just a few years ago, early 90's. (The men objected to women miners and did a lot of nasty things to dissuade them.) We had to drive to another town to find a theater. I spent the night at Katie's because Robbie was having a lunch next day, and then I spent a second night so I wouldn't have to drive across the bridge at night. I had the girls with me and they did fine. Katie's Max accepted them easily which was nice. He's not much bigger than they are (a little wider is all) but he's ten times faster and they didn't know how to cope with that. Now that I know it can be done, I might be inclined to do it again.

I'm having another tree service in a few minutes. I've had three bids, widely disparate, and the adjuster accepted the highest bid to send forward to State Farm. I was grateful for that, but I need to talk about the root ball with this one today because the others didn't include that. They said someone else would have to take care of it. The adjuster said I could send in a request for an additional amount later, but it wasn't clear to me that it would be paid.

I don't have a spell check here so please excuse misspellings. Also excuse extra spaces between words. I've tried to correct that, but know I must have missed plenty. I hope that's just a settling-in sort of problem because it's really hard to catch.

This image doesn't do justice. This is a little more impressive in person. The root ball is taller than the house behind it by a considerable amount. This is on Allen Road near our house.

Patsy and I took a day off from Katrina recovery and had some family and friends over yesterday. It was a gorgeous day at CrabAppleLane. Breezy and cool (As ordered). Here are some pictures from the get-together sent to me by the Hunters. I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t take any.

Samuel is strapped in and ready to do his part in the cleanup.

The turkeys are still here and I’m glad everyone got to see them. They were fun to have around yesterday but they have to move on soon. Joey got this one to gobble at him.

So Patsy runs to our side door and says “There’s a big bird chasing Priscilla. What is it? A buzzard or something?”. I look out at the driveway and I see two big birds but they don’t look like buzzards. I got to the end of my garage and peeked around the corner. They were still there. I ran inside to get my camera but they were gone. Bummer. Missed the moment. Then Patsy says they’re coming up the stepping stones. I guess they thought they were invited over for supper.

This guy was heading up the stepping stones toward our kitchen when I came out with the camera. He was cautious but had no fear.

He wasn’t alone. His friend was a bit more shy. Patsy threw some cracked corn to them and they’re still out there dining. Their willingness to eat the food thrown at them leads me to believe they’re not all that wild but I know almost nothing about wild turkeys.

Update (8:56PM): They're still here. They've decided to roost on our garage roof for the night.

Patsy and I are having a pot luck everyone-bring-something-get-together for friends and family at our place on Sunday, October 23 from noon until whenever. Our family and friends have been in our thoughts a lot lately. They really have come through for us in our dark hours since Hurricane Katrina. I’ll have two trays of Subway sandwiches that were originally going to be for our fantasy football draft and I’ll throw a few things on the grill. All who read this are invited.

Our internet cable is still on the ground but it has been connected somewhere up the line. I don't know how reliable it is but I am going to try and take advantage of it while I have it and I'll try not to sneeze when I get near it.

I can't say enough about the help and kindness we've received from family, friends, neighbors, and total strangers.

I just had to snap a picture of my boy chewing on his toes. He loves to get them, even in the bathtub!

Our insurance adjuster was out last Saturday and took pictures of our damage. They didn't argue at all about any of the damage we were asking to have fixed. They told us they would send us a quote in three weeks with the amount that they'll pay. I guess that's when we'll have to roll up our sleeves and get into it. We had a roofer come out to measure our roof the other day and I got very excited thinking they were coming to start. Unfortunately, he told me he had no idea when he'd be back. Meanwhile, Joey got back up on the roof and hammered away at the tarps. Things in Jefferson Parish are very slowly returning to normal. A lot of businesses are still closed and most restaruants and groceries and other places of business still close at 6 or 7 PM. They just don't have the wage workers here to work the different shifts. There are "Now Hiring" signs all over the place. Burger King is offering signing bonuses of $6000 if you sign on to work full-time, $3000 for part-time. Our regular trash pick-up hasn't resumed so there are flies everywhere. There's also mounds and mounds of debris, from tree limbs to sheet rock and carpet everywhere.

Joey and I drove into the Lakeview area of town the other day. The devastation there is just unbelievable! The link Robbie posted to see pictures from Christina is of Lakeview. My former school, Saint Paul's Episcopal, is in that area. They are hoping to open a satellite school in January, but don't have a location yet. My building was just built three years ago and the gym building was just completed two years ago. They both had about 8 feet of water in them. Most of my students and families at the school lived in the area and lost their homes. I've run into some of the parents at Target (one of the few stores open). One parent has a three story home and said the top two floors are great so they gutted the bottom floor and will re-finish it. Another parent teared up and got very emotional when she saw me. She had a single story home and lost everything. She's living on the Northshore at her sister's house with her family.

Joey and the guys are trying to open John's Tuxedos by November 1. Most of the weddings in October and November have been postponed until next year. Although the officials have vowed that Mardi Gras will go on, most likely it will be just the parades. We believe that most of the balls will be cancelled, so this Mardi Gras season will probably be slow for us. On the bright side, if Joey isn't busy, then maybe we can finally take a skiing trip. I'm not holding my breath on that one!