Life is Rough

Hurricane Katrina struck with a vengeance on the Gulf Coast Sunday night and Monday morning. In fact, it will likely be the worst natural disaster in US history. Watching the news reports makes me quite sad. Knowing that New Orleans has essentially been wiped off the map is sad. Seeing all of those poor people is sad. It’s a tragedy really. Here I sit in my nice, dry home in the Central US, and hundreds of thousands of folks have lost everything they own. It’s just so unbelievable. With each new story, it’s amazing. I feel so helpless. About the only thing we can do is give some money, and hopefully, if everyone can give just a little, things will get better for these folks. It’s pretty scary actually. People are desperate. However, disasters bring out the best and worst in people.

Otherwise, life moves on for us. My daughter is coping well with her new school. Although, last night, Hannah woke up at 1:45 am, worried about her math homework. She had a nightmare, and couldn’t sleep. She was dreaming she was doing problems, wasn’t done with all of her work sheets, and just had to get up to double check her work. She did OK, but missed a couple of items. She’s studying geometry. She’s in the fourth grade, and overall is doing well, but it was hard to see her struggle. She’s at a new school, doesn’t know many of the kids, and is starting over, again. I know that’s tough, but she’ll be OK. She’s making new friends, and in the long run, this was the right choice.

My allergies have returned. I have seasonal, fall allergies, with ragweed being my primary aggravator. Well, ragweed pollen is at its peak now, so it should be a miserable September. I take a daily allergy pill, although, some days, it doesn’t seem to do much. Oh well, I’ll live. I often take OTC allergy medication too, and this makes me really drowsy. The last couple of days, I’ve done nothing but sleep. It’s a drag really, but hopefully, I’ll get used to it.

My wine continues to age. The White Zinfandel actually tasted a lot better last week, and the Port tasted really good. My blackberry cabernet is just about done too. That’s about it for my wine making for now. I’ll let this wine age, and by Christmas, some of it should be ready to drink. It’s still an awful lot of wine. I intend to give some away as gifts, but will drinking a fair amount of it. Ha. Just call me a wino.