We’re having a wonderful day, today. My sister and her family came down for a visit–the first one since July–and we had a really nice time. The weather is perfect, for starters–so perfect, I’m almost feeling guilty about it, what with the post-Katrina situation down south. Mike, Tyler, and Chappy played a lot and right now, Chappy is completely exhausted, but in a really good way. (And he’s going to be so excited when he finds out he can sleep on the bed tonight, since it’s a three day weekend.) Mom made a lasagne and salad, I made lemon meringue pie. Everything tasted good. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood (though my sister was fighting a headache). Just, a really nice visit. I even did some more work on my second Christmas Tree Hat.

But, yes, I periodically thought about those folks down on the Gulf, not knowing when they might again have a day like this, with family, good food, good weather, a good home…

So, some more links for you:

This couple was lucky enough to have their wedding, though not the way they’d planned it. They had planned to be married just as the hurricane hit, carried pretty much nothing but their wedding license out of New Orleans, but were married yesterday in a shelter in Mississippi–with a donated wedding dress, tuxedo, cake, flowers . . . It’s so good to hear some good news . . . and that people are really going out of their way to be kind to these survivors.

Apparently, the word “refugee” is demeaning now, according to Jesse Jackson and Bruce Gordon. They are, he says, “Citizens displaced by a disaster.” Um, isn’t that pretty much what “refugee” means?

Some sobering numbers (from AOL news):

• 220,000=Hurricane refugees (er, citizens displaced by disaster) believed to be camped out in Texas
• 27.4=Percentage of people below the poverty line in New Orleans before the storm hit
• 80= Percentage of New Orleans underwater
• 54,000=Number of US military personnel committed to provide relief to hurricane survivors
• $10.5 Billion=Amount of disaster aid approved by Congress and Pres. Bush.
• 100,000=Homeland Security estimate of how many hurricane victims received help by Saturday.

Meanwhile, we’ve got evacuated-citizens spread all around the country . . . which only makes sense if you think about it. Just New Orleans alone–you can’t take the entire population of a major city and put it all in one place.

And now, there’s a newly-named Tropical Storm Maria . . . let’s hope she’s nothing like her big sister.

  The Katrina Aid link for today: Network for Good.

Incidentally, Interdicter is still going strong, holed up in their office in downtown New Orleans. The blog is fascinating, even with its occasional military jargon (or maybe that’s part of the appeal?) Be sure to check out the webcam. SciGuy from Houston remains an interesting one to read these days, as well. And MetroBlogging/New Orleans, too. And let’s not forget our fellow-knitter, Rachel!

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