Catching up!

I can't believe it's December already. Oy vei, where does the time get to?

Actually, I do know where it gets to. It gets everywhere. Messy thing, time.

I spent about half of my October down in a little place called Hitchcock, Texas. My dad owns a mobile home park down there, and we went down to sort out some business things, and take a look at the mess left behind by Hurricane Ike.

I've got to say, it wasn't pretty. I think the nation at large has already kind of forgotten Hurricane Ike, but the repercussions in the area are still visible everywhere you go. Dad and I took an aerial tour of Galveston, where the hurricane did the most damage, and it was unbelievable. Our pilot pointed out huge areas that looked like nothing more than washed-out sandbanks, that used to be covered in homes. They haven't just been beaten up or ripped apart, they're utterly gone.

To give you an idea of what's left...


It really wasn't the hurricane itself, but the surge afterwards that left so much destruction. The water rose up to 22 feet at its height, leaving some enormous ships in ridiculous places. It'll take a lot to get them back in the water where they belong.


More businesses are opening daily, thank heavens, and activity on the island was going up noticeably even between our two trips there, but there are still a lot of boarded up shops...

And shops that need more than boarding up...
'And let's not forget the large piles of trash and debris that can be found along the road everywhere, even higher north than Hitchcock, where we were staying. I didn't get a chance to touch these photos up, but you can just see a weathered American flag in there.


Strangely enough, for me, a California girl, the saddest sight was that of the palm trees. Palm trees tend to be associated with surf and sun, and kind of gain a flippant connotation because of that, I guess, but growing up on a street that has a line of palm trees over a century old visible right from my front window, they start meaning a lot more to you.

Palm trees are tough old things, and they're built to last. That's why they thrive in places where other trees don't have a chance. But these trees in Galveston had been submerged in salt water for days. Their bark was peeling off in big chunks and they were clearly dying. That pretty much broke my heart.