Katrina and the Retreat

As you can tell I have not updated the blog for a couple of days. I have been fairly focused on work and Katrina. In all honesty I am becoming some overwhelmed with the hurricane from the lack of response from the Feds to the situation and my feeling of survivals guilt( not really) but I have to admit my life is pretty good. I am dry, I have food in the cupboard, gas in the van a job and my family is all OK—to my knowledge. Mark A is moving in a week and he needs some help in moving and there is littler I can do except maybe throw some money at him to rent a van or purchase some supplies to feed those who do show up. I m so thankful I have no challenges like those living on the gulf coast. I have just a little more to say about the events of this last week then I hope I can let the event go.

My mother in-law and all of my wife’s people live round NOLA—one of the sisters was able to get mom out a couple of days before the hurricane. Moms house and the huge oaks survived the big blow. Mom did loose her shed in back these were acceptable loses. Mom is OK and the rest of the fam is OK. We have been blessed and life goes on and so do we.

The long term situation for us and I am not naïve enough to believe that we here in Utah will not be affected by these events. The price of petrol has risen but not too bad. I use public transit for the most part. I am worried about food. I want to get some case lot items, spam, corned beef, fruit vegetables maybe stew and soups in the can just for back up. I usually don’t collect produce but maybe this year I’ll collect more squashes and taters then usual. I may even try drying some items. But enough said for now. There is a definite autumn wind blowing today. It’s not a cold wind but the clouds are dark, menacing and hugging the great Wasatch range. In fact today the temps are forecast for the low 90’s. The feel is Fall and thatbWinyer and cold is close at hand.

Enough of natural disaster and impending doom of the dark cold months. The retreat was surprisingly cool. The eve was short only 6 hours counting lunch. The event was held at a golf course country club—a cathedral to American decadence prestige. Good food and third world servants. We danced round issues of the office most significant the leveying of a dress code i.e. no wearing of jeans excerpt on Fridays. No shorts, Capri’s—the usual stuff. This stuff is OK . The real issues were lightly touched upon after lunch and then we all split. The boss had to leave early so did everyone else. We had an assignment to watch a TV show later in the afternoon but I promptly forgot. So I wonder if I am liable to the State now, a couple of hours. We are having a major retreat next week at a local tourist hole up in the mountains. The major part of the center on making sure everything is ready for the Council retreat.

I am including images of my week now. This way I can use the images I take during the week but may not have anything to do with a specific daily blog.

I liked this image--the flag is much more impressive if you click on the images and see it byself. I love the building--there is a great jazz bar in the basement of yhis place.

This wall art is currently being painted on thre back of of Sam Wellars, a used andd new book shopp in Downtown Salt Lake City. These books are huge and facinate me. I cut through these back allies on my way to catch my evening train.

Here is a closer view of this image to better appreciate the detail.