What a Week, Weekend, I need a DRINK!

Well, finally i have posted another blog thing. it has been awhile. well since i have last made an entry many things have happened. i preached a sermon, my sister moved to Orlando, my dad got married, and oh yea there was that hurricane known as dennis that hit where my internship is. well let me first just say that i am exhuasted. it was a long weekend or at least a long week.

last week before i was going to leave to go to birmingham, i found out about this storm that might hit pensacola. i didn't know what to do. i have never felt so much helplessness in my life. this whole city was anxious because it had only been ten months since ivan. and this city was still pretty wounded. so on thursday, I started to gather my things to take back with me, because i didn't know what was going to happen to the house i was staying at (more on that later). i also boarded up my first house, it was Randy my supervisors house, who by the way was on vacation and came back for one afternoon to board up his house from dennis the menace. after we boarded up the house, i had to go to the church for a last minute (that afternoon) called session meeting. at this meeting my nerves were beginning to become a little shot. we talked about who to call if the storm happens, if we are going to have church service since the storm was predicted to come sunday morning, other things to prepare.

well after the meeting i went home to birmingham that night. to begin the weekend i have been not looking forward to very much. on saturday my dad was going to get married. i had some family in town so that always makes a stressful weekend more interesting. on friday morning while dennis was churring for pensacola, i played golf with my future step-brothers (wow that's weird to type or say). that was fun. on friday night i wanted to hang around my house, since it was the last real night that my dad would be living in it, but i did not get my wish. instead my dad forgot to mention to me that we were going over to susan's (my dad's new wife (wow that's really weird to type or say)). needless to say i was not real happy about this. i almost didn't go, i really did not want to go. but this weekend was about my dad. so i held my anger some what in, and vented to others outside my family about how pissed off i was about not being able to enjoy the last night in the house i have grown up in for the last 15 years. as you can tell i am still a little bitter.

Saturday came, and it was just weird. i honestly never would have thought i would ever see my dad get married. it something you just don't think about. and it was odd. but i was and still am getting more use to it. but that day was a long day. i needed a drink by the end of that day. luckily i was surrounded by family that like to drink. so we got back that night and it was some what relaxing to have a few or 7 beers.

If saturday was not stressful enough, sunday would be so much more stressful. on sunday, good ole dennis was coming towards Pensacola. i woke up and watch tv in bham, and was listening to the weather person tell me that the dennis was a cat. 4 hurricane and was heading straight or to the west of Pensacola. West of Pensacola not good. b/c all the hard winds are on the east side of the storm. I was uneasy all morning. i was so worried about all the people in Pensacola who were still trying to fix there problems from Ivan. I was worried about all the poorer people of the county who only had little weak houses to protect them from the 135 mph winds. it was crazy. then the storm weakened to a cat. 3. the weather person said, not to take this likely b/c the difference between the two storms was the difference b/w getting hit by a train or a 18 wheeler, no matter what you don't want to get hit. well around 2:00 the eye of the storm made landfall. i watched it all, like many of you did on tv. all the anchor people were standing in places that i have been just recently around the city. the weather channel guy was standing two blocks south of the church i was working at, and it was unreal to watch the wind and the rain that was blowing. On cnn the seen of the Ramada Inn sign blowing over next to Anderson Cooper was a mile downt the road from the Randy my supervisors house, he lives off the same road on the other side of I-10. the eye went about three miles east of where i live. i did not know what to expect when i got back.

I finally was able to get back yesterday (tuesday) morning. On my way down I-65 there where trees down along the road. As i got closer to the AL/FL border there were businesses with missing roofs and down trees and power lines. I drove into Century, FL which is one of the poorest cities in FL, and one of the hardest hit by Ivan, i was hit pretty hard by Dennis. there were trees down and power lines down. I saw three kids probably 8 or 9 raking up braches and leaves around there beat up trailor. I was thinking they don't need to have to go through this experience again, there life was probably hard enough before the storm. One of the kids had a hard hat on, and saw me and started to pretend he was a construction worker and was waiving me on past his house. i stopped and gave him and his companions some bottled water. I felt so sad.

Then i finally got to Pensacola. Lights were out and trees were down everywhere. I seemed alot of the trees that fell just missed the houses around them, which was a good thing. I noticed this the most when i got home to the house where i was staying. my house was fine, i only had a few small trees down in the backyard with some big branches down. the house next door, not so good. the house was still in place. but it was now surrounded by three large trees (two oaks and one pine). the trees in its yard luckily all fell parallel with the house. two trees fell in the front and one fell in the back over thier pool. The large oak tree in the front, the base of the tree is six feet from their house. i have pictures, for those who would like to see this unreal site.

well the power was off, and is still off. hopefully it will be back on today. it is so hot without a/c. i don't know how our ancestors lived in the south in the summer without a/c. you just sweat in you sleep. it's awful.

well as you can see, it has been a crazy last week. it's only going to get crazier, because i have to preach a sermon this sunday to a congregation that thinks God is personally trying to hurt them with hurricanes. hopefully this will be the last and only time a preach to a church after a natural disaster strikes. well from pensacola, where the beach is no more for a while, i am signing off. hopefully i will keep up better with this blog. Peace.