Lost My Respect

They are still pumping water from our parking garage. They brought out the Big Daddy of pumps today, FINALLY!

Last week we went to see Bette Midler. It was my first Bette Midler concert. She puts on a fantastic show. Here are some photos from that night.

 

 

We decided to boycott the Neil Diamond concert last night because one, we didn't have cars and a taxi would have been expensive and hard to get afterwards. Two, the mayor and fire chief of our city both asked citizens to stay off the road last night. People were traveling into the flooded Houston area from other towns, some of them probably elderly who were not familiar with our roads. High water is difficult to see at night. It was just plain unsafe. And rain was forecasted to begin again during the concert. Toyota Center said they could not cancel unless Neil did. Neil's folks put it back on Toyota Center, so we forfeited our floor seats. Curious how many people showed up. People were dying in their cars not far from the venue yesterday, and he's up on stage singing Holly Holy. Didn't seem right. Here's a tweet from him saying he wasn't going to cancel.

 

Today, Sweet Caroline came on my Ipod at work today and I cheerfully deleted the entire ND playlist. It felt good. It's going to be a long time until I can listen to him again. He has lost my respect.

Thanks for reading.

Namaste,
~b~



What the Hell?

Woke up to this yesterday morning. Mine is the white car; J's is the red Mustang. Let me back up a bit. We had one of the worst storms we've had here in Texas since I can remember. Flash flooding is no unusual in our city. We have underground parking where we live. Our condo manager parked her three vehicles there on Monday night. Rule of thumb: if her cars are there, our cars are safe. Not.

After a night of vicious lightning, rain and wind, I got up around 6 a.m. to walk the dogs before work. The elevators weren't working. Nothing new after a rainstorm. I had a stupid thought to myself, "I wonder if they're filled with water like on the Titanic." Remember when Rose goes down in the elevator to find Jack and the elevator and stairwells are filling with water?

So I took the dogs around to the side of the complex and went down the outside stair case to the first floor, cut over by the pool and opened a stairwell door which would take me to the lobby and parking garage below so I could then walk up the ramp to street level. (This is very confusing, I know.) Here is what I found when I went down the stairwell.

Reality hit that behind that door were our cars. J's was just paid off in December and I only had six payments left. When I finally made my way outside, I went up to a man who had surveyed the damage and asked him stupidly, "Which side of the garage is in the best shape? I parked in the back." I pointed. He said, "Ha! The entire garage is under about four feet of water."

So we have lost both cars; they still haven't gotten all the water out 36 hrs later. It took less than a minute of a waterfall of runoff from two of Houston's busiest streets to wipe out about 75 cars and one boat, including a brand new BMW and a Porsche. The water is contaminated with sewage and maybe even a snake or two. But we are the lucky ones here. So far seven fatalities have been discovered in our city; two are still missing. Thousands of people have been displaced, many losing their homes forever. And that's just here. Homes are still washing away into the river in the Hill Country.

So while we may have to put off our move for a few more months, we are simply inconvenienced, while others are in serious mourning.

I pray that wherever you are that you and your families are safe and dry.

Namaste,
~b~

Too Much to Talk About

Chris Botti was wonderful, as usual. We got in huge traffic jam on the way to Galveston, barely making it into the theater before the show started. I told J was should have been later because...


about 45 minutes into the show, a man and his wife came into the theater. Chris Botti stopped the show and said, "You're late!" The man said that he and his wife had a 2 1/2 hr drive from Orange, plus there was a 90-minute ferry wait. I believe it because I saw the ferry sign.


Chris Botti told them he would give them free tickets to his show anywhere. He also started from the beginning and played a few bars from each song he had already played. That's classy.


On the way back to H-town, we saw his black Lexus fly by, going about 90, towards the airport. I'm such a groupie.


We are still contemplating moving out of here. In my next post, I'm going to try to list the positives and negatives to help make a decision. Wish I had time to now, but I don't.


K21 got engaged on Christmas Eve and is getting married on the stage in the theater where she "met" her future husband while they were playing love interests in Fiddler on the Roof. Her marriage is in November.


Last Saturday, K24 was proposed to at sunrise on the beach in Surfside. Her wedding is in January.


Can you say wedding brain?


One of my pet peeves is people on Facebook who are constantly ranting about stuff. I'm not just talking about politics. I'm not talking about family illnesses or deaths or pets missing. I'm talking about being wronged by companies, sitting in waiting rooms, technology not working, cant' find this, can't find that. I'm not talking about once in awhile. I"m talking about that's the only thing they ever post.


So I've unfollowed a few friends, no unfriended. Sometimes I just can't take all the negativity, especially in such huge doses. When I get in a certain mindset, I go over to their pages, just to make sure I haven't missed something traumatic in their lives, like the death of a loved one, etc.


What I find is that I did the right thing by unfollowing them. They haven't changed. I used to post some negative stuff; now I'm trying not to. Why should my friends have to hear that crap? Ever since I saw Deepak Chopra, my mind is craving the positive.


Oh, and we saw James Van Praagh last week, too. Outstanding. Wish I could tell you about him but J and I have a date night at Luby's. Gotta run.


Namaste,
~b~

Shows! Shows! Shows!

We're going to see Lily Tomlin! I'm super excited! In the next couple of months we have tickets to also see: Deepak Chopra, James Van Praugh, Neil Diamond, Bette Midler and Chris Botti.


In the past year or so we have seen: Manhattan Transfer, Chris Botti, Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain, Vicki Lawrence, Carol Burnett, A Tuna Christmas, 102 Years of Broadway and the symphony several times.


I hope to start writing on this blog more often. I have been busy crocheting and working on my novel. I have another one planned for NaNoWriMo in November of this year and I plan to try NaPoWriMo in April, only a few days away. Eek!


As a reminder, here are my links.


Around and Around (OCD Blog)


Grandma's Beautiful Smile (Facebook Page)


My Novel's Facebook Page


My NaNoWriMo Facebook Page