What's happening around here . . . ..

Sorry to keep you dangling all this time – between trips to Houston and trying to keep the house and the boys in order and on schedule, I’m spread a little thin.

Scottie is showing limited improvement. He is showing (very) small amounts of responsiveness. He is still on antibiotics for secondary infections. He is breathing on his own (through the trache), with only a little added oxygen to give him a boost.

My biggest fear is that he will stay exactly as he is – alive, probably conscious of his situation and his surrounding, but unable to interact with them. That makes any pending decisions impossibly difficult, as if they weren’t already. His neurologist says he is not progressing as rapidly as she would expect to see at this stage. That being said, it’s wonderful to see those bright blue eyes of his open, even if it is for only a couple of minutes at a time.

On the home front –

Homecoming is this week, and we are all engrossed in Mums and plans for the event.

Yawn.

OK – I know, it’s a big deal to the boys, but it just seems frivolous to me right now.

In order to run this Blog like the McBush campaign, I will now hope to distract you from the lack of substance here by providing a bit of fluff. Here are a few pictures from our evacuation weekend.

Brave Sir Robin needs to quit wearing the same shirt every time someone snaps his picture.

This is where we had lunch Saturday, The Gristmill River Restaurant, in Gruene.

Yes, beer is served by the bucket.

Inside Gruene Hall, (the oldest dance hall in Texas), Dylan won a bet by finding Leon Russel on the wall.

I met this lovely young lady, a local, in the hall as well.

I hope to visit you all soon, I'm trying.

Post Evacuation Blues . . .

I'm back home.

Port Lavaca was spared the brunt of the storm, but friends in Houston were not so lucky.

I worked today, for only the second time since the 28th of August. I spent most of the day putting my office back together from the hurricane preparations.

On top of everything else, I've had a wicked chest cold for about a week.

Scottie has progressed physically to the point where he is out of I.C.U. He has still shown no signs of responsiveness.

We wait.

Evacuation Ike - Postcard from the road . . .

I'll try to have some pictures tomorrow - I have to find where I packed the cable -

The boys and I are in Seguin. It is actually very, very nice. We are in a large rented house on the lake, with a boat dock, three levels of terrace, and HD TV's.

I'd rather be in the hospital with my baby brother. His Trache has taken, and the hospital has put up it's flood walls, and prepared to ride out the storm, which has shifted slightly in that direction.

I love you guys, take care.

k

Update . . .

I found a connection here at the hospital.

Scottie is not well, at all.

We are going to trache him today, and prepare ourselves and the girls for the reality that he is gone.

Meanwhile, I am under mandatory evacuation starting tomorrow because Ike is heading straight towards my house. The kids are with Dave and Lisa, but I am going to have to get clothes, computers, pictures, etc.... packed and ready.

It just never seems to get any easier, does it?

I'll try to stay in touch, but it may be a few days.

Goodbye Dolly

Click For Better Detail

Dolly missed us by a good bit yesterday. She went in well South of here, just above the Texas/Mexican border. As far as these things go, that was a much better place than just below the border, because the surge up the Rio Grande might have cause a devastating levee failure. (Sound familiar?)

It came in as a category II storm, so today we will start seeing reports of the damage it caused, which could be pretty severe in a small area.

Here - We really didn't receive all that much rain yesterday. Most of the day we were in between the major bands of rain. It started raining in earnest about 7:00 or so last night, and as I write this ( 6:30 AM) it is still raining. We were under tornado watch all day yesterday, but I didn't hear of any. All in all, we were spared, and got some much need rain in the bargain. Hell, I'd settle for a few days of heavy cloud cover to break the heat.

Thanks to all of you who showed concern.

Hello Dolly!

Oh, I forgot to tell you - I've got this to worry about. (Click to see detail)

Sorry about the quick and sloppy photoshop, I'm at work and very busy.