pontalba

It all looks absolutely wonderful Chrissy. Thanks for the great links. I'm so sorry to hear about your step-father. Very frightening for all concerned. Sending thoughts and prayers. Well, we are past the hurricane after effects, electricity is restored, Saturday actually. There was a scare about 20 miles to our east of a lock failing, but it seems to be almost past that danger. It wouldn't have affected us, but there were about 5,000 homes at risk. They were all evacuated Saturday. We're having beautiful weather now, hot as a firecracker, but gorgeous.

Thanks! The storm is past now, finally! Hung on all day here, raining, but oddly enough, no wind since early morning. We finally lost power last night around midnight. Not bad so far, but I dread no air conditioning tomorrow. The heat will return big time. the crews are working overtime, but they can only do so much at the time. We had no damage, not even a fallen tree. So we're verra thankful for that! I'm logging in here with our myfi, not the regular computer. We were able to drive into town this afternoon, lots of trees down, and there was some serious flooding, even here on the northshore, down near the lake. I heard about 8 - 12 feet of water in one area by the river that feeds into the lake up here. We re way far away from that thankfully. Sounds like a fun day for y'all!

By us, it isn't too terrible. Heavy rain on and off, the bands of the storm you know. High winds sometimes too. But we haven't lost power, unlike the majority of the region. Of course I do expect to lose power right after the storm passes.....that's the way it does sometimes. Welcome, Fellow Bibliophile! lol

For anyone that is interested, here is a link to the live streaming weather/news video that we've been watching online. http://www.fox8live.com/category/235642/watch-fox8live

Thanks y'all! We are doing pretty well here. We bought one of those battery/surge protectors, so when the power has flickered, at least the computers didn't go out. Amazingly enough the power has not gone out up here. Even though I believe at least 75-95% of the region is out. We are far enough to the north east of the storm center that we are only getting the intermittently heavy rain and wind. Bad enough, but when I think of those communities down on the coast....Grand Isle, Braithwaite, Port Fouchon....it's awful. Ten feet of water, and although it was a mandatory evacuation in their area, some didn't leave. Not always because they didn't want to, but for example one families truck broke down at the last minute. One woman's mother is on dialysis...stories like that. These people are now up in the attic, or on the second floor of their homes waiting till the National Guard can get out there to rescue them. For those folks, this storm is worse than Katrina.

Gak. Sounds awful! You need something to wash that right outta your brain!

We've bought several bios lately. The one on General Sherman that I'm currently reading, Ernest Hemingways, one on Mikhail S. Gorbachev, one on Eisenhower...coming out in a month or so I believe. I've pre-ordered it. Oh, one on Alfred Hitchcock. and a few more that I can't recall at the moment. Well stocked.

Whoa! If true, poor lion! Having to deal with nutty humans on the loose......./hee hee/ Thanks, will do. Yeah, the fun hasn't quite started yet, Some wind, some rain, nothing much till midnight I believe. Thanks! Thanks! Wow, that was an experience! We are constantly warned not to go out in the storm, partly because of what happened to you, and partly on account of flying debris. Some of that stuff could kill you. Absolutely! Thanks

Hey Julie, Thanks. Will do. Nah, I've always stayed, even through Hurricane Katrina. Of course we're far enough north to have avoided the horrible flooding down there. We were right by the eye wall of Katrina. Not fun. The hard part with this storm is the suspense of what route it'll finally take. It'll hit here, no doubt about it, but as I mentioned in the August thread, the angle makes a big difference.

As of about 1 p.m. today Isaac became a hurricane, graduated up from tropical storm. The barrier is 74 miles per hour. By the time it hits the Louisiana coast it will be around 90 mph. All in all not a terrible storm, and not in the class of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. Oddly enough Isaac is supposed to hit on the 7th anniversary of Katrina. Wind will pick up and rain tomorrow morning I believe, at least according to the present schedule. We are on the wet side of the hurricane, and will undoubetedly lose electric power for a couple of days at the least. Communites up river from New Orleans are evacuating because of their low-lying land, and lack of levees in their area. Of course way to the south of us theyare evacuating as well. Up here, about 50 miles northeast of N.O., we will get lots of wind, and lots of rain, but my area does not flood fortunately. Part of the original reason we moved up here from N.O. to begin with back in 1995. So, we've been clearing up any loose objects that could fly in the yard, Securing same this morning. Filling water bottles and buckets, as we have well water, and when the electric power is out, we have no water either. The well pump runs on electricity. We stocked up yesterday on canned goods and the like, and filled the Jeep's gas tank. /phew/ AIE : Now they say it's not a hurricane, yet. Will be shortly, maybe on the next broadcast in a little while. The frustrating thing is all the computer generated models are different enough to not know which way the storm will hit us from. It'll hit here, but it makes all the difference as to which angle it hits.

Thanks B. He is pretty darned wonderful.

I thought it was pretty obvious that's heading for divorce too, if she's like that in general, who can live with it? A kindle won't solve much of anything IMO, she will just find something else to bully him about. But WDIK?

I don't know too much about it, I read about it a little years ago, but nothing lately. Just checked that article I linked, I didn't realize it was that old. It's about a hundred miles to the west of us. On another topic, it looks like we might get that hurricane (Issac), or at least be brushed by it. The predictions are all over the place as of now. If it comes in between here and Biloxi, Ms. it could come up to around your area with the tropical rains eventually.

I'll tell you, I had a very difficult time not posting what I thought! Of course OH's arms holding me back played a large part in that. I finally posted a little....just basically saying I had no words that were not rude to comment.

Excellent review Julie. Sounds very interesting. There used to be a leper colony in, I think, Carville, Louisiana...something like that...must google. *back in a flash* Here's an article I found.... http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-29/news/mn-62114_1_leper-colony Was the protagonist there?

Thanks VF! Yup, I can see ya up there waving frantically. hee hee Quite respectable! Oh, boy is that ever true! In our case compounded by the fact that before my husband came down here with all of his books, we'd buy the same books and read them together by skype and email. So I admit it, we have on a few occasions have 3 copies. That's not counting different editions, anniversary editions, and the like. Oh yeah, me too Chrissy, I've been fortunate in the fact OH is just as bad as I am regarding books, thankfully. I can't imagine being married to someone that was otherwise. I'm certainly too old and ornery to change. And I've never been embarrassed by anyone commenting.......I just pitied the poor sod that felt that way. /evil grin/ I must add that OH's score added to my own is around 30 in combination. I rest my case. This reminds me of a poster on another forum that posted that his wife insisted on throwing out his books as they were "clutter". He bought a kindle to compensate.

I found something interesting that I thought I'd share with my fellow bibliophiles. Biblioholism:The Literary Addiction "HOW BIG OF A PROBLEM?" 1. When you go to a bookstore with a friend, are you usually carrying more books when you leave than your friend is? 2. Do you wake up the morning after, unable to remember how many books you bought or how much you spent on them? 3. Do you, inexplicably, yank down a volume from the store shelves, open it, and shove your nose deeply into the binding, hungrily inhaling the ink and paper smells? 4. Have you ever bought the same book twice without knowing it? 5. When you go to a bookstore after work, thus arriving home late at night, do you lie about where you have been, telling your spouse you were in a bar? 6. At Christmastime, do you buy your loved ones books you want to read? 7. Have you ever given up on a book before you started it? 8. Are you unable to walk through a mall without stopping at a bookstore? 9. Do you have a personal library on an entire subject, none of which you have read? 10. Do you ever buy books simple because they were on sale? 11. Have you ever bought a book because you liked the cover design? 12. When you go to a garage sale, is the first thing you look at the books? 13. Have you ever been fired from a job, or reprimanded, for reading? 14. Have you and your immediate family ever "discussed" your book-buying habits? 15. When you watch TV, do you always have a book in your lap for slow parts and commercials? 16. Do you "watch" television sports with the sound off? 17. Does panic set in when you find yourself in a barber's chair or under a hairdryer with nothing to read? 18. Have you ever become suddenly deeply interested in an obscure topic and immediately bought six or more books on that topic? 19. Do you ever lie about how many books you've bought? 20. Do you devise grand and devious strategies for getting your books into the house to avoid your spouse's or family's scrutiny? 21. Has your book buying ever embarrassed your family or friends? 22. When a stranger walks into your house or apartment, are his or her first words usually a comment about your books? 23. If someone asks you for a reading list of the twenty most influential books you've ever read, do you happen to have such a list on your person? 24. Do you have at least six books next to your bed? 25. When a bookstore clerk has been unable to locate a certain books in the stacks, have you been able to find that book? Count up the number of yes answers. If you answered yes to more than four questions, you are looking down into the deep and woeful pit of biblioholism. If you answered yes to more than eight, you are hanging by your fingernails on the edge, your legs kicking in the emptiness and your eyes imploringly turned heavenward for rescue. And if you answered yes to more than twelve questions, you are in space right now, a full-throated scream careening off the canyon walls, and it's only a matter of time until you splat onto the canyon floor with a puff of dust and a hearty yelp a la Wile E. Coyote of cartoon fame. But then, you already knew you were kind of weird. ....................................... Biblioholism:The Literary Addiction by Tom Raabe How many have you answered YES! to?? I'm obviously careening through space, at 14 affirmatives. I love it!

I wondered the same! Congratulations on missing the wildlife too!

I'm very sorry that has happened to you Laura, it's a tough experience to go through. What everyone has said is true though, even if you can't clearly see it now. You will, in time, see that you are in fact better off without a cad that would cheat on you and act in that manner. Sending :friends0: and . I find carbohydrates always help.

If I could find the book, I'd know what to answer! lol Actually, I think I remember spying it once, but forget exactly where.......ohhhhh, the little grey cells are not up to par! If I could ever organize our books, it would be wonderful. Frankly, I've about given up on it.

Absolutely! This morning it'll only be the thin bread with cream cheese, with the tea.

Kylie, Exciting! That is a lot of driving, but sounds like so much fun. I'll be thinking of you on the road, in the outback. Take good care. Read carefully! lol

Venting is a good thing, helps lower blood pressure. I swear, Odd Jobs :Portraits of Unusual Occupations has to be the book I read some months back, and haven't been able to find since! I laughed out loud at that thing!! Loved it. Your review is on target! Hubster sounds like a good fellow, I think ya oughta keep him. /giggle/

Ghaemi claims that it was, in fact, Churchill's depressive personality itself that allowed him to see what Hitler was, and where it was going. Churchill had plumbed the depths, and had a realistic view of humans and human nature. Chamberlain, otoh, had a normal, upbeat outlook on life that was valuable during good times. He wasn't a stupid man according to Ghaemi, just unknowing of that sort of thing, so couldn't imagine anyone would or could act like Hitler. To me the latter is really a form of stupidity, but perhaps that is too an harsh indictment. Probably is. It was, at the least, a stunning lack of imagination. Oh, I couldn't admire Churchill any more that I do. He was a fantastic genius imo. So much heart. This book also gave me a new admiration for Franklin Roosevelt. I was pretty much on the fence regarding him, but I've come down soundly on his side now. As I mentioned in my review, Sherman is simply considered a terrible villian down here, but. While his March was terrible, it has to be taken into consideration that he announced ahead of time exactly what he was going to do. The 'powers that were' at the time discounted him, and refused to surrender. They couldn't believe that would actually happen. Interestingly enough, I think, that campaign can be looked at in sort of the same light as "tough love". The way the war was going at that point, it could have dragged on for far longer than it did, killing even more people, involving more generations. Sherman cut the heart out, true, but the war ended. And, truth be told, Sherman cannot be blamed for Reconstruction. That was the thing that truly killed the South. Sorry, don't mean to go on, but I find it endlessly fascinating.

I agree, but you know what they say about hindsight. 20/20 Too, remember the mindset of the place and times. Germany was being crushed by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, people were starving, literally. They'd have grabbed onto anyone that promised them a bright future, any future at all. I'm not saying that some of the terms of the Treaty were not warranted, but the truth is that a "winner" should not totally crush the subdued enemy, all it does (and did, in fact) was create a bigger and more desperate enemy. I'd not heard of that new series, but we don't have outside tv, we only stream a few things, and have DVDs. JFK had Addison's Disease, and almost died from it numerous times. He self medicated to some extent, steroids and amphetamines apparently and that had certain effects as well. His doctors finally got a hold of the situation and toned down his meds and streamlined treatment to help him. All of that affected his mental outlook. Ghaemi suspects that he was bipolar as well, partly because of family history, but was not too extreme because of the Addison's Disease....something to do with low steroids in the body and terrible effects that has. King suffered several bad depressions in his life, as did Sherman.