Hurricanes Haunt Me (Partial Party Cancelation)

Hurricanes are famous for ruining my special days. This year is no different. For those of you who don't know, Hurricane Wilma wrecked my honeymoon and left Paul and I stranded for many days in Mexico. (See photo to the left of downtown Cancun).

As the song "One way or another, I'm gonna find ya, I'm gonna get you, get you get you" springs to mind, Hurricane Ike is (brace yourself for a bad pun) going to rain on my parade tomorrow. No, we are NO WHERE NEAR the path of this monster storm, heck, it's supposed to be 90*F and sunny! But as the Texas gulf gets pounded and oil refineries have shut down, the price of gas in our area has shot up so high (over $1 per gallon in the past 24 hours) we must cancel the driving part of Kate's party tomorrow. Of course, only because I wanted to visit the drive through ranch does this happen. Oh well, the new change of plans involves having Angelique and rest of the NC mountains branch of the family (Mom, Freddy, Auntie Karen and Dominique) come down earlier than the 4pm party to hang out in our neighborhood pool. It's predicted to be stiflingly hot tomorrow and the pool is open weekends so the party will go on, but man oh man. What did I ever do to anger the hurricane gods?

SIDE NOTE: For those of you who have never lived through a hurricane, pray for those unfortunate souls who are in TX and SW LA. Their property will be water and wind damaged, followed by the mold and mildew that erupts from the heat and moisture. They will be without power or food for who knows how long, but the one thing that really stands out in my mind about the aftermath of Wilma is waiting for the water to recede. You may not realize it, but not only is the saltwater/flood water everywhere and destroying most things it touches, it's full of sewage, oil, gas, trash, dead bodies of animals and whatever disgusting things there are about. And to get anywhere - you have to wade through it, sometimes through waist high levels. The stench is something I will never forget and chances are it may be a while before there is clean water for them to wash it off. Those poor, poor people. I hope FEMA has it together this time around and they can get back to normal as quickly as possible.