Survivor's guilt....

Ike certainly played havoc with many people's lives.. even before he got here many were dealing with a lot of stress and relocating and finding places to eat, sleep, clean up, etc...

Well we're suffering from something that Donna has coined as "Survivor's guilt"

We have been blessed.. and I don't mean blessed because we only lost power or the tree fell away from the house like so many others have declared.

We have fared better than most through this crazy ordeal.

I've already told you about our Brookshire Brothers experience.. amazing.

Well then Ike finally makes his way on to land. Donna hates that the storm is going to hit us while we're asleep. But when we go to bed it's a little breezy with a slight overcast. No big deal.

The storm hits in the early morning and we start watching the weather channel. I get on my computer and start watching the progress of the storm and the path it is taking. I'm watching on line broadcasts from Houston and Beaumont..

I feel so bad for all those folks in Houston and the golden triangle, I hope my brothers are ok (and they are) as well as cousins etc. (they are).

The wind kicks up.. harder gusts and as time goes on the lights flicker... and stay on. Later I hear some big noise on the roof.. I go outside to see what's going on. There is a small limb on the roof. There are a couple of larger limbs down but the trees are all standing secure.. the next gust blows through and scares the heck out of me.. I go inside.

A few hours later we start checking on people and listening to the radio. Seems everyone we talk to has lost power.. Friends tell us that if we have power we're the only people in Lufkin with power.. I know she's wrong because I can see the TV on in the house across the street. Outside that I really don't know.

I'm also checking twitter throughout the day and find that people well north of me have lost power like Jinx but he has twitter up on his BB so I keep him posted on what's up and the storm center and direction and speed and cool stuff like that...

We ride the entire storm out and never lose lights, satellite (which we usually lose when a front comes through), or internet. Amazing. We invite friends over that are in the dark and play some games and watch the USC/Ohio State game.

We have a very well attended casual communion service at church the next morning. It is a beautiful service. Cory, we need to pray like that more often..

Anyway.. I then do fortune 500 transportation company stuff the rest of the day.

No power at work but really it just makes life a little simpler there for a while. I have to say I'm kind of enjoying it..

Donna puts the word out to friends that we have freezer space for those that don't want to lose their food..they can store it with us.

One of Donna's friends offers us some meat that she says she won't eat. Just eat it, don't worry about freezing it for her.

I find out it's meat from the Grand Champion Steer from the Houston Livestock show and Rodeo.






I do not know if this is the actual steer but it could be...

Ok, those steers don't go cheap so I go check this out here. If the steer weights out at around 2000 lbs and dresses around 1400 lbs..going for $300,000 means I was eating meat worth about $214/lb... so that filet I had was worth somewhere around $160..and we got it free.

Wow..

I'm buying a lottery ticket tomorrow.

If I win..I'll feel even more guilty but I will then be a full time minister too...