It’s Friday once again. I am ready to start my day with Five Things on Friday. I post five short items for your online perusal.
- I survived Hurricane Zeta. We had a hurricane pass through the New Orleans area on Wednesday evening. Fortunately for me, the storm veered eastward after passing directly over New Orleans, narrowly missing my town, Abita Springs, which lies 45 miles north of New Orleans. It went onward toward Mississippi, so all I experienced was about an hour of somewhat gusty winds and heavy rain. However, the storm knocked out my power for 24 hours, which was a minor inconvenience. This was the quickest hurricane I have experienced. It rushed in and rushed out of Louisiana in a matter of 8 hours or less. Less time meant less rain, less wind damage. I experienced no damage whatsoever to the house or yard, just the minor inconvenience of losing power.
- After a tropical storm, the weather turned cooler. Zeta blasted onwards to the north and east, ushering in a cold front. For this part of the country, it feels almost cold. I woke to temps in the 50s this morning. Combined with a bit of wind and lots of cloud cover, it feels downright like winter around here. Usually, it’s impossibly hot and humid after a hurricane, and combined with no electricity and air conditioning, the conditions can be downright brutal. Not this time. It’s now sweater weather.
- I have lost 25 pounds and counting. I have been using a phone app, Noom, to track my weight loss since July. It’s more than a weight tracker though. I am using the app’s many resources, such as a food diary, calorie counter, daily lessons and personalized advice. This morning, I am wearing a pair of new jeans, a size smaller than normal. I have got a bit complacent in the past weeks, as I expected to be 30 lbs. lighter at this point. However, I am still glad for the 25 pound mark.
- A family of Guatemalans came to my neighborhood yesterday. Yesterday morning, three bucket trucks were lined up and waiting to work outside my front door. Two trucks eventually left for other parts of the neighborhood, but one truck remained at my corner with a team. It turns out the entire team were from Guatemala. In fact, four out of the five were family. I talked to a man who introduced me to his uncle, his bother, and his nephew. The outlier was not family, but was still from Guatemalan. Did they come here directly from Central America? Of course not! They were a contracted crew from Alabama. They did a thorough job of cutting trees that were blocking an electric pole. Thorough but slow. It took all day for the work to be done, and electricity restored. Central Americans are not known for their haste, and neither are Alabamans. I wanted a crew from New York, I suppose. If there’s one thing I can say I like about Yankees, it they usually work fast.
- It’s almost Halloween…and election time. If having a hurricane wasn’t enough, this week offers Halloween and just a few more days afterwards, Election Day. I’m ready with my Halloween decor, which was speedily taken down for Hurricane Zeta, and then put back in place immediately after the storm passed. Most people in my town took down their election signs, too, for the storm. No need for passersby to steal election signs from yards when 100 mph winds are passing by. I hope neither day, Halloween or Election Day, will be particularly frightful.
Gumbo Ya-Ya 