Blake Thompson daht NetI'm just saying….

But I forgot my camera! How stupid was that?

But I hope to take a MiniDV camera next time and maybe even get some footage! But even though she has 5 girls on her team, they all divided up differently and ended up play Three To A Side. So she and 2 other girls from her team played 3 girls (one of which is on her “team”). It was funny. Like I said earlier, she’s a bit undersized and younger compared to the other girls. But she’s got a go get ‘em spirit. She hustles a lot. Always running after who ever actually has the soccer ball.

One of the girls she was playing against was actually 5, too. She was mistakenly in this league. So she was dominating. Addie’s two teammates were night and day. One stood there and cried (coach’s daughter). The other girl gave 100% when she was on the field. Was pretty good too. She got up at 6 a.m. to get ready for the game. But when she got tired, she went to get water whenever. So there was a time or two when Addie was playing 1 on 3. But it was all funny.

She enjoyed it. Wants to keep playing. Let’s see if she keeps it up.

Yes, we have a new athlete in the family. Addie went to soccer practice last night and loved it. I was curious as to how it would go. She woke up from her nap in a groggy mood. And after getting geared up said the shin blades (what she calls shin guards) hurt her. I don’t think they hurt, but they were just different feeling, therefore uncomfortable. But she got her pig tails braided and new soccer ball ready and we headed off to practice.

She’s on a U5 team. So she’s pretty much the youngest and littlest one there. But she still tries. I think these other girls have older sisters/brothers who play too, so they’ve been watching and playing with them. So Addie is at a disadvantage there. Funny when I start feeling defensive for her already. But I’m worried that she’ll be behind the other girls.

But she loved it. She has 4 other girls on her team. They’ll play 5 on 5 w/ no subs. I guess that’s to give them lots of playing time and touches on the ball. She still needs some soccer cleats. But she’s giving it her all. She got tied up w/ another girl once and fell and bumped her nose on the ball pretty good. She started crying. I thought this would be either a minor deal or the end of the world. She came over and cried for about 10 seconds and then was ready to go back out there.

So hopefully she enjoys it, has half a clue what’s going on, and gets to meet some friends.

In less than 2 hours The Bulldogs kickoff the SEC schedule. They had a fairly easy time last week with Murray State. The first quarter started to worry me. Murray is One-Double-A and they were picking up yards and first downs easily at first. But we shook the rust off and played a good game. I was impressed. Of course it was a lesser opponent. This week we play Auburn. Much better. We’re favored to lose by 14 or so. I doubt that happens. But I thought we’d win more than 3 games last year too.

Last night was our first Junior High Dance of the 2005 football season. It was my first ever. But apparently it is quite the tradition in these parts. And sometimes it’s reputation isn’t the best. Some booty music has produced some booty dancing and the like. But I think things went fairly well. We had door prizes and even a game (Chubby Bunny).

Around the middle of the dance, someone said they smelled a bit of gas in the kitchen. I caught the slightest whiff, but thought nothing of it. But it got stronger. The kids left. The policeman called the fire dept who said we needed to call Mississippi Valley Gas. But it could be up to 2 hours…or more since they’re in a state of emergency because of the hurricane. So they were going to come later. But I realized I needed to turn the alarm off.

So I go to the main office to do that. But I’ve only bypassed the alarm BEFORE it is armed before. So I was going in thinking I knew what to do. But I set it off. It’s going nuts. But the policeman is still there. So he radios the Station and tells them to disregard. I get it turned off. And go home. Then I find out that Edward got called anyhow and actually went up to the church at close to 1am. I bet we have an interesting conversation.

There is a lot of mess going on in our region of the country right now. The hurricane left tons of damage and hurting people in its path. People are going w/o food and water and shelter right now. They need attention and need it quickly. We see the horrors of what happened on the news almost 24/7. And people are responding. Trucks of ice and water and food are going everywhere it seems. And people are being rescued and given shelter.

I’m glad our own community and church families have stepped up and contributed to helping out the Katrina situation. I’m glad we as a country are doing something for the victims of the storm. We need to help as much as possible. But the help shouldn’t stop there.

There are still people dying by the thousands each and every day because of food shortages and unclean drinking water around our world. Children are dying by the hundreds each day because they have a disease or sickness that could have been prevented by a simple vaccination that is not available to them. But these folks go mostly unheard from and unseen. And sadly when we see them we, as an American society, usually don’t even blink an eye. Well… Are you going to blink?

Visit MakePovertyHistory.org and see ways you can join in a world wide movement to make a difference.

If I suddenly don’t ever post anymore, I’m probably either dead or in the hospital.

After the Hurricane I think we had about 37 ant beds spring up in our yard. I was putting out fire ant killer on them today. It is the fine white powdered stuff that reeks of rotten eggs. That stuff smells rank but works. Anyhow, as I said, it is a really fine powder. And I happened to try to sprinkle some in the wind and I inhaled some. Made me feel all tingly inside. Or mainly in my throat.

August 28 – Sunday

At church someone asked about the on coming hurricane. Wondering about it getting to us that night. I knew it was too far away for that. But didn’t think anymore. At the lunch table my mom calls me to ask if we’re heading north. I was figuring she was asking about us coming to see them for Labor Day Weekend. I said that maybe we’d come up for the State game on Saturday, but that’s about it. But she meant about the hurricane. I thought she was crazy. There’d be no need for us to leave our home.

That afternoon I began watching the news. It was going to smack New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Potentially larger than Hurricane Camille from 1969. The “Big One” that all other hurricanes are measured against in these parts.

We prayed about it a little at youth that night. And I watched tons of folks leave the gulf coast area. As I left church just before 9pm I got caught up in a little traffic. Seems it was people from Louisiana getting out of dodge. Gas stations were a little busy. After being at home for a bit, I decide to go in search of gas myself to go ahead and fill up the Explorer since it was only 1/4 full. Tried an older station off the beaten path thinking it might be open. Wasn’t. But went to a regular one w/ no trouble. Gassed up and left. People from New Orleans were walking dogs and talking on cell phones at all of them.

I went back home and watched the news until about 2am. It was enthralling, but figured I needed the rest. By the time morning would get here Katrina would have hit New Orleans.

August 27

A regular Saturday if you think going to a meeting at church from 8am til 4:30 is normal. Wasn’t too bad, but I am starting to get a cold. Afterwards after finally coming home I catch a football preview on the local news station. And then there’s something about that storm again. Tropical Storm or something. Maybe even a hurricane. But it’s got a name. Katrina. Seems like we shouldn’t already be up the the K’s in naming these things. But it should hit somewhere along the gulf coast. That has seemed to happen more and more lately too. One actually hit the day I was interviewing for this job last September. But I really wasn’t that concerned about it. Didn’t think much about storms down there.

Later that day I hear the news that New Orleans is telling people to leave and go north because it could get kinda bad for them. The storm isn’t supposed to hit until Sunday some time late afternoon of even night. But I wonder about all the engagement plans for my friends. Did he go against the flow and try to have the big dinner and then rush out before the storm came?

I ended up texting the girls sister. I asked if they were in New Orleans or not? She said they went to Memphis instead to get away from the oncoming mess. Everything went great. They’re engaged. They are happy. God has lots in store for them.

August 26

A friend comes over for some help in altering a picture. He’s wanting to take the head of him and his girlfriend from one picture and put on the head of another picture w/ old people in it. he was going to propose to her the next night. He had it all planned out. It was a pretty nice setup. He was going to take her out to eat at a seafood restaurant in New Orleans, have the waitress bring gifts at different times, and then have on of the street mimes come bring her an engagement ring. After the “Yes! I’ll marry you!” deal they were to finish supper and then take a horse and carriage ride around the historic streets of downtown New Orleans taking in the night life and atmosphere.

Saw on the news that night that there was some storm way out in the ocean. Seems there always is around this time of year.

Hey all. I made it.

Katrina is one bad mama, though! The strom passed through on Monday and knocked our power out. Then the next day as it was getting hotter and hotter our phone when out. Then all of a sudden both came back on. Phone has been in and out, but power (therefore AC) constant. Had to switch ISP’s because my other dialup ISP was out of Hattiesburg and they got smashed. But we’re doing fine here.

Clinton has most people back w/ power, but still quite a few are w/o power. The crazy things is the gas frenzy. I think a lot of Jackson folks are coming over here for gas. I’ve still got over half a tank in both cars, so I believe we’re good for a few more days. By then either all of this area will be out of gas, or things will be back closer to normal.

I have been keeping a notecard of things to talk about. I plan to write a series of stuff about the storm and my experience in the aftermath. Nothing special, but I want to put it all down. The news is amazing. I could watch it all day. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers of anyone who remembered us. The girls are fine. We’re all good. In fact, we’re better than good.