My Morning: A Tear-Jerker by Two Dogs

I had a little drive to Piney Woods this morning. For those that do not know Piney Woods, it is a private agricultural school just north of Magee, Mississippi about thirty miles south of Jackson. You travel Highway 49 to get there. Along the way, I saw at least four hundred military trucks and tractor-trailers too numerous to mention headed towards the Coast.

Pray for the folks in South Mississippi. Do it now. And G_d bless our boys and girls in uniform. They consistently do what is asked of them with no questions asked and expect nothing in return. Thank you, I do appreciate it.

And here's an e-mail from a good friend who is on the coast now. Ladies and gentlemen, reporting live from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I present Tommy Five.

Hey Dude,

I sure appreciated hearing from you after the storm. I just got back to work yesterday (Tuesday), I am finding it very hard to stay focused on Architecture after I have been slinging a hammer for the last week. With the help of my two bothers and our wives I was able to remove all the wet furniture, flooring, sheetrock, etc. from my mother's house. I still can not get over the destruction in Pascagoula. Pictures and videos do it no justice, the smell alone is stomach turning. I don't know how I did not ever lose my lunch while cleaning up. Oh yeah, my stomach was empty most of the time. Most of the time I tossed a coin in the air to decide if I was going to eat the "food" in the "M.R.E." or eat the plastic and cardboard it was packaged in. You will be surprised how much BBQ sauce and pepper you have to use to make those things taste good, but it was better than nothing at all.

My little brother was able to find a place for his family to live until their house is fixed. My mother is wanting to find a place to rent until she finds something more permanent. I told her she could pay me as much as she wants if it makes her feel better about staying with me. I just don't want her to end up with an long term payment on something she only needs for a few months. Rumors are going around her neighborhood about the government condemning all the houses in their area.

I've had about all I can stand of everyone trying to blame someone for either the lack of preparation for this storm or the slow response time. I think all the energy needs to be on what to do to help these thousands if not millions of people with no homes to live in. My heart breaks every time I drive to my mother's house because of the large number people with no family to help them. By looking at the number of families in Pascagoula who are living in tents and taking showers in their front yards under water hoses; I can't imagine what it's like from Biloxi to New Orleans. I think a large number of people in Pascagoula were not too worried about this storm because so many storms were supposed to be real bad and ended up just being rain storms. I don't think anyone expected such a large storm surge as far East as Pascagoula. Every person I know in Pascagoula had water come into their house.

Thanks for listening and keep up the good work on your blog..............

I almost f***ing cried reading this. Tommy still maintained his humor after going through all this. It is gut-wrenching the way that ordinary Americans stand up and pitch in. Heroes, every damn one of you. I salute.

And if there are any people in the coastal areas that can help with abandoned animals, please e-mail me and I can put you in touch with someone in the area that is looking for folks to do some emergency adoption work.

Linked at basil's Breakfast to get some traffic, because he has taught me well.