Back to the grind...

Well, we are back and classes started today. Don't know why, but we just can't seem to get over being tired. We only changed time by one hour (I used to change time zones like changing shoes) and we can't seem to get caught up. Yesterday, we slept late, went to the late service at church, bought groceries, and then took a nap. Today, staying awake through two classes was very difficult.


On our last day in Ocean Springs, we went to a seafood restaurant called Port of Call. It is certainly not a fancy place, but they had some of the best fried catfish I have ever had (or was it just from eating at the church for 3 weeks?). Across the street from the restaurant was this storage business. As you can see, the building (and contents) were heavily damaged by Katrina. Also, you can see in the second picture, another boat that just does not seem to be where it is supposed to be. Seems that we saw many boats - some were stored and washed off their trailers but we also saw several that appeared to be washed from some other place and deposited.

The sign in the foreground is just one of many, advertising roofing, remodeling, or other types of home repairs. The creator of the Presbyterian blog that I gave a link to earlier described it best when he wrote about going to Florida to finish the settlement on his burned motorhome - you are driving along (as we did coming home) and suddenly realize that things don't look right - there are no blue tarps on the roofs, no broken trees, and no signs like this one advertising for home repairs. It was actually a bit unsettling as we drove home and into our neighborhood - it looks so different than what we had been seeing the last 4 weeks.

We are glad to be home, and eventually, we'll get back into the swing of things here and be able to stay awake for classes. Most of all, we need to get used to things looking "normal". Stay tuned - we'll be posting updates as the semester progresses.