Normalcy

Monday began Houston's return to normalcy ... somewhat. We headed back to school. Our commute has always been gross (Houston has a ton of TRAFFIC!), but it has been beyond ridiculous ... it took us 2 hours to get home last night! This morning the HOV lanes were open and we felt like we were flying ... Townsends are thankful for HOV lanes! Instead of giving "school closings" on the radio, they have resorted to "school openings" because so few schools are actually open and they will be staggering them over the next few days (rather than holding out the entire district until every school in the district is ready). Torrey came home from school tonight and said that 24 kids in her class still don't have power ... there are about 80 kids in her class. I teach Kindergarten, so the math to get to the percentage of kids without power is beyond me ... but, suffice it to say it is high! I have 2 kiddos in my class without power ... one word ... troupers. They have lived this week without complaining. Our streets are lined with trees and branches ... who knows when they will be picked up. We are tired ... no, we are weary. And, yet we hope ... when 2 of the friends in my class got power the entire class did the "power dance" (we made it up right then and there ... oh to be 5 again!), the dome on top of Second Baptist is slowly being repaired, traffic is easing up, residents are being allowed back to Galveston for the first time since Ike hit 12 days ago, and, our local T.V. stations are no longer showing 24 hours of Ike coverage! Our lives are getting back to normal too ... Dean is in Baton Rouge for the next few days, Torrey has a cross country meet on Saturday, the Schwann man arrived to bring frozen food, and we are going to watch the Astros play on Saturday night. Slowly. Slowly. Slowly. We are getting there.