Rainy Night In Georgia

This past Sunday night it began to rain. It rained and rained and then rained some more. As you can see from the picture above - this quickly grew into a serious situation and by the next day there was actually major flooding in the area.

Roads closed, bridges disappeared, lives were lost.

Where I live - it didn't really affect us as much as it did for other, but I did realize we really aren't prepared for things like that. I'm not sure if you can ever be ready for a flood that fills your house with water to the ceiling, but what about snow storms and power being out and tornado's?

Do you have a plan in place for that? We - for the most part don't - I don't really know of anyone who does - except for my sister-in-law --- who probably --- has a 100,000 generator squirreled away in her basement and a six month supply of dried beef jerky...just in case! She is just THAT organized.

The rest of us though....well, probably not so much.

How about you? Are you ready if the weather turns bad and your forced to stay home for a few days? Once you get an emergency plan in place - are you ready? What about your pets?

Below is an article I wrote on emergency preparation plans for your animals.

http://tinyurl.com/y99wnxm

Let me know what you think!

Writing and listing and pet sitting....OH MY!

I find it ironic that when I tell people about Social Media I remind them that they need to keep their blog updated...and then....don't practice what I preach.

It has been a busy month so far here. I have picked up some writing 'gigs' - they don't pay much...but I need the practice of meeting deadlines (as if you can't tell that from the fact this blog hasn't been updated since the first!).

The one I am most proud of is having been accepted as the Atlanta Pets Examiner.

http://tinyurl.com/oo2ukj is a link to one of my articles if you want to see what I've been up to.

Meanwhile - the pet sitting has taken off again. The economy is getting a little better I think because people are starting to take vacations again - which is good for my pet sitting business....but....I'm getting nothing listed on EBay. :-(

I keep telling people that I need to sit down and reevaluate things....hard to do when you feel like all you are ever doing is run, run, run. Run here. Go there. Be at this place. Don't forget this.

I realized the other day - I'm in crisis mode 95% of the time and...I'm tired of it.

Anyway...there will be some changes in the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure what they are going to be yet, but one of them may involve this blog. I'm thinking this blog needs to focus on one thing --- just like I need to focus on one thing in my life....BUT...I still don't know what that is going to be....YET...

Touch of nostalgia - Books!

I'm feeling nostalgic today.

A few weeks ago my mother sent me home with a big tote-box full of old books from my childhood. I may have glanced through them at the time, but I wasn't sure until today whether I would list them on EBay to sell, or just put them up for the future.

I finally decided that if I couldn't remember HAVING the book...I could probably part with it without that weird feeling you get in your gut when you're not sure if you really want to get rid of something or not.

The thing I wasn't expecting though...was the smell of the books...

As I went through them... certain books had a vaguely familiar smell...that mix of ink and paper that some books get -a stronger smell when the book is new that fades to a faint scent over time.

Staring at one of the books, I could remember opening it for the first time, the excitement of a new story, the pictures that I was so fascinated with back then....and most of all...the smell.

In a few days - others will get a chance at these books - it will be a bit bittersweet, but we have to let old stuff go, so new stuff can come in...that's what I keep telling myself....anyway...

How about you? Are there certain things you still have that you just can't part with? Do they bring up old memories of summer days spent reading when it was too hot to play outside or of car rides that were too long and boring back when there were no such things as iPods and video games?

Books were and remain my great escape...I hope they provide the same for you! :-)