There is hope!

This is Mark again. Thank you, Lara, for the suggestion on starting my own blog. I actually do have a blog, which has one entry from the day I started it. Realistically, I'm not generally a reflective type of person, at least not in a bloggy way. (New word for the day?) I'm always lamenting not having enough time for the things I really care about, so I probably won't keep this up. But in the meantime, my daily trip to the public library computers have been an enjoyable diversion to get connected to the world as well as enjoying some air conditioning.
Two signs of progress came today. I awoke this morning to the sound of big machines picking up the massive piles of yard waste lining our street. I felt kind of bad for them working on a Sunday morning, but I guess it's necessary. Literally every street in Houston is lined with huge piles of brush, often large trees cut into sections. I have been very impressed with the city of Houston's ability to get things moving quickly - water treatment plants were quickly restored, libraries opened quickly. Our mayor here kicks butt. I thought a newspaper columnist said it well - "Mayor Bill White is the argument against term limits."
Yesterday, I went with a team from our church to an area hit much harder by Ike. We went south of Houston to a little town called Alvin. It's not all the way to Galveston, but a lot closer than where we live. We split up into smaller teams to work on different projects in the area. My project was kind of frustrating in that it really required experts in tree cutting, not ordinary volunteers. This family had a large tree in their yard that was tangled in some power lines (non-energized). We really didn't make much headway on it until some folks came later who had experience with this stuff. I didn't know how much planning goes into removing a fallen tree - whatever section is being cut can't fall on people or things, can't remove support for the person in the tree, and can't bind the saw as it's being cut. It was surprising to see the extent of damage down there. We drove by large fields with huge trees where most of the tops of the trees had been blown off by the high winds. We're talking 50-100 foot tall, fully mature trees. Some other folks worked in houses dealing with flood damage where they got three feet of water in the house. As a reference, ours got about three inches.
The other sign of progress just happened an hour ago. I was having lunch with some friends after church. While we were there, the lights came back on!! It really was an amazing moment, one I wouldn't have fully appreciated without being sans electricity for almost a week. Maybe when I get home, our lights will be on....
That's all for today. Have a nice week!