A Pleasant Surprise

I am sure you all have done this at one time. I put my user name "zeldonia" in Yahoo's search box and a few things about me were there. I decided to try Google and entered my name. Much to my surprise I found this and wanted to share with you.

atlanta.voic.us

Dana Blankenhorn is the editor of VOIC.us. He is a graduate of Rice University and holds a Masters from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. He has worked as a journalist, residing and covering Atlanta, since 1981. He has written for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age and Infoworld, among others. He has covered the online world since 1985, starting as one of the world’s first dual coverage journalist, writing for print and web, for Interactive Age Daily. He has also authored a half-dozen books on technology

Well Said Rheta!

Katrina aftermath carries over to the new year

By RHETA GRIMSLEY JOHNSON

HENDERSON, La.

Our friend in the FEMA trailer in the churchyard behind us doesn't know how long into 2007 she'll get to keep the little rig she calls home.

Everyone in authority she asks gives her a different answer.

Meanwhile, Louella works regular hours at a nearby Piggly Wiggly, plus all the overtime she can get. She lost her apartment in Cameron, La., when Hurricane Rita hit. Her daughter and grandsons lost their Cameron home, too. Louella's mother lost her home there as well.

Cameron, for all practical purposes, was destroyed. Louella isn't going back. She's planted flowers around the trailer and likes her job. She'd like to keep the trailer until she saves enough money for more- permanent housing. She'd like to stay near her daughter and help with the child care.

You have to wonder what the government will do with all the used travel trailers when it takes them up like so many overdue library books. You have to doubt that the same stooges who brought us the messed-up distribution of FEMA trailers will perform efficiently and wisely.

A few days before Christmas I dropped by to see my sister-in-law in Pascagoula. Her little house, located about six blocks from the beach, has been gutted and restored. She was lucky. She had some flood insurance, and her church helped with the reconstruction.

I Will Survive

It is 10AM and I sit before my PC trying to put my thoughts into descriptive words that will give you an insight into many issues, big and small, that make up a day in the life of ONE survivor of a disaster. Although there are many survivors of this hurricane, we each have our own particular stories to tell. You would have to read my entire blog to know the personality that I possess. It has always been one of "I can do that". .. and I do. Whether I fail or not .. I give it a try. When Katrina blew in and caused such massive destruction to our areas, there was my overwhelming desire to help so I chose to write about the storm and get as much as I could out to the public on what has happened here. I did volunteer work, for a short time, to help my neighbor and, by far, the most asinine thing I attempted, without formal training, was to become a self made journalist. At first I was just writing about my experience, as I thought it would be great therapy but, when my daughter presented me with a digital camera, I became serious about depicting the local happenings complete with pictures. You may have noticed that I blog many articles written by real journalists. So this is a formal disclaimer to say I am not certified. Also I would like you to know that although I live each day in a disaster area, I do not get to put my name on a waiting list to get help as I don't qualify for anything, but still I wait like everyone else. The many volunteers who have come to our state in the last nine months can not go door to door and ask how they can help you, they must go through the proper channels. So, at times, I struggle.

I love working in the yards but there are days when I do not feel up to the task and before Katrina I would hire someone to come and do the job. That has become an impossibility now. My equipment is a riding lawnmower and an electric weedeater that does not cut the grass, it flattens it. My rider is a heck of a lot of fun to ride but there is a slight danger to me as the front yard is on an incline. I fear it will throw me off one day and run over me. Sounds like paranoia doesn't it? I agree, but you see, a week ago last Thursday I went to the metal cabinet in the garage to get a light bulb to change a burned out one in a lamp. When I opened the door all the contents started spilling out and in my attempt to stop some of the breakage, I injured my wrist and part of my hand. At the top of my hand you will see a white clean cut line which is actually missing flesh.


At the present writing it has healed nicely. I intend to disguise the missing part with a tiny bandaid. So you see, if changing a lightbulb can do this, can you imagine what the lawnmower could do to me. The job I did today was relatively simple except for the fumes I inhaled while spraying, with intent to kill, the weeds growing in the cracks in the driveway.