THE WEEK THAT WAS: After being battered in St. Louis with horrendous storms and blistering heat, I am so glad to return to my home, realizing the pute is a bigger part of my life than I knew. Luckily, I was able to spend 4 days with my son, Scott, who lives an hour away, has five children...and am I tired, ha. This is still a diaster area with trees down, over 400,000 people without power, traffic lights out, businesses closed, etc. The National Guard has been phenomenal going door to door in the inner city helping people get to shelters; we had excellent leadership, which didn't surface in New Orleans. So many times this week I thought of our Luds and other progenitors who ENDURED extreme hardships; what a legacy! I also so often thought of the brave men and women facing such danger in the Middle East so we don't have to be dodging bombs, rockets, missiles here in the triple digits. When I wanted to whine, I immediately remembered how much worse it is for most of the world. Their ENDURANCE is keeping us free. What debtors we are! It was painful throwing away hundreds of dollars of food...I had worked so hard on food storage, which helped in many ways..but the freezer is not the answer. What a mess 4 days of power outage can bring. Few grocery stores have been open, few gas stations operating...and no traffic lights with millions of people trying to get around. When I saw a left turn signal today function, I shouted for joy. I survived many years with no AC, of course, being a senior citizen, but no power makes it even harder. HOW DID OUR ANCESTERS ENDURE? i THOUGHT SO OFTEN OF LINCOLN'S WORDS THIS WEEK. THE DEAD SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN; WE MUST TAKE INCREASED DEVOTION TO FINDING OUR LINES, KNOWING THEM, AND HONORING THEM. I ALSO LEARNED WE ALL HAVE DIFFERENT HARDSHIPS AND WILL FACE EVEN GREATER ONES, BUT WE HAVE THE POWER AND BLESSINGS AND PROMISES WE CAN ENDURE. WE MUST, WE WILL.... AND HOPEFULLY FREEDOM WILL CONTINUE TO RING. TAKES 5 SHOWERS A DAY TO MAKE YOU WAKE UP, I GUESS. I MISSED YA. LOVE, DOTTIE