Categories Five

NATURAL DISASTERS:
There have been disasters one after the other recently - when CNN shows scenes of destruction and devastation, you're not sure if you're looking at the results of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, mudslides and flooding in Guatemala, or earthquakes in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. It's easy to identify the wildfires in California and the blizzard in North Dakota and Montana.

For our country the worst has been Hurricanes Katrina/Rita. People are still living in misery with no power, water, or homes a month after the event. Traverse City is the new home for at least 5 evacuee families, and over 100 rescued animals from the hurricane area.

The most horrible recent global disasters are earthquakes in and around Pakistan. Reports now say that there are almost 20,000 individuals killed in those quakes. The pictures from that area are terrible to see, and it seems that more misery has been visited upon the People of the Earth. If misery were a cloud traveling around the world, we might see the sun blacked out for days as when a great volcano erupts.

FOOTBALL:

OK, I have decide that this is one of those years when you just say "Oh well", go to the games, enjoy the bands and the "happening" and try not to care too much about the results of the game. You might say I have now written off the rest of this season. Minn. - 23 Mich. 20. Next week we play undefeated Penn State. I shudder to think...

SNIDERS:

Thank goodness for Sniders. We were so disappointed after the football game - it was really a pleasure to go to their house, have some normal conversation, eat a really good dinner and drink some really good wine.

GEOCACHING:

On the way home today we left Snider's at 8:02, and by 8:09 we were back in the car after finding our first geocache of the day. How much fun is that? We stopped off at Midland for lunch and 3 more caches.

HOME:

It's always good to get home - today was no exception.