Things are getting better...

Life is moving toward "new normal" here. Restaurants re-open with crowds waiting to have a meal fixed in a kitchen and served at a clean table. It's a treat to have a break away from the clean-up.

Those who have homes are taking out the carpet and pad, tearing out the sheet rock so the walls are wood studs to be treated with chemicals. Wet studs dry to harbor mold which has to be coated, soaked and made safe for sheetrock WHEN the contractor arrives. With so many homes to be re-built there aren't enough contractors or laborers to do the work. How do you pick a contractor? Local and known builders are busy until next year or after with jobs and the out-of-state builders are unknowns.

Much of the debris is gone carried off by huge trucks. Piles of ruined carpet and sheetrock are piled on the street these days but this is progress as the tree debris is gone. We have tree debris at our house because the cleaners won't take the debris until the telephone wires are moved. The telephone company won't fix the wires until the tree debris is moved. The standstill continues. Our phones work great, regardless.

People around me look tired, aged, tanned from all the outside work and shell-shocked. Not much eye sparkle. Tense about money. Will the insurance company pay? Is my damage covered? How much will materials cost when I do get insurance money?

FEMA jokes are rampant as are fresh curses on the insurance industry.

The weather has turned a tad cooler.