Where's Waldo?

It took me about half a dozen trips out of Galveston to realize that there was something wrong with this picture: coming off the Causeway, there's one house over on the right side, at Virginia Point. Only thing is, it used to be a whole row of houses. That's really the starkest picture I've seen yet - in person, anyway - of what the hurricane did. (And I don't literally have a picture, unfortunately, but it'd be really hard to get a picture that really told that story, anyway. Particularly since you're not allowed to stop on the Causeway to adjust your camera.)

I worked a half-day again, and we got a lot done this afternoon. I think we might actually pretty much be ready for the movers on Thursday. I found a Shiner Bock beer carton (vintage 1982 or so, if I recall correctly) very soggy and absolutely full of mold-covered childhood mementos that I had forgotten all about. But y'know? If I had forgotten the existence of most of them, why on earth have I been hauling them around all these years? I'm finding it hard to mourn that stuff too too much.

Incidentally, here is our new Ikea furniture, although it's cuter than in the picture. We got the bed with the storage underneath (no headboard) and the storage unit. I'm sort of sorry we didn't buy a chest but I didn't see them at the time.

It occurs to me that what our ugly temporary "office" needs - it's actually a former Payless Shoe Source, if that tells you anything - is some Halloween decorations. I wonder how that would go over.

( Things are getting back to normal! It's a meme! )

Oh yeah, and....

More things I keep forgetting to say:
-- Leather seems to get moldy quicker than anything else I've seen.
-- Paper doesn't look moldy, but it gets slick and nasty-smelling (really, really nasty) and then seems to start crumbling into mud.
-- A lot of the lights on 61st Street in Galveston are working, and a lot of the lights on the Seawall - but not all - are working - but an awful lot of the ones on Broadway are not.
-- Both Galveston restaurants we've ventured into (Chili's and The Spot) had a "limited menu" with only a few items to choose from: two entrees at The Spot, and I think Chili's had a (relatively) whopping six. And neither of them would let you pick your condiments. You got what you got, and if you didn't like it you could pick it off. But both of them had liquor readily available.

Also:
-- As predicted - well, sorta - Rob has to go back to work tomorrow.
-- The drive from Friendswood to Texas City was not as long as I suspected. Even with a stop at Starbuck's drive-thru.