Today in open court from the stand, Timothy Shepard's neighbor said he loaned Mr. Shepard his smoker and yet Mr. Shepard wouldn't share any of the "meat" he was preparing for a wedding.
Some wedding feast. It may have been the body of his dead girlfriend Mr. Shepard was smoking and grilling.
Cadaver dogs hit hot spots today on Boliver Peninsula which probably means that there are dead Crystal Beach residents buried under debris and sand. Three hundred fifty Texans are missing from Galveston and Boliver, many will never be found, dragged back out to sea when the tide receded.
They could not evacuate for one reason or another. They didn't want to sit for hours in their poorly running cars on Texas highways like Rita evacuees did a few years ago. Perhaps with kids and pets in the car, health conditions, running out of gas and money. They didn't think the storm would be that bad. They had no families to run to, no money for hotels. And they would have nothing to come home to if the storm took it. They lost hope, they ran out of time, their fear turned to stubborn resolve.
Some situations look better from the outside than from within it.
Many people I know went back to work on Monday after the storm, flying out to tropical Asian ports of call to work on computer problems at corporate headquarters while their spouses wrote checks to the gardeners who removed fallen trees. They put in fall flowers, swept, raked, cleaned. Some check on oil wells in East Texas.
One friend continued to order her El Salvadorian illegal immigrant maid around her house, complaining to me that the maid expected a noon time meal. "She has brought all five of her children up here by being very pushy," my suddenly passive 75 year old retired Texas school teacher said, "I am supposed to feed her and give her whatever she wants from my closets." I don't understand her anger at being asked feed someone less fortunate than her or her inability to say that she doesn't think she wants to feed and cloth her. I am conflicted. If it isn't a problem for my friend to feed and cloth her why is she so angry? Why not get an area graduate student to help her with her house and shopping?
Either it was a virus or food poisoning, but I had it and it caused me some real discomfort last week. I vomited usually after I talked to my older woman friend. Today I thought I had completely recovered. I was watching the news about the trial, the dead on the island, and talking to my friend on the phone. My husband came home with dinner and found me in the bathroom with my head in my sink.
