Take good care of yourself

..you belong to me.

There are a few things you learn about yourself that come as a surprise and I had one last night. There is a burn out level where listing to things going wrong that you can't fix becomes numbing. You can just barely care anymore. You want to go ride your bicycle and forget about it all.

Somehow we got tied up in Hurricane Rita on CNN last night. We have people in Texas, I knew a band from Corpus Christi and have contacts in Houston and we have friends near there, too. Then the wheels on that plane that took off from Burbank got stuck down and sideways. More than a hundred passengers wondering if this was their last ride. Their families wondering if they would ever see them alive again. And those stupid commentors stroking and squeezing every drop of drama from both incidents.

Then they break in to say there is a tornado touching down in St. Paul and headed for down town Minneapolis. Just a few miles from down town I have family. And several of my blog buddies are in that area.

I can't do anything about Rita and I can't help the people in the plane but I CAN help the family! I sent off two emails with the subject line DUCK! and then got off line to call and leave messages saying the same thing. That's right, messages. No answer. And I am thinking I hope they are in the basement and can't hear the phone......

I stayed off line waiting for a call and watched the idiots on CNN watching that plane going 'round and 'round to use up it's fuel for a fire free landing while I wanted to see the tornado news and realized I was figuring the budget for gas money, motels, bedding, clothes, water, pet carriers and what food I would pack in the two coolers I have available.

That's right. If the worst happened and a tornado dropped on the house of those I loved I would not be waiting for crews to tell me if they were digging them out, I would be there and digging myself. I would be going past yellow tape and I would be going over armed law enforcement to get there if I had to because I was going in!

At 50, with a stented heart, a steel hip and muscles of rubberbands, I would take my own shovels, rakes, ropes and beams and drive straight through to help my family. I would take anyone that wanted to join me or go alone if no one would go but I would not wait for the "government" to bail them out.

With insurance companies crying "It's flood damage" so they don't have to pay for the hurricane damage in three states

and leaders that have raised their own saleries every year crying because their pork projects will be cut to help rebuild destroyed towns

and people who have never gone without anything saying the people who now have nothing should only get so much help

and a president that has decreed that workers in the disaster areas can be paid less than the average prevailing wage while HE and the other living presidents, in spite of their personal wealth, receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for the remainder of their lives

I sure as hell won't be waiting for them to take care of mine! I will go get them myself.

Of course, after getting all worked up, I finally get a call that they are fine and it's just a thunderstorm now. But I like knowing that I would be ready to put everything I could into making sure they were all ok. I'd hate to think that I was just a whiner. I'm not.

So don't mess with my people, because I WILL come find you!