Author: Dick

For your viewing pleasure here are some photos I took upon returning home to Beaumont, Texas, after having evacuated for Hurricane Rita.

It may be awhile before I buy gas again at the neighborhood convenience store.

I believe this is — was — a beauty shop just up the next street from my place.

Blue tarps such as this one on a home that serves as a lawyer’s office, just across my neighbor’s yard from me, are all the rage these days.

Very succinct. But it doesn’t really do much for those looters who can’t read.

This was my perspective on North Street, the street on which I live, as I returned home for the first time. The poles are really a metaphor for what life has been like here recently.

If you don’t keep your sense of humor, the terrorists, ah, hurricanes, have won.

The 20th century has finally arrived for me. No matter that it is the 21st century. I am sitting at a table in Easys Tapas and Martinis for lunch, blogging live and in vivid color. Well, everything here is in color at least. Vivid is kind of a relative term.

I broke down while I was in my Dallas exile from the hurricane aftermath and decided to purchase a laptop. Today is the first day I have had a chance to try out the Wi Fi card I bought. It seems to do okay. I have to say that, when you are alone in a restaurant awaiting your food, jacking with the computer sure beats looking all around like you’re a lost little gooselet (if that is indeed a word).

It’s rainy this morning here in the land of Rita recovery a.k.a. Beaumont, Texas. I’m sure that isn’t good for those whose houses have holes in them from the many trees the storm knocked down.

Yesterday was an awesome day, weatherwise. A friend and I drove to Sabine Pass to check out some of the storm damage there. Rita had truly flattened some structures. It also was rather bizarre seeing fishing boats blown or floated out into the marshes — a good distance from the bay. We then drove about 12 miles to the beach at McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge (which I see from their Web site that it’s technically closed due to the storm). Perhaps it was a bit decadent, going to the beach while the whole area around you has been walloped by a hurricane. But I think my friend will agree that we deserved a few hours at the beach after all we’ve gone through in the last couple of weeks. Besides, it was her idea.

The beach turned out to be fabulous and relatively clean. I could see only two or three other people on the entire beach for as far as the eye could see. If you want a good day to go to the beach wait until just after a hurricane.

About two weeks from now I will have not smoked a cigarette in five years. Perhaps that is not such a big deal, but it is quite a personal triumph for me. The reason is that I had smoked for about 29 years before giving up tobacco completely.

Those who smoke or have smoked know that smoking is more than just a bad habit. It’s also a snapshot of the current culture.

When I moved here to Beaumont, Texas, after living in Waco for seven years, I found it odd that restaurants still allowed smoking. I don’t know why I felt that way. Waco hasn’t had a non-smoking ordinance all that long. I guess it was just awareness or perhaps too much time on my hands. If I have a preference in a restaurant it is generally in a non-smoking area but I don’t make a big deal out of it either way. Cigarette and cigar smoke can bother me after awhile, especially if I am in a tightly confined space. But I made a vow when I quit not to be the self-righteous ex-smoker that always drove me up the wall. So far, I don’t think I have been.

I think back about just how much our culture has changed with respect to smoking cigarettes. I thought about it the last time I traveled by air. I remembered when I flew off for boot camp you could then smoke on planes. I also remember how I used to think nothing about standing in line at a grocery store, puffing away. Times have certainly changed.

Quitting smoking brings with it certain health benefits, the more the longer you have quit. But I would consider myself extremely lucky to have no ill effects in the future from my longtime smoking.

Being smoke-free has other palpable benefits as well. I have slowly regained my sense of smell. Although, since garbage service has been on hold the last two weeks due to the hurricane, that isn’t all that great a deal. My sense of taste has improved as well.

I have had a few flashes where I think about smoking, especially in times of stress. But they only last a nanosecond. I also remember a dream where I bought cigarettes but I didn’t smoke them. I think that is a good sign.

Despite the inability to chew gum and walk at the same time, Roy Oswalt proved that he is perhaps the best major league pitcher these days when the Astros beat Atlanta 7-3 in the NL Division playoffs.

Oswalt had a weird balk call earlier in the game followed by his apparent tripping over seemingly nothing and falling on the pitcher’s mound. But hey, shit happens! The Astros won. I don’t care if Oswalt did it with a tactical nuke tied around the neck of a monkey in his back pocket (although I would pay to see the video.) And how the hell did we know that a monkey with a nuke around his neck wasn’t in Roy’s back pocket, eh?

I just checked the local National Weather Service Web site for the temperature. It is 60 degrees here in Beaumont, Texas, at 6:35 a.m. Yeah, I don’t know what I am doing up at this time on Saturday morning either. But my days have all been screwy since the hurricane.

Yesterday was simply a beautiful day, weatherwise. Today may prove to be equally dazzling, according to this local forecast:

“Saturday…Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 70s. North winds around 10 mph.

“Saturday Night…Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 50s. North winds around 10 mph in the evening becoming light and variable.”

After sweltering heat during the last couple of months — including a few nights without air conditioning thanks to a bitch named Rita — the temps are a welcome relief. It’s like a wise old man once said: “You can’t beat it with a stick.”