I can’t take this anymore. I’m tired and I am sore and now the local news is saying we’ve got another damned hurricane headed this way. I hope this is one of those times where their predictions (which is technically what they do), are incorrect. We’ve still got enough water. We’ve got enough gas for the generator. Let’s just hope that high pressure system (I think that’s what it is out there), does something to steer it away from the coast. A girl can wish, right?

We’ve been working our asses off trying to finish my dad’s shop for the “grand reopening” on Thursday. Now we may have to hold off due to hurricane Frances. I painted all day today. Two or more coats were done everywhere. My husband, father, and brother did construction. I’m still kind of banned from any heavy duty power tools. I did however use my cute little battery powered screwdriver. It is actually mine, so they can’t take it from me.

I have gained four pounds sometime recently, but I think it was muscle considering I seem to have gone down another size. /sigh I really have to buy new clothes.

So I, uh, kinda uh, well, injured myself. I stabbed myself with a cordless screwdriver/drill. I am ok, but it hurts like a mo-fo. I can type with the tip-top of my finger, but using the upper keys hurt. It seems clean, but there was some blood spill. From that point on, I was banned from using the powertools* and there was much sadness. I am sure they will get over it, but I won’t be doing much in the way of building tomorrow anyway. I get the awesome (and tedious) task of finding the zillion invoices and logging them against the damaged products database, while waiting for the UPS man to bring some stuff.

So now, I’m going to bed. I imagine my finger will start throbbing in the middle of the night, but I’ve got to try and get some sleep. I’ll be happy when all of this is done. Of course, by then, we may see another hurricane. /sigh

*I wasn’t the only one who did something similar. My husband and father also came away with injuries, mine just happened to be the worst of the bunch.

I didn’t know Mr. Haughey was a TDI owner. I wonder if there is a webring for tdi owners. /end sarcasm.

Seriously though, I’m glad people notice that there are diesels out there that don’t spew black smoke! It is nice having to only fill up once every 800 or so miles.

Alright, I should probably post something with more meat to it, but I am too tired and I have to go shopping for new store fixtures and power tools tomorrow! Maybe we should try these folks. They actually had some pretty cool stuff last time I was there. Dear bob, I will be in heaven*.

* I gladly admit that I am an organization junkie and love places like The Container Store and Hold Everything as well as places that sell power tools.

I have put up a quick gallery of some of the Charley pictures. I have more, but I haven’t gotten them off my camera yet. That’s for another day. I tried to lower the quality a bit to get the file sizes down, but they are still a wee bit large.

Josh has just informed me that we are renaming the cat Chewbacca. If I was crazy, I may go with Chewbacette, but not Chewbacca. That is a typical boy wookie name, not a girl’s.

As I was doing inventory today, I became saddened. I began inventory on the super expensive knives. One of my favorite knives is the 3550 Pardue. I had to almost wipe a tear as I set it with the rest of the stuff. Is it wrong to get so emotional over such a thing? No, not for me. I would love to have one for myself, but I can’t have it on me in any other state. That and it is a really expensive knife.

My brothers’ got power back at their house yesterday. All is OK in the world. I am still tired, but surviving. My dad made me stop working on the inventory and get some rest. A few days ago I created a database to keep track of the damaged stock. This morning I am going to put the inventory that has already been recorded, into it. Hence this short update.

Thanks to everyone that keeps checking on me. I know once I finish the inventory and garage roof, I have a boat load of work to start on. That is also a driving force to get stuff done. Go me!

I’m tired. My parents’ garage is full of stuff from my dad’s shop. Most of it is the stuff that we will be listing as un-salvageable. Apparently the grand reopening will be a week from this coming Thursday, September 2nd. They figure the roof will be done tomorrow. After that they have to run the electrical and put up new drywall/wood. Now that’s some turn around!

I’m sorry I haven’t gotten any pictures up. I know a lot of people keep asking for them, but I am literally so tired, bruised, cut, and sore that it has taken some twenty minutes to type this. Every finger has some sort of injury on it. My palms are burned, and all of my muscles ache. At least I can say we will be ready when the adjusters come. We’ll be tired, but ready.

Also, I must add that having eleven people in one house sucks. As large as the house may be, it’s still too small for that many people. I hope my brothers’ get power back soon!

Now this is whack! Yahoo! has a longer story. That’s just crazy stuff, stealing it like that.

As much as I know it needs to be done, I am dreading going out to do yard work. We’ve got to mow. It needs it really bad. It’s getting pretty high now.

Off to eat some breakfast and then I guess I will get started. Wish me luck folks. I’m going to collapse soon.

That green box in the picture is a power box that had its bolts busted and was blown over (not an easy task) by hurricane Charley. Once that baby was upright, they started work on it and we had power within an hour. Of course it took them a few days to get to that.

I’ve managed to get the photos off of my camera, but I really need to work on the roof now. We are expecting storms early this afternoon, so this is the only time I have. I need dry time before the storms come. Maybe once I get the tar off of my hands, I can upload them. Wish me luck folks. We haven’t even started over the garage and that has the most damage.

We’re doing a lot of waiting. We’re currently waiting for the insurance adjuster to call or come. We don’t want to patch the roof if we can have someone out here in a week. The tarps, however tacky they look, will work. We don’t have it so bad, seeing as there are so many people without roofs at all!

I’m going to move my computer into the computer nook. I probably won’t hook up all of my peripherals though. I will be somewhat cramped for space as I will be sharing the nook with Josh and his zillion computers.

Once I move stuff around, I’ll start uploading pictures. I don’t know how good a lot of them are, but I took them. Until then.