My flight to Lubbock was good and I got all the paperwork and stuff done at Texas Tech that I can do at this point. And, I had hot meals and air conditioning and lights! And last night I slept better than I can remember doing in a long time. And this morning, I'm going to have a big, hot breakfast with coffee!

I'm going today to look for places to live here. I also plan to stop someplace and buy more flashlights and batteries, and hopefully a battery-powered fan, just in case the electricity is still out when I go home tomorrow.

The airport re-opened today, so I'm sitting here waiting for my flight to Lubbock. Going up to sign papers and so forth to officially start my new job and to find a place to live. Then I'm coming back on Wednesday to spend a couple of weeks packing up my house and so forth before moving up there.

Hopefully, the electricity will be back on when I get back. A man on the shuttle bus said that his came on just as he was leaving this morning.

Good news -- I was able to buy coffee at the airport this morning. Not very good coffee, but still, it's coffee.

My cell phone service has become very sporadic, so I got in the car today to see if I could drive around and find a reliable signal to make some phone calls. I ended up heading to the grocery to see if they were open and what might be left on the shelves.

It wasn't as bad as I feared. There was a line, but they were letting 20 people in every 15 minutes. And people were pretty patient and nice to each other. The shelves were pretty sparse, but I managed to load up on some fruit and junk food (hey, you need comfort food in times like this!) They didn't have any batteries, water, ice, bread, or anything that requires refrigeration, but I still found several things (including General Mills International Coffee!!) and it was just nice to get out and avoid a little cabin fever.

Once again, I have to say how civil people were. You could tell they were tired and stressed and disappointed to not be able to find everything they wanted, but no one was hording or grabbing or being nasty to other shoppers. We all just kinda shared a wry grin with each other when our eyes met and wandered the aisles looking for hidden treasures.

Just wanted to point out some of the good things that are happening:

- Neighbors are helping each other clean up their yards and with other needs. In my area, I'm meeting neighbors I've never known before.
- People are acting civilly. There are really long lines at stores and gas stations and people are patiently waiting, no pushing and shoving or fighting.
- Everyone is hot and frustrated but for the most part seem to be just doing what they have to do and not causing trouble and making things worse.

It's just nice to see how people are mostly taking this in stride, helping out others who need it, and being civil.

Learning to live without electricity is a challenge. It's very hot and humid and we are having thunderstorms now, so the streets are flooded actually worse than with the hurricane because now the ground is saturated and the storm drains are clogged with debris.

But I'm ok. I have water service, though we have to boil it to use it. I have a few gallons of bottled water, so I'm ok there for a while, and I have plenty of non-perishable food. I have a gas stove so I can actually heat things up.

So just hanging in there, logging in for a few minutes on the laptop battery and EVDO card. Will keep you updated as I can.

Still no coffee.