Sunday, September 11, 2005

Katrina Investigation


"The president said he's going to lead the investigation into what went wrong. He needs to look only in the mirror."

-- House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California

Tired


It's Sunday night and I'm tired. The weekend had some fun in it, but I get weary when I'm around people constantly, and I have been most of the weekend. I'm 4/6 respectively on the introvert/extrovert scale and I need quiet time.

But, we had a good time at the show last night and it was fun to run around. I just need more quiet than other people do, I think. Maybe that comes from growing up as an only child. Maybe if you have siblings around all the time you're used to more noise and commotion. I need quiet to think and relax and restore. I stayed up very late last night to have some quiet time.

I think I'm also just worn out from all the emotion of the past couple of weeks - not that I have been doing anything difficult compared to what evacuees are going through, but listening to people who don't "get it" has just worn me out.

Today, of course, is the four year anniversary of 9-11. It seems that was a world ago and I guess in many ways it was. I lead a very different life now than I did then.

At the time I was working at the radio station and learned about it when I went in that morning. We watched TV for awhile and then the manager sent everyone who didn't have to be there home. He was always wonderful about that.

I went home and thought that I'd take advantage of the day to do some things around the house, but could not tear myself away from the television. I kept trying to, but I'd find myself curled back up on the couch crying, everytime I'd try to get away from it.

It hit me in an odd way - it was four months to the day after my mom's death and I was just getting through the really tough grief part. It was still very fresh and very raw. Very raw. And knowing how grief was, and that all those people were going to experience it en masse, it just seemed like the whole world was going to crumble under the weight of all that grief.

I have felt the same way about the hurricane victims, even though my own grief is more "managed" now. But, there's something about grief that is magnified when many people are suffering at the same time, for the same reason.

I have not watched any television today. The first year it felt like a "celebration" to me more than a commemoration and I haven't wanted to participate in that since then. I'm sure the TV is filled with salutes of various sorts, but I don't want to invite any more sadness into my life. It's not that I don't remember what happened, but I don't want to "celebrate" it in any way.

I'm going to try to get back to a more "normal" sense of posting here, but frankly every time I try to write much these days it just comes off trite if I'm talking about daily life.

But, of course, that's what this blog is about - daily life - so I will get back to that. That does not mean there will not be political posts - those will definitely continue - because I think that is the only way we can make changes.

I looked at the stats last night to see if I had driven away all my readers because of the political stuff, and readership has actually increased.

But, I will also be trying to offer more "normal" things mixed in. I still have not blogged my Puerto Rico or Route 66 trips. Life has just been a really fast merry go round lately and time at the computer has been scarce to do time intensive things like photos. One of these days soon...

But, that's not tonight. I have promised editors that freelance writing will be in their inboxes when them come in Monday morning so I must get about making that happen.

That's a Jackalope

Ace Jackalope and entourage went to the Kansas State Fair tonight where the headlining act was Garrison Keillor with a live broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion."
Garrison was delighted to make Ace's acquaintance, and pose for a photo after the show. As he exclaimed, "Whatever the joke is, I'm in on it."

How can you not love that?


Kansas native, Kelley Hunt, did a fabulous job during her songs, and made us proud. She's been on the show before, and we're lucky to get to see her around here now and then.

Our beloved Governor, Kathleen Sebelius, played herself during the Guy Noir skit and did a great job. She was on stage again and just handled herself amazingly well. She and Garrison seemed to really hit it off. She is a democrat in this very red state, and is loved by many in both parties.

Garrison is very interested in politics, and did have a few comments about everything from evolution to the lack of response to the hurricane victims. The crowd was very responsive to him.

The set was an elaborate one, including a house front with a porch, from which Garrison started the monologue. But, he only sat down briefly - showing his red socks and shoes off - but then got up to wander the stage as he talked. He does favor the left (his left) side of the stage so if you're planning to see him you might bear that in mind.

Later tonight there was a fundraiser for the democratic party that both Garrison and Kathleen were going to. I wish I could have gone, but I just couldn't. Instead I ended up working the democratic party booth with Debbie, as last minute replacements.

Garrison signed autographs and chatted with people for well over an hour after the show. He was really quite charming, although Greg and Ace were the only ones in our party who visited with him.

I got to see Garrison years ago in Minnesota when the station I worked for did a trip. He was much more casual tonight about chatting with folks.

You can listen to repeats of the show on the website if you miss it. Prairie Home Companion has been the most popular public radio show for years.
http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/archive.php

The show was really great. If you listened to it tonight or if you catch a repeat on Sunday and hear the Catchup script late in the show, you'll know why this photo is here, although I don't have a cheese danish handy.