Ida....Much ado about nothing.

I didn't feel like writing a blog yesterday, so here were are again today which is Monday. Yesterday being Sunday, we of course went to church after sleeping in till 7:30 or so. This time we visited the First Baptist Church, which is only a 7 minute walk from where we're staying. This is a large church capable of seating around 700-800 people or so. It wasn't very full either but more people attended here than in the Methodist church, at least 350 or so. We had a great service with lots of praise hymns. The church has quite a good music program as well. The preacher was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed the sermon. We, as DRS reps, were officially recognized by him upon which we received a warm applause from the congregation.

In the afternoon, Annie went into New Orleans with a bunch of people to a Black Southern Gospel Fest. She enjoyed it, but everyone complained about the high sound levels. Our people were the only white people in the audience and were warmly received.

Today, all the news is about hurricane Ida. The news anchors are spinning this story from every possible angle and if you wouldn't know better, you'd think that the end of the world is near. It now appears to land near Pensacola as a tropical depression, which is to the east of us. Here in New Orleans, we'll get up to 60km/h winds and maybe up to 2 inches of rain tonight. Not exactly something that would worry me a whole lot. By the time we get up tomorrow, it'll be mostly over and we expect a mix of sun and cloud. Today we had a few sprinkles and it was overcast with a temperature of 69 deg F.

Our crew continued prepping the house to hang drywall. We had to do more blocking, shaving and shimming. We worked hard, but with little visible signs of progress because it is slow and exacting work. We were hoping that the electrician would come today to install the wiring. However, as is typical here in the south, he never showed up. We hope to continue applying vinyl siding tomorrow, depending on the weather conditions. Annie did more mudding and has graduated to doing inside corners. They are almost done with their second coat and hope to finish the final coat before week's end.

Also, today the last couple of our work crew arrived and was warmly welcomed. They are not yet retired and could only spend 2 weeks here.

BTW, the pictures in this blog are "clickable". When you click on them, you can view a much larger copy with a lot more detail.

Annie and I really appreciate your continued prayers and any feedback you give us, either via email or blog feedback. Thank you so much!

Well we hope that tonight we can sleep soundly when the storm hits. We wish you all God's blessing and a good day/night.