Well where do you start after a year like this one? The election, the economy or the storm?

I supported Senator Obama early and voted for him, put a lot of my portfolio in government bonds in the fall and evacuated from the beach two days before hurricane IKE decided to visit Crystal Beach on September 13th. And a good thing I did as the storm wiped out most of the houses and businesses on the Bolivar Peninsula. My house survived and is the only building within 6 blocks, but the entire front was blown away and the rear of the house simply disappeared. It has no stairs, plumbing, electricity and as of now water. So, the dogs and I are almost homeless.

After spending time with great friends and family in Marble Falls, Wimberley, Kerrville, Phoenix and Seattle we decided to buy an RV to live in for the next year or so while we negotiate with the insurance companies and the local governments on getting funds and permission to rebuild the beach house. So, today we are in Seattle with my sister Sharry and next week we will drive the RV to Phoenix to spend Christmas with my brother Bob and his family. After the first of the year we will take the RV back to Texas and the beach and start the process of hopefully rebuilding the house. Maybe by this time in 2009 we will be back living at the beach or we will be settled someplace else.

I do miss all my friends at the beach. I was very active with the church and the water board and the dogs and I were very comfortable living at the beach and entertaining my friends and family. This year we had my nephew Rick and his three kids for a week and my sister and brother came in for my birthday and to see me perform in the church play. Friends from Houston would drop in to play on the beach and enjoy the many places to eat seafood in Crystal Beach.

So this has been an interesting year and we hope you are having a great Christmas and a happy New Year. And for those of us who lived on the Texas Gulf Coast we hope 2009 will be calm and with no storms.