The cure for writer's block discovered: Write something.

Would you believe I had no idea that I haven't blogged anything since Monday? That it has already been very close to a week since I've been at the computer long enough to even check the date - let alone write anything or post a picture?

I had planned on starting out this post by excusing myself from absence here at DWSHKON by pointing out that I had actually posted something during the week over at our homeschool blog for the first time in almost a year.... That plan was thwarted, however, when I went to check out that blog entry a few minutes ago and discovered that it was also made this past Monday. *wince*

Okay so there's no shortage of things to do or see or write about around here. (And therein lies the problem....) At the beginning of the week I received an email from someone at CBS news alerting me to a news story that would be running during CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on Tuesday at 6:30 pm EST concerning toxic FEMA trailers - and asking for my reaction as a Katrina blogger. I did watch the news clip - and I do have an opinion ( I always have an opinion...) but I haven't had my wits about me enough to actually sit down and put it into words.
I have every intention of actually devoting a post to the story sometime in the oh-so-nebulous future... In the interim I'll just say this: We knew the trailers were toxic a long time ago. No one listened. Amazing how it suddenly becomes a story of interest when a) FEMA announces that other people in some other possibly valuable part of the country will be blessed with the same trailers in a future disaster and b) when people removed enough from the Gulf Coast actually start to experience symptoms. Moreover - so a whole lot of people agree that these trailers are health hazards... Now what? Food for thought: As of June 27, there were 4,593 FEMA trailers and mobile homes in use in South Mississippi. (Source: GCN)

What about the forever unfolding story of impending levee breaches that no one (except, oh say, the folks who get submerged when it happens) seems to care about over at New Orleans News Ladder? The same folks who didn't care before Katrina still don't care. Score one for consistency.

Then there's the startling discovery that FEMA (there's that acronym again) apparently gave away somewhere around $85 million in supplies intended for Katrina victims to... well.. not Katrina victims. "Upon review of our assets and our need to continue to store them, we determined that they were excess to FEMA's needs; therefore, they are being excessed from FEMA's inventory," McIntyre wrote in an e-mail. (Source: CNN) FEMA's needs? Well of course FEMA didn't need them... Duh. All I can think of is back when Mom and I were volunteering for Operation Vanessa way back when and just how many people we encountered every day that really, really could have used this stuff. I'm sure the two coffee pots and four crock pots we gave away to actual Katrina victims pale in comparison to the number that were distributed to state prisons nationwide.

Oh.. and I suppose I could mention the impending third anniversary of the looming mental health crisis called Katrina.

But more on all that later....

I could spend a little while ruminating about good ol' Hurricane Bertha gyrating around in the Atlantic Ocean this week. I could get Dave to blog a follow up to the Valspar/Lowe's paint-mixing story - but it wouldn't be a very good one since we still haven't actually gotten back to Lowe's to try and have the paint mixed again. I could send a bona fide shout-out to Todd over at Home Construction Improvement for honoring us yet again with a fine blog award if I had actually had the time to sit down and choose our ten nominees... Which of course - I haven't. (In the meantime, thank you so much Todd -- you've been really good to us. I'll get a proper post together soon.)

What I will do tonight... Is update our William's room project status for all the world to see.

We finally painted, installed, caulked, and touched up the baseboard for the room. **I'm sure Dave is thrilled that I'm always including him in these home improvement pictures. It almost appears that he's doing all the work and I'm just taking pictures. I'm glad he loves me.** Severe camera flash makes the wall color look rather icky - but it was so dark in there at the time I had to resort to flash. Everyone give Dave a standing ovation for painting baseboards without the benefit of sight.

Voila! Crown painted, walls done, baseboards finished and in place.

All we have left now is changing out the rusty light fixtures and laying the carpet tile. That and uh... returning furniture to the room.. window treatments.. decorating.. and cleaning all of our supplies out of William's closet so he has somewhere to (not really) hang his clothes.