Life's funny! Not funny ha-ha, or even funny peculiar. More like, funny marvelous. I've noticed that since the impending hope of publicity has arisen, I've been a bit distracted from the task at hand. Or shall we say, the HUGGING was seeming to feel more of a task. I was straying from the organic delivery of hugs and racing to be at specific locations so as not to miss a press opportunity. Each aspect, shooting, delivering, traveling it was all becoming spritzed with a slight sense of urgency.
(Urgency feeling a bit dramatic, but we'll go with that thought for lack of another word.)

Also, I've been getting about 5 hours of sleep a night, hugging by day
and arranging any and all aspects of SEND-A-HUG for it's maintenance and furtherance by night.

I felt like I was starting to lose sight of the mission,
to deliver HUGS where ever they are needed
...because a little hugs goes a long way!"

After getting out of the shower this morning, (I find that's where I do all my best thinking)
I realized I wanted to drive through some neighborhoods and deliver hugs to folks trying to clear out
their homes.

We (my pal, Shamus-local cameraman and I) came across a young guy working in one of the homes. I said, "Hey, let's pull over here and talk to this guy." "But he doesn't live here, he's just a builder," Shamus commented.
"That's okay, let's get his take on life after Katrina."
I approached the fellow, told him about SEND-A-HUG and asked him if I could interview him. "I don't much care for cameras," he replied.

No worries, I told him. And we started to chat. Turns out, the house is his. He bought it
30 DAYS BEFORE the Hurricane hit.


He's a fireman. Sunday was his assigned day to work, but he was supposed to be off on Monday. No one, however, got that Monday off. Everyone was told they had two hours to go to their homes grab some stuff and head back to work to help with the cities evacuation.

"I just went and grabbed a couple of shirts and pants. I didn't know my place was going to be flooded for 18 days, how could I?"

"Did the water go all the way up to your roof?" I asked him.
"Nope, just up to the top of the walls."
"JUST?!" No there's an amazing attitude for ya!

And he had the smile to match.
"What else can you do? You gotta go on."
And going on he is!

Up until 3 weeks ago he was staying in Baton Rouge in an apartment
he rented after the Hurricane, driving up to two hours, each way EVERY DAY
either to go to work or to gut his house.

He FINALLY got his FEMA trailer less than a month ago, and some insurance money...
that's a whole other story. He feels lucky that he's able to do all the work on his home himself.
All though a HUGE task, it's the only way he could afford to stay above board with all the costs
and the small amount of money being paid out by the insurance companies.



Between the insurance nightmare and the fact that families came back to homes that looked like this
it's a wonder folks stick around.
And yet, they can't afford not to.

And how bout this...
Brad, our hero, got a $300 electric bill for the month of September 2005.
He didn't end up having to pay, just part of the "humor" of the whole situation.

He gut the entire place and has most of the structure up and has done it all on his own.
Managing to do it all with that darn smile of his, of course no one can be up ALL the time
but I'll tell ya what, he's the true definition of HERO in my book.
Well, it goes without saying I HAD to give HIM a hug!
What a truly inspirational young man!


My next highlighted hero for the day...
Mr. Lionel Worthy. He calls himself Worthy
"The top name in the bible.," He told me as he introduced himself. Didn't necessarily no what that meant
but it did charm the heck outta me nonetheless.

Worthy and his dog duke had to be rescued from the attic of his home.
He was evacuated to Houston, Texas
and he can't take being away from his home although it's unsalvagable.
He feels like he can't move forward being away, nor is he at comfortable in Texas
especially now that his best friend, Duke ran away after arriving in the Lone Star state.
"He didn't like it none there either," Worthy said with a low hanging head.
Worthy's quite a character "a serious man" he calls himself,
with a sparkle in his eye that he can't hide.
He enjoyed receiving his traditional hug
but warned me not to hug him for too long (unable to hide his smile.)

His hug, Baby Goldilocks, was a most welcomed friend
that Worthy said he'd treasure as he treasured his much beloved
and extremely missed cohort, Duke.
His home is now wherever he parks his car.
Besides being utterly unliveabe, there's no electricity anywhere in the area
and Worthy said he'd never


As we left Worthy on the porch of his devastated home,
I looked back and saw him head to his car
where he sat, and contemplated what parking lot or driveway he'd be calling home that night.
It just about broke my heart!

As of today
377 hugs delivered!
YAY!
photos and stories tomorrow!
Must try and get some sleep.
There's a lot more to this hugging business than meets the eye!

In the meantime
checkout what these folks are doing!

Same special people who brought joy to Waveland known as the New Waveland Cafe...
Say what you want about hippies
but no one, I mean
NO ONE
has brought as much delicious nourishment to
both body and soul
for the folks of the Gulf Coast than these
super loving, marveloulsly lively, hard working, truly giving folk.
AND
quite frankly
also sustaining many of the other angelic beings come from all over the country to pitch in!

Hey ya'll,
Daisy & Percy are back in the saddle again.
We left our humble abode in our most modest mobile home on Monday, the 20th
in the pouring rain (only of course, because departure time plummeted from a prompt yet leisurely 11AM to a ridiculously tardy 7:30P. Whoops.) Stopped over in Indio, CA where we met a delightful young man who gave me my very first lesson in
backing up the RV while having the auto in tow. Man was that helpful and quite frankly, long over due! After stops in Tucson, Arizona and Ozona, Texas I FINALLY made it to Covington, Louisiana on Friday morning at 3AM.

Not before, however, a marvelous stop at my newly discovered, most favorite, on the road treat...
Cracker Barrel. How has The Barrel managed to woo me with such ferver you ask, where to start is my reply. First and foremost, those darn tootin tasty homemade biscuit of theirs!!! Yu-u-uuuummmmmm! With honey.... stop it! Also on their list of decadent deliciousness, the hashbrown casserole and light and crispy fried okra. My heart beats fast, just thinking about it! It would probably be more appropriate to say that their vittles are heart-STOPPING good. While one's relishing in their caloric bliss, a moment should be taken to enjoy the down home charm of the Cracker Barrel's decor
complete with 80 bazillion rocking chairs (available for purchase). Just when you're sure you've been as naughty as you can, there's the country store filled with gifts and knick knacks, something of which always finds its way to one of my seven nieces and nephhews AND the candy store which most definately finds its way to my tummy and the kids' parents.

I'd like to reiterate at this time how much I love RV life! The open road, the fine folk one meets on the way... There's just nuthin' like it!

But since time is ticking and I'm finding that there truly aren't enough hours in the day.
Let me update on SEND-A-HUG's status.

Well, I loved delivering hugs sooooo very much that my non-profit application is pending and I have an attorney and a business planner on retainer. Can't be much more official than that. Have also made up a logo and look forward to the unveil with ya'll.

I think the question that everyone tends to ask me, is are things much better now, over here and all I can say is
see for yourself. I can't begin to imagine how many years it'll take just to clean up, much less rebuild. We drove by some of the areas where we shot devastation footage and not one thing had changed. Even the same stray shoes were still lying in the street. It's utterly unreal. Shamus, my camera man, a local who also lost his home, is floored by the abandoned neighborhoods, "before, on any given day, you'd drive by in these neighbors and it would be packed. Kids playin the street, cars, parked up and down, neighbors visiting. I've lived here all my life and I've NEVER seen anything like it." Even more than the pummeled houses, it was the complete lack of life on the streets the blew his mind. On our way to deliver hugs, I HAD to pullover and use nature's restroom if you get my drift. We were stuck in traffic on a bridge for 2 hours (all because they were repainting the lines, all part of the small town charm package.
Anyway, being a good little camper, I answered the call of nature. I came off the exit and this is what I found.


















Must get ready for my next delivery, but had to share with you a few of my latest huggees...


Catfish here is a wonderful man who was lookin for hug in dog form -- he lost his in the hurricane. All day long he kept walking by my little hug station, taking a quick glance and continuin on. Each time he'd slow down just a little bit more to get a handle of the activity taking place. Finally, he asked if I had a HUG that look like a lab. cause that was the one of his dogs that he missed most of all. "When they came to evacuate me, they didn't have room for my dogs. And I guess when they just couldn't make it back. I sure miss my dogs."
Mr. Catfish just about broke my heart and although I didn't have a dog with me at the time, I promised him I'd be back tomorrow with a dog especially for him. And you can bet your... there's hugged dog in my car right now, just jonesin' to keep Catfish company.

This is Abby, what she lacked in words she sure made up in smiles!





This is Abby's older sister, Alexis Their home didn't make it and the two of them along with their folks and little brother Donnie and the baby are staying with their Aunt. Alexis is a down right delightful gal, and I have a sinking suspicion we'll be keeping in touch.

Glad to be back and hugging and up and typing and sharing and doing and being and thanking and any minute now,
sleeping.

Everyone, please enjoy the new SEND-A-HUG website...

www.send-a-hug.net

that may not be offically up, but still worth a look, I think the loading page is awfully darn cute!!