Day one

It is the first day of 2005, still so much terrible news is being broadcast about the tsunami devistation. 150,000 are officially dead, and they expect it to be even more. 2.1 Billion dollars has been donated to the disaster by other countries in the world (350 million from the U.S.. The news media is trying to focus on the survival stories and some of them are truly amazing, still I am haunted by it all. However, relief has been arriving in the starving devistated areas, there were some areas that just today were reached by helicopter, bringing food and water. There is fear of much disease from the water: collorah, dysentary and typhoid. There is no end to this horror story, I just need to write about it here, somehow it helps.

We went to Xenia today to the Halterman/Phillips annual soup dinner. There was wonderful food and was nice to visit with the other side of the family that we don't see very often. I had taco soup, it was yummy. There was lots of other things to eat. I had keylime pie for dessert, even though I took brownies! By 5:30 it was over and we came home. Bill Olden came over to visit for a while and now it is 11:00 pm, and I am heading to bed.

Here is a quick snapshop from the dinner.