Apocalypse NOW

The sky is falling.

It’s all happening at once.

First, Hurricane IKE hits Texas. My sister lives in Houston and lost power (it’s still out after 5 days with an ETA of at least 5 more days), water and a large window. Impossible to live in the house, as it is 100 degrees and 100 % humidity and there’s no air conditioning. The people waiting in gas lines are protected by the police. Everyone is lining up for FEMA handouts of ice and water.

The hurricane itself was pretty scary, according to my sister, but the aftermath is worse. The streets are littered, windows are broken, there is no security for their house. They stayed with friends, then in a hotel. Every meal is in a restaurant or at someone’s home that has gotten their power back. She says that there are streets where one side has power and the other side doesn’t.

And, if that’s not enough, now the financial markets are tumbling. Lehman Brothers, an historic and honorable company has filed for bankruptcy. We have holdings with the company, but I see that 25,000 employees will be without jobs and there will be many more shareholders who are "holding the bag" after the day is done.

AIG was almost next. Merrill was bought by B of A. Where will it end?

I've forgotten to mention that our friends could not get to Paris from London because the Channel Tunnel had a fire in it over the weekend is only operating at 30% capacity.

Luckily, the cave is filled with "grocery store' variety Bordeaux, a small compensation for our week's losses. We’ll all recover, somehow.