And so it goes....another challenge for ladybug. The last hurricane in our area I evacuated & sat on the freeway for 20 hours. For Hurricane Ike, I decided to stay, although I am in a mandatory county of evacuation. NEVER AGAIN! 10 hrs. before Hurricane Ike hit, the pre-hurricane had persistent winds of 70 mph and we lost electricity. When it did hit 10 hours later at 105 mph, the house shook, the windows rattled, I heard crunching outside as the historic trees in my yard over 100 ft. tall crumbled to pieces, and then the LOCOMOTIVE! Nothing more eerie than hearing the sound of a hurricane coming through, the locomotive is loud as it passes. Then calm after about an hour, I thought it was over! NO, it was the eye, had to brace for the back end of the storm, then the rains after that...result - no utilities of any kind, no gasoline, no stores open, no postal service..and my magnificent yard that used to look like a park is shredded to pieces. The roof...well I thought I'd end up in Kansas, but the storm did leave the rest of the house intact...And me and my cats were o.k. Ladybug doesn't give up easily, though, I hope you will peruse my store and find something you can't live without! Everything in my store was not affected by the storm. Especially nice is my children's book available in my store. It's called "JERBOTH WEAVES A SONG."Its illustrator I met on eBay, her name is Penny Noble and her store name is hattiechris1. Check her out, too. She makes the most beautiful bears you've ever seen. She believes in enjoying the simple things in everyday life, and also loves nature as much as I do. I love eBay, it's allowed me to add to my hobbies, gives me frivolity money, and expanded my horizons on many levels. As a former literature major in college, I live for "themes." I get caught up in stories & the histories behind the treasures I find for listing in my store and auctions. My oldest and dearest collection is Felix the Cat, one of the few innocent characters left on this earth. Though I often downsize on my various collections, Felix will stay with me till the end. I also like Storybook Knit Sweaters because each one has a theme name and is stitched into a story. Once I remember being complimented that I should wear a sweater everyday because I was built to wear a sweater. That tickled my fancy, and I do admit I look good in those themed sweaters! I also have a nice little collection of Radio Flyer wagons dating back to the 1950s...there's something about a radio flyer wagon that stirs the imagination of a writer. I like to restore things, too, my finest restoration is a 1962 Caravan bicycle...it looks so good I won't ride it outside! Trunks are always fun to explore and to restore, the most recent one I restored I painted it to look like it had been on the bottom of the ocean floor, it looked like it had various stages of rust - but it was just the color of the paint. I use it to display items in my store. Recently, I've gotten into the theme, FULL BLOOM PINK, the title of a floral mug I saw when I was perusing one of my favorite thrift stores. It seemed to me when I saw that title how wonderful it would be to live each day in a full bloom pink ... way! I'm not always that cheery everyday, I admit it, but I have started to collect a few pink things, and it does bring sunshine into my day. I love to make new friends, so drop me a line, I promise I'll answer. ;-Þ