After many days of watching the news reports of the Gulf Coast, my sweetie and I got away for a couple days at the beach. We only watched a little bit of the news. On the second day the hotel where we stayed had a water main break, and there was no potable water for the remainder of our stay. Fortunately we were leaving early the next morning. We were on the 26th floor, and you can see the ocean behind me. I grabbed a couple bottles of water from the ocean to make some soap with. There was no seaweed, so although that was part of the plan to gather too, I didn't get any of that, but I think we'll be soaping the sea water later today.
Arriving home, I was gripped with the flu-like illness that seems to be everywhere. I've spoken with people in places like NY, VA, and IN who have had the same thing. Its pretty yucky.
The other thing that's happened over the last day or so is that my friend Sarah in Baton Rouge has agreed to accept and distribute soaps and personal items directly into the hands that need them. There have been several people on the Essential Herbal yahoo list who have requested her address to send their contributions.
