Time to be thankful

We're ten weeks out now, and it's Thanksgiving week. Galveston's beginning to look a bit more civilized. We got a post office last week. Not a 'whole' post office, but not a trailer either. That's pretty good, isn't it?

And late last week UTMB finally opened the hospital. The fanfare was blunted considerably by the 3,000+ pink slips that went out the same week. To add insult to injury, the place was only open a couple of days before they had to close it again -- at least temporarily. You see, there were too many mold spores in the air. I don't understand all that. Seems to me all you have to do is stick in a bunch of HIPA filters and drive on, but I guess not. The surgical suites had to shut down, as did admissions. We're told it's not a big deal and that John Sealy Hospital will be up and running again real soon.

'Up and running' is technically right but perhaps a bit of an overstatement. A hospital that's had 500-600 beds before Ike is now a 200 bed hospital with services limited to women's health (too bad for us sick males), geriatrics (guess I can get a fake ID), and children (if I act immaturely, can I pass?).

But is this really time for cynicism? Best to push that aside for now and be thankful for all we have. I've got a family with enough moxie to decide to all come to Galveston for Thanksgiving. We'll have over twenty people here, not counting high chairs. Quite a showing of good sports, I'd say.

We're letting all our friends know that in lieu of Xmas gifts this year, they'll get a donation to the Galveston Historical Foundation in their name. To get an idea of what this group does as well as what they are now facing, take a look here:


http://www.galvestonhistory.org/

So raise a toast for our island this Thanksgiving. We used to be 60,000 strong; now we're about 40,000. But we'll be toasting life as well.

Cheers...