Yesterday afternoon, I volunteered at church to man the donation point for Katrina victims.

The truck is going to Baton Rouge. I don't feel like working right now because the logistics are kind of up in the air. This is distracting. Later this afternoon, I will be taking the truck to U-Haul to be checked out and see if it is worthy to drive 375 miles. There might be some extra unloading and reloading.

I'm actually taking the afternoon off but I'll be even busier between a meeting and dealing with this truck.

When I was a part-time retail slave I thought nothing about taking long road trips with minimal planning. Of course none of these road trips involved 2 tons of relief supplies. One road trip did involve me sleeping in the open bed of a pick up truck while it sped up Interstate 35. I was younger and felt much less mortal.

Walter met a couple from New Orleans, while he was at work. They are staying in some of the long-term housing. They said that they were overwhelmed by the generosity of the people of Texas. The couple are musicians and are looking to replace some equipment. This couple apparently is one of the better off people from New Orleans, they offered some money to the people providing the housing but it was refused.

Similar sentiments have been expressed about Texas' generosity and hospitality in the newspapers and other media.

Several refugees have decided to call Bryan/ College Station their new home.

One of the cool side effects of our church's work with the Salvation Army/ United Way is the mention of our church on mainstream radio and television. I was thrilled to hear the name of my church on a radio station that I actually listen to. There are many people who need to hear the Unitarian-Universalist message who do not listen to public/ community radio. They need to know we are here.

In my church when the subject of radio advertising comes up - it is always let's advertise on KAMU/ KEOS. Yeah, the cost is small and it targets the kind of people who might like our message but our church has preached to what we percieve as our choir but yet they don't come or they visit once and are never seen again. I say, lets spend some extra money and get our message out to more people. We need to stop making assumptions about who would enjoy our church and who wouldn't.

People in our church do feel a bit isolated from the rest of the community because their beliefs are a bit out of the mainstream of our community. We connect to each other but in a lot of ways we have isolated ourselves from the community at large. I'm hoping this Salvation Army/ United Way project will be the first of many events that connects us to the larger community and spreads goodwill about the Unitarian Universalist Church.

Update: a new team has been assembled to take the truck to Baton Rouge. Walter will provide them with two-way radios for the trip. Some members of the church has generously chipped in for gas.

Right now, I'm unusually tired. I went grocery shopping while tired, sweaty, crampy and hungry. I've dealt with 3/4 of the list. I'm going to bed early and will see the truck off in the morning.