Pleonasm wrote on Jul 5^th, 2006 at 4:14pm:

I have heard nary a peep, and more is the pity.

Regrettably, I have been otherwise preoccupied recently as my bride of 42+ years is scheduled to have a surgically-implanted total knee replacement tomorrow, and thus she will be unable to reside in our cozy FEMA-spec travel trailer following her discharge from the hospital.  So, I have been sorely engaged of late with a rush project to make our hurricane-stricken home "semi-livable" ASAP.

In 1999, my wife retired from Lockheed Martin at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the External Tank for the Space Shuttle is constructed.  Following the launch of Discovery yesterday, I was astounded by the subsequent Associated Press announcement that 47 percent of the 2,000 NASA/MAF personnel - who were my wife's former co-workers - suffered either severe damage to or total destruction of their homes in Hurricane Katrina.  Remarkably, many of the workers who immediately "turned-to" in the wake of the storm are still living in FEMA-spec travel trailers on the grounds of the facility.