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Posted by: gecopeland Sep 23 2005, 05:04 AM

Strange day for me....4 days ago we had power returned...today we had cable returned...then Hurricane Rita set it's sites on the gulf Coast and we began to get it's rain. It would seem the hurrican edidn't know know any better than to ruip through this battered region. haven't we had enough? Well I sweated away patching up the roof on the inside wher eI could trying to keep the rain out, you see the first hurricane took the entire backside of the roof and the ceilings within collapsed, rain water came in and destroyed nearly everything bringing mold and mildew. We made it out safely days before the storm, we weren't brave enough to hang around to watch a repeat of the wicked witch scene in the Wizard of Oz. Days prior I had triedto sign up on this very forum after reading the Half Blood Prince....hence why this topic has found it's home here.  My best and childhood friend was off to London for  a business class at King's College..low and behold, the week of the release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. He phoned me several times and I managed to burn it into his skull that it would be a good idea to nab a few copies of the british print, after all you dont' see many of those stateside, especially here in Mississippi. Yes that's right we got hit too, not just New Orleans, which might I add is merely an hour's drive from here.(west) I live on the Mississippi gulf coast.  To wind this story down before it gets too long, (too late) When I returned home, the last I had spoken with my friend was 9:30 a.m. when the storm made landfall, crossing the southern tip of Lousiana and crushing it's way through Mississippi, wiping cities off the map. I finally got intouch with him a week after the storm, which was the day I returned. He told me his house was gone. I had to see for myself naturally...so I did.  We speak of all his treasures he brought back from London during his month's stay....and he looks up and says 'Harry's gone." It never even occured to me he had left the book and all his treasures behind.  He also brought back a book for me, the children's version, he kept the adult version, wouldn't be caught dead with the other lol.  My book lay safely at the top of my closet between clothes where I hid it..undamaged.  Well I happen to have bought myself the American version....so to  him goes the British version he brought for me right?  He wouldn't have it.  "That was for you" He said. "You aggrivated me to death to make sure I brought one home for you." So in the end, one Harry book and his whole entire house disappeared, while the other 2 remained safe in my battered leaking home.  My neice will have to wait to read Harry as she has been sent to Jacksonville FL for school, the roof was ripped off of hers. Anyhow the moral of the story is, if anyone knows of any suffering family in my area, if you find one before I do, I will be happy to donate my American verison of Harry and the Half Blood Prince, while I cram down the British version down my friend's throat, because it truely is the sole surviving treasure he has lef t from his trip. As an after thought.. I probably should donate mine to the public schools, they didn't fair too well down here either. Yep think that settles it, that's where mine is going

Posted by: minime Sep 23 2005, 05:18 AM

gecopeland I just wanted to say that my heart and prayers go out to all that have been affected by this, including you and your friend. Your story, like many others has brought me to tears and reminded me to be grateful and to overlook some of the pettiest things in life. I think if a Harry Potter book can bring comfort in this time then Jo Rowling's story has accomplished more than what most people give it and her credit for. Thank you so much for sharing

Posted by: ktmac Sep 23 2005, 07:15 AM

I hope you are safe as Rita is approaching.

Posted by: gecopeland Sep 23 2005, 01:36 PM

Yes we are safe during Rita, thanks, the only problem it's giving us is water in the house lol, we can't seem t o get buckets under the leaks fast enough before they decide to change paths and fall somewhere else from the roof. Things should be fine for us. I was just thinking to myself, I usually take my niece to see the harry movies, and twice they have come out on my birthday so it was kind of extra special, but it looks like this time it maybe difficult to take her cause I don't know if she'll be back from going to school in jacksonville Fl yet or if she'll be there for the whole remaining school year. Guess I'll be voting to bring her back sooner lol, seeing the movie without her wouldn't be the same. On that note, they are taking good care of us down here, aid has come in from so many places arou nd the world, people are being able to relocate , those that lost homes, and those of us staying area able to get to food distrobution points and get water and ice and food, the water is ok to drink here again so no more make shift showers, yippeee! We have made it a point to keep stiocked up on MRE's (those things taste baaaad) We have tons of water stored so we we're pretty well prepared to ride things out while we wait for some normalcy to return. I have to send my thanks ou to all those who have sent care packages to our area, we wouldn't have made it without the love and care of so many humane people, as we all know you can't rely on the federal government to fix everything lol.

Posted by: gecopeland Oct 6 2005, 03:41 AM

Update time Since I last posted a few things have happened. We finally are getting our roof replaced within the next few days, We stil have to get the ceiling fixed and the carpet replaced and some furniture replaced though. They finally came and hauled off the debri pile that as slowly forming a mountain in our front yard. My friend I wrote about that brought the HP books back from London has gotten a trailor from FEMA and they are supposed to at some point in time set it up for him on the foundation of where his house used to be, makes me wonder.....how does one deal with waking up everyday and stepping out side to be reminded constantly  of what happened by seeing the ruins of what used be home. He's braver than I am. For me at least all I have to see is medium damage and the house is still actually standing lol. My buddy and I actually decided to tap into our accounts and take of ffor talladega in Alabama for the Nascar race, didn't cost much for us thanks to living a mere 4 hours away and having free rooms to stay in due to a family friend The outpour of help around here is really amazing.  I looked at some arial photos of my hometown wher e I grew up and I couldn't even reocgnize anything....I must have went  through 30 or so photos before I finally found the reminants of a McDonalds so I finally had my bearings and could tell where things used to be....well K-mart doesn't have to worry about closing down now  due to competition from the newly built and newly destroyed Wal-Mart down the road heh heh. Ok enough from me, doesn't look like there's been too much interest in my tale so I'll probably leave off on the updating for a while to come. I'll still be around however

Posted by: geek_vixen Oct 8 2005, 06:34 AM

I'm sure I can't be the only one, but the Harry Potter characters were virtually my only "friends" in Elementary and Middle School, because I moved to a small town in third grade and began reading books well above my reqired reading level.  It wasn't long before Harry was one of them.

And since I was always reading at recess no one wanted to be friends with me....

Oh well.  I'm not complaining!  Anyone else?

Posted by: RoonilWazlib42 Oct 8 2005, 12:42 PM

That happened to me in 3rd-5th grade. I barely had any friends besides Harry until 6th grade when I met some other fans.

Posted by: seremela14 Oct 8 2005, 08:44 PM

i agree, i am a freshman and my best friend is moving, so for a while harry, ron, and hermione will be my bffs, but i'm not complaining. hey, they can do magic right? but they can't sing mcfly and busted and guns'n'roses songs with me....boo.

Posted by: kenrick89 Oct 8 2005, 09:14 PM

well im not a loner or anything and i have friends and all of that, but when im like feeling lonely or something they feel like my best friends, so i can sorta relate.

Posted by: Emms Oct 10 2005, 12:39 PM

Well, I started reading Harry Potter the year before I started middle school, but middle school kinda sucked for me (didn't it for everyone? Everyone changing and cliques and all that--high school is much different for me.) I spent a lot of time with Harry and Co. during my middle school years, and at times I was more into them than I was into my own friends who I was drifting apart from.

Posted by: Bertie-Botts Oct 10 2005, 01:42 PM

I am a proud Harry Potter Obsessed fanatic, and if it weren't for school, I might have had no one to talk to about it. Now I have Vikram P. (no last names!) and some others who are up on that obsession level with me. (to take an obsession level quiz, visit http://bertie-botts.tripod.com/quiz.html) That's how school has done good to my obsession.
Quiz!

• What Does the spell "Wadiwassi" do?
• How did Moaning Myrtle die?
• Why is the girls bathroom roped off in the second book/movie?
• What is the first answer that comes to mind when I say "Prefect"?

Posted by: kimmparker Oct 10 2005, 06:50 PM

I merged several topics together to create one "How has Harry helped you?" topic.

KIM
LL Mod