My nephew Stonewall Jackson came to visit the other day....

OK - so his name isn't Stonewall. Well, not exactly... His name is Jackson, and yes, he is named after the Great One.

He's all of 8 weeks old, weighs about 15 pounds, and seemed very disturbed by the entire prospect of being moved from further up the peninsula, to a Union occupied territory.

Well, at least it used to be.

Jackson is a sweetie and it's kinda fun watching Bill and Kim play grown-up and take care of him. In fact, they're absolutely awesome with him.

So we spent a fun evening with the three of them (though we had to keep Moby and Sumi from jumping into the little crib thing with him. Scylla, of course, kept a respectable distance). Jim made Poquoson clam chowder (no milk, thank you) and we had roasted Poquoson oysters (complete with oyster crabs). Jackson refused to sleep until we turned on the digital music channel that features Julie London ("Standards and Singers" channel for those so inclined). I must say that the child has good taste!

Speaking of Poquoson, we drove down there this morning to purchase yet more oysters and I realized that it was the first time I'd been down there since Isabel.

Keep in mind that Poqouson is only a couple of miles from our house...

But I haven't felt right driving down that way, really. I know from the news how bad it is down there, and how right after the hurricane the folks down on Messick and Ridge Roads in particular were lamenting about the sightseers.

I don't want to be one of those.

But today was just past the 4-month mark, and while we'd heard from all the relatives and how they were doing (all fine), we hadn't driven down that way (at the request of the folks who live there).

Four months on and it still is a disaster area. I can't tell you how many borrowed RVs and such we saw, or how many houses we saw being lifted off their foundations and put on bigger foundations - ones that are about 8 feet higher than before.

Bless them all - most of them refuse to move out. Well - who can blame them as so many of them have been there since the 1600s? There will be other storms I'm sure, but Poqouson is a tough place. They'll survive no matter what.

Ah. It's late, and I do believe I have to go back to work tomorrow. We're on the downhill slide, I think.

I hope.