Hurricane

Hurricane                                                1624

Monday, September 5, 2005-4:48 P.M.

Happy Labor Day from Rochester, NY.  I'm home, and all of the news from Hurricane Katrina is finally sinking in.  My wife saves me the week's newspapers when I go on the road, and seeing all of the coverage and allowing it to register has made me a sobbing mess today.  As a father and a husband, my main concerns this past month have been how I can continue to make a living with the gas prices rising the way they have, and now I'm just thankful that my home is still standing, and my wife and daughter weren't whisked away in a wall of water.  Can you even imagine?

Saturday night's 8:00 P.M. show was great.  My buddy Ricky Kingston came down from Englewood and hung out, and got to see some of his fine written material work out on stage.  We had a great time doing the pal-around thing, and the first show was packed, but the second show was pretty light.  We had a heckler who couldn't get enough of the abuse, and finally, the staff removed him to the V.I.P. lounge that they keep out in the parking lot.  Nuts to him, that redneck loser.  Al Katz lost his mind on stage and started in with the Bush-bashing, which lost half the crowd, but the other half cheered and carried him off on their shoulders.  I don't understand how this country can be so completely split down the middle, it's as though one out of every two people have completely lost their minds.  I can say this...after this hurricane and the slow response by the federal government to get aid down to Louisiana, I wouldn't count on one black vote in the 2006 election for a Republican anything.  If I were a Republican, I would just tell people I was a Conservative and run that way.  It's elephant hunting season for sure.

My flight home was grueling, and today I'm still stiff from doing seven hours in airplanes and airports.  No yakking though, so I thank God for small favors.  I'm working close to home this week, the Comedy Playhouse in Geneva, NY, so that will give me some time to regroup.  Also, with gas at $3.50 a gallon (BJ's wholesale club hasit for $3.08), it will give me a chance to make some money before long roadtrips to D.C. and then the big one out ot Omaha, NE, Lexington, NE, Dickinson, ND, LaCrosse, WI and St. Cloud, MN.  In booking my 2006 year (which I haven't done yet), I may seriously have to reign in my touring radius, or do something drastic in terms of routing.

O.K., gotta go get milk for the baby.  And actually, it'll be nice paying less than $3.00 a gallon for something.

Enjoy the last day of Summer, and keep in mind that God has a wonderful plan for all of us, and that He put us on Earth, not to fail and suffer, but to succeed and minister to each other's needs.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY