Carolina on my mind

Seventeen days and Christine and I will be jetting to North Carolina for a week at the beach with my extraordinary family. I can't wait.

So when I sift through the messages and calls from flood victims and the people who are trying to help them and I can't stop crying, I think about the beach.

I think about walking the sand with my mom and talking about anything and everything.

I think about holding my 22-year old daughter's hand on the plane because she's afraid of flying.

I think about my funny father and the great food he'll be grilling while we're there.

I think about my beautiful sisters who will be at my side for six days running and I can't wait to be with them.

I think about floating in the ocean up to my neck in soft, salty waves, floating all day if the riptides don't stop me.

It's the nature of my job to deal with events like this catastrophic flooding, but the hardships my friends are enduring make me cry. The pictures keep coming, of flooded streets and homes and broken levees and roads and they make me cry. The calls keep coming and everyone wants or needs something. Like I said, it's in the nature of my job.

But today when I can I am thinking of the beach and our escape, so close I can taste the salt water.