Back to Back to School

Matthew went back to school today. The kids have missed 11 days: one before the hurricane and 10 after. It's worse than it sounds. The kids had just gotten over their summer coma and were starting to get to work. Now that whole process has to begin again.

Still no word on how or if the days will be made up. The decision is on the state level.

Below are pictures taken on the playground. Our power came on about the same time this mess was fixed. Thank you, Georgia Power. They were the ones assigned to the task. The school's principal opened the building so they could use restrooms and gave them chairs and tables to use under the pavilion. A parent made them hot dogs.

Matthew's Hurricane Trauma

[I found the camera. It was in Kevin's car.]

Here's Matthew sleeping through the hurricane.

He did have a bathroom break during the height of the storm, but went back to sleep.

The eye came through in the early morning. There was no mistaking that it was the eye, because the wind stopped and it was quiet. The leaves moved a teeny bit. It was cloudy. I stared out the window for a while, but decided to take advantage of the quiet to get some sleep. I woke up about 7:00 am when the wind got bad again. Hurricanes are less scary when it's light out.

The day after the storm was our anniversary. We were supposed to go to Brennan's like we do every year, but it had the audacity to burn down in the middle of the storm. Instead, we had ramen cooked on the grill and apples.

Let There Be Light

We lost power on September 13, at 12:16 am. We got it back this afternoon.

During the storm the fence fell on the air conditioner, pushed the case off the base and dented it a bit. We propped the fence back up, but didn't know if the A/C unit was damaged because there was no power until today. So far it seems to be working fine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Also, the satellite seems to be ok, which wasn't the case during Rita. I'm happy for Matt to get tv back, and glad I don't have to call and wait in line for another repair.

So now we're in line for tree removal and fence repair. It could have been so much worse. I thought the kitchen skylights were toast.

No pictures yet. The camera is hopefully in Kevin's car, which is at the airport. Not much to look at anyway.

Now it's time to do laundry. Tomorrow I will try to refill my completely empty refrigerator.

Where's My FEMA Trailer?

Still no power. Maybe Thursday. Matt's school is supposed to start Monday. There are multiple power lines down on the playground. Always fun for kids.

Matt and I in Austin tonight, but will go back to the dark tomorrow.

No pictures because I can't find my camera. I think it's in Kevin's car.

Last call

Matthew is asleep. He's sleeping on the air mattress in our room.

Still no rain but lots of gusts.

I'm going to shut down the blog now. I've been going, going, going all day and now I'm just tired.

It won't be long until we see the green glow of transformers. During Rita, we sat in bed and watched out the window because it was too noisy to sleep. Finally there was a massive green glow bigger than all the others, better than fireworks. Then our power was gone.

I expect the power to be out much longer this time. Don't worry if you don't hear from us. We'll just be sitting here, waiting our turn for Center Point to flick the switch.

So I guess that's it. I hope you learned something about surge and how we don't have it. I hope you learned Houston geography. I hope you've been entertained.

Now I am going to bed and spend the 12 longest hours of my life just listening to wind.

Tomorrow we break open the baked goods. Thawed hot dogs are planned for dinner.

See you on the flip side.

Flickr

Here's a list of photos tagged "Ike" on Flickr. Some will be junk but many will be valid. These are pictures that people are posting to the Internet. Often, their experiences aren't being captured on the news.

It will give you something to look at when this blog goes dark.

Pun

My fortune cookie from dinner says "You will be showered with good luck."

Showered. Heh.

I'm getting tired.

Still here

Nothing to report. It's dark and there's wind. No rain.

Power update

Lights are flickering.

Cats

Petey knows. He won't come out from under the bed. I can't even get him to eat. And you know how much Petey loves to eat.

Bob would go out and sniff the storm if we'd let him.

Refrigerate if necessary

Kevin turned the air conditioner down. We're going to make it cold so were comfortable longer.

Cities have started to issue curfews. I can assure you we won't be out between the hours of 8 and 8.

We didn't get our mail today. Or trash service. We did get the inserts for our Sunday paper. Guess that means no Sunday paper. I get to read Parade magazine before you do.

The wind is getting gusty. No rain. It's starting to get dark here, so the good news footage will be going down with the sun.

Weather Channel has Nothin' on Us

We went for a drive and I uploaded some pictures.

The first I took yesterday. This is what a line for gas looks like in suburbia.


Not many businesses are boarded up, but Kinko's did. I'd say 1 in 25 houses has some half-assed effort at boarding.

Here's the view from the lake. You can see the doom coming.

All the businesses are closed except for chinese food. That's what we had for dinner. It's the most popular spot in town.

The wind is picking up noticably. I'll be here as long as there's power.

Village Idiot

This is the man of the house:

We pumped up the air bed. Matthew will sleep on that in our bathroom.

Hurricane Bake Sale

Here's what I made. Cookie bars under foil, 2 batches of rice krispies, cookies, crumb cake and brownies. Matthew cut himself a brownie, as you can see.

Our pantry has so much food in it. It's like a 7-11 without smokes and lottery tickets. We're good.

Bob says, "Run from the water. Hide from the wind."

Checking in

We're still here. Wind is picking up. Let me eat my Chinese food and then I'll tell you about it.

Rain

Here comes the first feeder band.

Still here

It's getting darker and the clouds are moving by very quickly.

Things must be pretty bad on Galveston because there aren't any live reports from there anymore.

And I want to welcome Erin to the show. She just now realized that we were having a storm. News travels slowly there at the surfer compound.

I heard some birds.

Local TV

Here are the local TV stations. Most should have live feeds.

ABC

CBS

NBC

FOX

Also, XM channel 247 is broadcasting one station. I think its CBS.

Oh So Quiet

The birds are gone. I've been out twice now and can't hear them. They don't even care about the seed on the driveway.

Also...

I'll try to update at least hourly until the power goes out. Sometimes the power goes out for no reason. I can't guarantee anything.

So....if you don't hear from me for a while, that's what happened and we'll see you on the flip side.

Worthless update

Nothing new to report. Storm track is the same.

I did make brownies and a crumb cake. My counter looks like a church bake sale. Yay for sweet provisions.

DirecTV

We're on DirecTV now. Channel 361.

Weather report

We still have brief bouts of sun. Just a few teeny gusts.

Galveston is a mess. They're taking names and SSNs of people that are standing around watching the waves. I'm just floored by the people that are staying.

The Coast Guard is rescuing people off of Bolivar Peninsula right now. Bad deal.

To answer Laurie's comment from a few posts back...we will get this hurricane. The expected center of the storm is really close to us. The winds should be a category lower than the landfall category. Our house can sustain this. We're not boarding windows. The biggest issue is falling trees. Our backyard trees would fall away from the house. Our front yard trees are coastal pines that made it through Alicia. If they fall, they fall.

Most everybody in our neighborhood is here. It's just a wind thing for us.

I need to get back to baking.

More links

Here are some more links.

What you can expect. Look for my city on that list. Matthew thinks Tim Heller lookes like Harry Truman, so that's what we call him.

Interactive tracking program. Zoom in and push the map up a bit. Remember we live at the top of Lake Houston. According to this map, the eye rolls right through Porter.

I tried to get the live streaming video link, but it keeps freezing. Maybe you'll have more success.

Surfside is toast. I'd be sorry to see that place go. It was like El Morro on stilts.

Are you guys seeing these pictures of Galveston? Amazing.

Beautiful morning

The sun is out. The air is cool and dry. There's a slight breeze. I can't imagine having a day like this in 1900, and have no idea a hurricane is coming your way.

Things are supposed to fall apart later today. We probably won't get much sleep tonight. Matthew will be in our room. That's how we did it for Rita. He slept through most of that storm.

The shape of Harris County looks kind of like a crooked cat face with two pointy ears on the map. If you can visualize that, then we live in the north east side of the county in the right point.

The track of Ike has the center going right over our house. That could change. It always changes. Rita was supposed to be closer to us but it turned to the state line at the last minute.

There's going to be tornadoes, too. Kevin's hoping our fence falls so we can get a new one.

The waves are already splashing up over the seawall in Galveston.

Dinner update

Kevin is home. His phone is with a cab driver in Chicago. He should be able to pick it up Monday, hopefully. Right now he's putting everything in the garage that's usually in the backyard.

I'm going to quit looking at the hurricane track. It just gets more depressing each update.

I made cookie bars, which won't last until the storm. I made rice krispie treats which should. I'm trying to use all the butter and eggs, hence all the sweets.

Tonight's dinner is whatever you want out of the freezer. Chicken, french fries, pizza, shrimp...take your pick. Everything must go!

Here's another web site. houstonhidfromthewind.org . It keeps crashing, so be patient. You'll have to look up our zip code on your own, because I'm not posting it here.

Mid day Update

Matthew has no school tomorrow. I'm going to cancel speech this afternoon simply because it's one less thing I have to do today.

Kevin lost his phone in the cab in Chicago. I called it many times. I've talked to three different people, all with incredibly heavy accents. I have a name and address and there's a distinct possibility he may get this lost phone back (as opposed to the last lost one).

Oh, here's a Houston TranStar map so you can see the traffic. I haven't been watching much local tv, so I don't know how bad the back up is, or if there is any at all. You get kind of crazy if you watch the all-disaster all the time news casts, which are on every local channel now.

Galveston is looking choppy. Everybody was ordered off the island, which is good because I think that sucker's going under. It's not the seawall, it's the flat north coast of the island between the bay and the mainland that's the problem.

Also, I believe there are mandatory evacs for certain parts of Houston/Harris County. That's not us. It's Kemah and north of there. Remember not to freak out every time you hear Houston on tv. There are parts that are really screwed. That's not us.

Thursday morning update

Matthew has school today. I expect that won't be the case tomorrow. The weather is supposed to start falling apart Friday evening/Saturday morning.

Kevin will be home by 2pm today.

We will definitely have hurricane winds. If the storm burps and wiggles, it could be worse, or better. Each update is different. That's all I know.

This Just In

Harris County has waived all fees on their toll roads This means evacuees won't have to throw a bunch of quarters in the basket as they are fleeing the storm. Texans are nice that way.

Galveston has ordered mandatory evacs in the west end. That's the part that doesn't have a seawall.

The local tv stations have started to run a crawl across their "regularly scheduled programming," reminding everyone about the cone of doom. As if we didn't know. Tomorrow they'll start using the ominous music when talking about the storm. On Friday, they'll have Ike continuously spinning on a small screen in the corner of all channels. That constant reminder should keep people calm.

Matthew still has school all week, but I bet they close on Friday, based on parental feedback/pressure.

Storm map

Some of you may be interested in the storm surge map for the Houston area. The map is divided into evacuation zones based on location and storm strength. A's are supposed to leave before B's and C's, I think.

We live above Lake Houston, so we are not in an evacuation zone. We have absolutely no risk of storm surge.

As you can see from the map, parts of Houston are in the zone. That's mostly because of the ship channel. Storms can push water from the bay up through the channel and into the bayous. So when CNN is flipping out and mentioning Houston's vulnerability, that's the part of the city that has a problem, not us.

At this moment we are on the dirty side of Ike (the north east quadrant), in line for tropical storm-force winds and a ton of rain. Matthew is praying for school closures. No such luck yet, though they are moving football games because of the rain.

Love is in the Air

It's lovebug season. The first few years, I was amazed by the phenomenon, but now I am so over it. You have no idea how hard it is to get these things off of a car bumper.

You can tell when someone has driven here from a long distance because the whole front of the car is a black lovebug graveyard.

Driving locally, it's not so bad. Lovebugs just kind of fly around and land on the windshield at a red light.

Some seasons are heavier than others. This one seems to have produced a bumper crop of lovebugs.

Texas Justice

I had jury duty this week. As the process goes, it runs pretty smoothly 'round these parts. I have experiences here, in Los Angeles and Riverside counties. Harris is by far the best, in my opinion.

I got picked for a case, which was surprising, since it was a quickie and I was juror 25 of 36. The whole trial was about 5 hours, but it went over 2 days so I got $50 for the second day.

One of the positives of serving on a jury in the Harris County civil court system is this view:


Another plus is a Blue Bell vending machine in the courthouse cafeteria.

As for the case, let's just say it's important to follow directions. And if you're back is truly hurt, don't hop on the hospital bed to be examined.

Gustav

Some of you are probably wondering about Hurricane Gustav. We got about three sprinkles. Matthew was secretly hoping school would be cancelled, but it was not to be.