A normal day in the French Quarter...

I spoke with my poor gypsy friend today, she only had a cell phone to communicate with and last time I spoke with her she was trying to conserve power because they had no electricity so I haven't called her in a few days. Turns out they were only out of power for like half a day, and Rita didn't damage her grandmother's house, which is where she, her husband, her baby, three cats, two cousins and now her brother and grandmother are all currently staying. Her mom and her aunt and uncle are still holed up in Shreveport with no word on whether their Beaumont home survived the storm or not. She's hearing that it may be possible for them to return to New Orleans soon, another brother of her's is actually going to fly in from Germany to help repair her mother's flooded house, he's an all around handyman guy also, which will be much needed because getting a contractor to do anything in New Orleans in 'normal' times is difficult enough.

On a good note, her baby is getting used to being driven all over the state and sleeping in different places constantly, so she apparently has her mommy's adaptability genes. For some reason my dad always marveled over how "adaptable" I was as a child when things went differently than expected, but I think I was just the peacemaker and hated to see anyone argue. I'm not at all adaptable compared to my friend Mary, she has so much stamina and has that Creole "life goes on" trait to the max, I really admire her for it. She's been learning to be a mom while having to travel with a newborn across two states. She and her husband are great travelers, though, Sparky and I are not. There are a lot of places I want to see... but the comfort of my home is very hard to leave. We both love our home, just give us our electricity, cable TV/internet, AC and running water and it's hard to find a reason to leave.

Some friend of ours in North Houston lost their power for four days, and got a lot of tree damage from the winds, they live in a heavily wooded area. They said it got so hot in their home that five of their fish died. We had actually anticipated losing our power at the very least, possibly the water also, but our neighborhood was virtually unscathed. There are rolling blackouts around the Houston area, which combined with an abnormal heat wave, is making life hell for a lot of people here.

I ventured out of the house tonight to drive to the ATM and make a deposit and took a quick tour of our area to see what was open. It looked like most businesses had opened back up, but I know a lot of them are still very understocked and understaffed. My dad is buddies with the manager of our local Kroger's and he told him that they tried opening up on Sunday for part of the day but had to close the store early because they were basically mobbed and ran out of food. I'm very glad I managed to get at least the basics (which thankfully didn't spoil from a power outage) so we still have milk, eggs, bread and way too many cocktail croissants (from Sam's Club). I noticed people were still driving semi-hysterically, and there were a lot of people walking (people won't walk here) so that was a little weird.

But we're already making our list of things to still get for the next storm, and there is a brand spanking new one brewing already. Can this one please go somewhere else, maybe to Mexico? Just give us a chance to pick up a little, get everyone back home and drain New Orleans again?

A disturbing theory about the New Orleans levee break had been rattling around my head, nothing is too strange to be true these days, and I did a Google search and apparently I'm not the only one who this grotesque idea occurred to.

After listening to the horsie man testify today, I'm about ready to believe anything about these evil bastards.
And I also heard tonight that for some strange reason that even though Governor Blanco asked for emergency assistance for the entire state, that Orleans and Jefferson Parishes (i.e. New Orleans proper) were not included on the President's emergency declaration, curiouser and curiouser...

One more note, FEMA ran a Hurricane exercise (Hurricane Pam) last summer anticipating a storm surge topping the New Orleans levees and their own report says they would have the situation all under control.

It is very weird here in Houston. Still very quiet. It sort of freaks me out to think I can't go to the grocery store, book store or even the bank if I need to. At least the post office was opened today (we got mail - yea!). We didn't get a newspaper for several days, then we got three at once. My husband's bank was still closed today. The cable and my internet connection went out last night for hours and there was no one to call... spooky.

Normally none of these things would disturb me after a hurricane, except we never got any rain. There's not even any wind damage. It's all very Twilight Zone, I hope I don't break my glasses...

I'm still using up the food in the freezer, but Sparky's not using the ice quickly enough, we've still got way too much. Next hurricane I'll have to stock up on TV dinners, I bought a bunch of soup this time, but I'm saving it for the next one. It's hard to be in the mood for soup when it's 100 degrees outside.

We've been on a home improvement kick this year, a friend of the family is a certified electrician and also a plumber, carpenter and painter and my parents and I have been alternately employing his services. He just installed a new light fixture over my desk to replace the hideous original chandelier (which had 2 of it's 5 lights left working besides being grotesquely ugly), and was supposed to come over last weekend to replace the plumbing hardware in my bathtub, but we've rescheduled because the Home Depot needs to be open when he comes to get parts. We've been getting vintage 50's & 60's light shades to replace the cheapie stuff the previous owners slapped up to sell the house. And to replace the ceiling fan over our bed, besides being shiny, tacky brass with glaring tulip lights, I don't like to sleep under a fan, and just having it hovering over my feet all day is bad Feng Shui.

We also ordered a new range hood from Lowe's a few weeks ago that should have been here by now, the knob snapped off our old noisy one we're getting a pretty new black one that should suck the cooking smells out a lot better and be quiet enough I can hear the TV when I'm cooking. Sparky's going to have him add shelves to the closet where he stores his 16mm projectors and films, getting everything off the floor in anticipation of a flooded house prompted him into putting that project at the top of the list. I had my dream closet shelving installed a few months ago in my office and my Ebay closet, I still haven't figured out what to do with the bedroom closet. Someday my dream is to knock out the master bathroom and closet and add on to that part of the house, but that's way in the future (along with Sparky's movie screening room).

Just rambling tonight... going to bed now, it's past 6 am (oops).

Something I did not think I'd be doing 24 hours after Hurricane Rita came through - sitting in the air conditioning, with the lights on using my computer. How bizarre...

All week our local newspeople have been doing pretty much 24/7 broadcasts telling everyone that Rita was heading right at the Houston/Galveston area, that it was bigger than Katrina, even bigger than the turn of the century hurricane that flattened Galveston Island, and that we were all basically SOL and it was time to flee in a blind panic as far away as possible. At least 31 people died on the highways trying to escape, but no one died in the storm itself.

We spent last night watching historic buildings in Galveston burn to the ground, and sitting around waiting for the gale force winds and rain to come out way. The power and cable blinked, but never went off. We got about ten minutes worth of rain, some pretty hellacious winds which rocked the house and kept me awake till dawn (and some pretty brisk winds that continued most of the day), but that's all. Rita veered off towards the Louisiana border as it got near and we were spared.

I've watched the news sporadically today, mostly to see who did get pounded, and it looks like the whole area from Beaumont, Texas to Lake Charles, Louisiana got the worst of it. High winds and flooding, even poor New Orleans lost one of their levees all over again and part of the Ninth Ward filled back up with water.

My friend called me early this morning to let me know they were OK, she hadn't spoken with her mom and brother yet, though, who had evacuated into the storm's path to Shreveport. They still did not have electricity. I just drove to Beaumont last week to see her for her birthday (and to meet her new daughter). I hope when the power comes back on they are more comfortable in their new temporary home, they were very cramped in her aunt & uncle's home, though at least they were in a decent sized town with a few things to do and some nice restaurants. They're much closer to New Orleans now, which is good, but I've been to her grandmother's house in Franklin and there's not much to do there. I know they're dying to get back to New Orleans, and her poor mom's house got several feet of water in it so they have lots of work that's waiting for them. Her mom had been wanting to move anyway, but not like this.

Houston is a ghost town. We live on a busy through street and Sparky only saw one car go by yesterday. I've heard a few go by today. Everything is closed down, even though we barely got any rain. The post office, gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants... Part of the city are still under a curfew. The people in charge are trying to get all of the people who fled north to return on an orderly schedule over the next few days, but the influx has already begun. I can't blame them, I'm so glad we didn't have to leave our home.

Sparky has gone from panic attacks to giddy relief, thank goodness. I'm exhausted, my Multiple Sclerosis has flared up from all the running around and the whole apocalyptic thing day after day, when I woke up this afternoon I thought I'd be spending the day in bed but I had a little burst of energy. My skin is really broken out too, which it never does. We're going to stay sequestered in our nice, cool, dry house eating out food reserves till the city gets somewhat back to normal. My parents were lamenting the fact that they couldn't order Italian delivery tonight, and I have to admit I'm missing my usual weekend Mexican food delivery, but it sure beats the alternative - scooping water out of our house or worse. Sparky wanted to replace the carpet in the den, he's decided to wait till this year's hurricane season is over.