Rita: Saturday, the morning after...a pill would be good

It got pretty windy with a bit of rain last night around 8 or 9. Starting then, the power went on/off several times before stabilizing. The cable and thus internet were kaputt, so we settled in (see SHG for that).

Anyway, power finally went out for good. SHG, G-Hopp and I were up at 6 with the wind howling and rain driving, but it was really not bad at all here. The bayou out back is barely 1/4 full.

Thanks to a gas stove and a french press, coffee was up and ready, though we tried to use the regular pot, but the wee power inverter we have was not enough for the Cuisinart - we forgot that the grinding motor and the heating element draw quite a bit of juice. Thanks to the big-ass battery on my laptop and SHG's SBC dial-up option, we checked online to check the storm out (and blog of course). It's very windy and sort of rainy, though it seems like it is downpouring because the rain is actually blowing sideways. We got very, very lucky. Here's the storm track, with a little white dot over Stepford:


With no power, and a short phone cord for the modem, the webcam is not up to show you the outside, and blogger is being bitchy about uploading images...well, it's been like that for a couple of days now...so no more pictures right now. Feh.

Damage report: Many little branches blowing about, and a section of my fence went down (not surprised, it's about 14 years old). It never even occurred to me that it might blow down, I only thought about the house.

There are several lessons I have learned from this whole thing. First, when you're in the possible path of a hurricane, the uncertainty of the predictions are extra unnerving. Second, they are actually pretty good at the predictions, uncertainties included. The stress and emotions come and go. Third, we all deal with this stress differently: I try to do little things and make things perfect, and then retreat to the computer. G-Hopp hangs with the computer. SHG talks. D goes nuts in the kitchen.

Fourth , for somebody like me with pets who are his family, or somebody like me with children, with like me meaning a generally over-compensating, over-prepared, obsessive compulsive prone to worry, some seemingly over-preparedness is in order.

Let me elaborate: This morning without power is less than irritating. Having no running water, or holes in the house with undesired water coming in would really really blow. You prepare in advance like we did (and quite well except for the lack of generator and boarding the house up, both because of the lack of any thing to buy to do so) and then as G-Hopp put it, there's a bit of anti-climactic feeling. Then you wait. Then you get lucky and all is well. And then you may feel a little foolish for worrying.

Not me. I don't question any of my/our decisions, including the one to stay in light of the lack of gasoline etc. And I won't let anybody question my judgment or give me shit. Given the information available and the conditions of gasoline and traffic, the decisions were the right ones. I mean, the Houston plan was for 1.2 million max to get out, and something like 2.1 million did, or tried. And, much of that was apparently Houston people that were not called on to do so - only zones A,B,C (and the zone C order was lifted yesterday early in the morning).

But what I will do is do a lot of prep for possible future events. Like buy a really good generator. Like get that desert roof rack/fuel can/water can package and front-hitch cooler carrier for the Rover, and be all stocked up. I did have everything ready for the pets for the last few years, but that was just for them in case I was out of town during a hurricane and the sitter or the ex needed to do something. When I move to my new house, I will get all the plywood for the windows pre-cut and numbered and ready to mount. From now on, I will be over-prepared, which could eventually turn into being just plain prepared if something big happens.

This leads me to another thought: Think of all the people who fled Houston in advance of a powerful storm...that turned out to weaken and veer off away from us. So many of them will be feeling foolish, especially after the Hell of an 18 hour evacuation drive to Austin, the dearth of gasoline, and now the inverse coming back here starting today. They should not feel that way, but they will. And that is not a good thing.