We finally went to sleep around midnight.
The power stayed on and we got very little rain.
It looks like we dodged a bullet. Even the hummingbirds have returned and are fighting over the feeders we decided to leave up. A quick tour of the neighborhood reveals downed branches and odd debris here and there.
Sadness that Yaga’s Cafe in Galveston was destroyed.
There’s a picture at www.chron.com
Thanks for all the e-mail wishing us well, it looks like we will be just fine.
My best friend Jim has come over to ride out the storm with us.
We are starting to get some rain and wind. Jim and I decided to sit in the yard and play some songs.
The neighbors all got a real kick out of that.
There is a bit of a party atmosphere. We are all hanging out, drinking wine and beer. Telling jokes and marvelling at the sky.
We all deal with stress differently, My wife Cynthia deals with it by baking cookies and we were running desperately low on flour and brown sugar. It suited me to go have a look around as I am going a tad bit stir crazy. I was also hoping to find some gas while I was out as I would like to top off the tank. I found none but I now know that the universal sign for NO GAS is a plastic bag wrapped around the fuel nozzle. If you see that you know to keep driving.
I thought I had hit pay-dirt when I saw short lines at the gas station in front of the HEB grocery store. Turns out it was for employees only. I suppose that’s very sporting of HEB after working their staff all day while everyone else is either stocking up or fleeing the city.
I moved on to Kroger. For those that have e-mailed me asking how many people I thought were sticking around the west side rather than fleeing the city have a look at the nearly full parking lot
I could not park anywhere close the front.
As I was taking pictures of the parking lot a number of people asked me why I was doing this. I explained I was just documenting this experience. Several people asked if I thought it would get bad, as if looking for reassurance that their decision to stay was ok. It kind of made me uncomfortable. I just said that you should prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.
Inside it was a madhouse. I needed a nine volt battery to replace the one in the garage door opener. I literally got the last one.
Plenty of camera batteries and a few AAA’s if you are looking.
No dairy products to speak of
Canned meats mostly gone, same for the peanut butter
Interestingly enough, plenty of baking supplies. I got the flour and the brown sugar. There’s plenty more at Kroger if you need some.
Cookies are in the oven.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, cookies
Water, flashlights, batteries, radio, propane, camp stove: CHECK!
Non-perishable food items: CHECK!
Freshly baked, homemade oatmeal raisin cookies: CHECK AND CHECK!
Broke out the propane camp stove and sorted out the existing supplies like canned soup and so forth.
I went to the HEB to lay in some extra supplies. They are sold out of bottled water, most soups are gone, crunchy and fat free peanut butter is all the graces the shelves. People are still mostly calm but it’s jammed in the dry good isles. No one’s stealing from other people carts (yet). Topped of the gas tank in the Honda. Lines at the gas station are 2-3 cars deep.
It’s only Tuesday. If you are going to ride it out you should think about shopping soon.
We also took pictures of the house and our valuables as documentation for insurance purposes should the need arise.
We were watching the hummingbird feeder this afternoon expecting to see our migrating little friends.
As I went into the kitchen Cynthia exclaimed loudly “Oh my god! What the heck is that?”
When I got to the window I did not immediately see what she was talking about but I spotted it shortly.
I had never seen one before and never expected to see one down here in Texas feeding at the hummingbird feeder, but there it was…
a Baltimore Oriole.
We put out the feeders today.
This guy showed up as we were hanging them.
I’ve been playing music for a long time now. Not conventional music, either. My band is eclectic and has almost zero commercial potential. Still, we have managed to sell a few thousand CD’s with a modicum of effort and enjoy a small but enthusiastic following.
Our primary outlet these days is festival performances, primarily the Texas Renaissance Festival each year.
While playing these festivals one thing became obvious. Bands with unusual instrumentation enjoyed much larger audiences and sold more product than those who lacked said unusual instrumentation. I’m talking about bagpipes, hammer dulcimers, hurdy-gurdies and the occasional glass harmonica.
I actually coined a term for this.
I call it the Freak Instrument Principal.
Any band, no matter their overall actual talent, that sported a freak instrument was going to do much better than a band that did not feature a freak instrument.
You can see this in action if you pay attention. There are two bands at faire that I like a lot. Cantiga and Wyndnwire. They are beyond talented.
But check out their shows. Not a huge crowd and a small but steady trickle of CD sales.
Then check out The Rogues or Tartanic. Piles of people gathered around clapping and hooting and buying CD’s hand over fist.
Are The Rogues or Tartanic better or more talented than Wyndnwire or Cantiga? Not by a long shot. But the sheer bombardment of sound combined with men wearing dresses compels people in a way that other bands will never be able to compete with.
The Freak Instrument Principal does seem to have a counterpart in politics. This is exemplified in the upcoming election for Texas Governor. I’m talking about Kinky Friedman and his bid to get on the ballet for 2006.
Yup, it’s the Freak Candidate Principal.
Should he be governor? I honestly don’t know.
I kinda lean towards no on this.
Will he become governor? We’ll see.
He’s compelling. He’s outspoken. He’s probably crazy. The idea of Kinky being elected to public office has a “theater-of-the-absurd” appeal that just might get him to his goal, not because he’s suited for the job but because he is so ridiculously NOT suited for the job. And many people here in Texas seem to think that concept qualifies him in and of itself.
He’s not the first one of his kind.
Jesse “The Body” Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota, Arnold Schwarteneger was elected Governor of California (even though Gary Coleman was far more freakish) and let’s not forget they guy who was the original freak candidate…
Who could have known?
The important thing is, we know now.
Vote wisely!