Aggies
Jay and the lemur
I finally made it to Adventures In Birds to replenish the dwindling supply of bird treats at the house.
I took some time to visit the show room and I was pounced upon by a free-roaming lemur!
They’re very cute but I think owning a pet with opposable thumbs would present it’s own unique set of problems we are not prepared to deal with.
I’ve found a lovely new waste of time
little birds who talk about obscure bands and make stupid jokes.
now publishing five days a week.
The morning after
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.
When the rain comes
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.
The calm before
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
Hurricane Rita Preparations
Water, flashlights, batteries, radio, propane, camp stove: CHECK!
Non-perishable food items: CHECK!
Freshly baked, homemade oatmeal raisin cookies: CHECK AND CHECK!
Hurricane Rita – Early warnings
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.