Waiting for IKE

Wow! Poor Galveston. Having been there several times for conferences and to pick up cruises, seeing the flooding and other damage is sad. But I bet the cruise lines get that port up and running pretty fast! Seriously, hurricanes aren't something to take lightly. I'm sure it's difficult to know what to do if you are in the path of the storm. Stay or go? It seems that if you go, the storm misses you completely and you risk some slime-ball breaking into your home while you're gone. If you don't go, you don't want to be the family on the rooftop, waiting for rescue, like your predicament is the only one the news cameras were able to get so we see you over and over again on the TV coverage.

A friend whose daughter is in Houston told me about a conversation with her daughter. Her daughter said "Mom, you raised me right. I got a few essentials from my apartment, the cats, and a bottle of wine!" I'm glad she has her priorities in order. She was on her way to higher ground, north of Houston. I hope she is doing OK.

I'm much further north in Texas and it is raining pretty good right now and the actual storm is not yet upon us. So what's a girl to do waiting for a hurricane?

1. Hope to finish all electricity-related chores (uh, basically everything) before any power outage.
2. Let the cat in and out. Repeat.
3. Mow the yard. Seriously, hubby got part of it done before the rains came!
4. Watch boring hurricane coverage on TV, same shots over and over again. It's real exciting when they get someone on the phone from East Texas and they sound like Hollywood got the accent right on the TV show Dallas. Hope you caught that sarcasm. We natives are sensitive about our drawl. Most of us don't talk like that. We just have a nice, soothing, pleasant drawl when we speak ;-)
5. Watch the cat take a nap. What the hell. Join the cap in this napping activity.
6. Hum....maybe list cat on EBay.
7. Blog. Well, duh.
8. Go surfing (just the electronic kind for now).
9. Role-pay: Uh, no, not THAT kind of role-play. I am not dressed as a school girl. I mean the Suzie-Homemaker cook and clean thing. Cook a yummy southern-comfort breakfast. Sausage and eggs. Hey, it was turkey sausage and it was actually edible. Amazing. Clean-up breakfast. Scrub toilets (yeah, well, couldn't get the cat to do it). Do laundry. Cook more comfort food for lunch. Chicken Enchiladas with Red Chile Sauce (no, not Tex-Mex but New Mexico style and it's totally different). More Yum. Clean up lunch. Eat homemade Better-Than-Anything Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert. Enjoy the sugar high. Note to self: Avoid bathroom scale. Go back to #5.
10. Polish your Sudoku skills.

Or, you could just live dangerously:

1. Go for a long run and get caught in the storm.
2. Fly a small plane, practicing ability to control plane in high winds, avoiding puking, and hoping to land plane when airport closes due to weather.
3. Attempt to use the cat as a vacuum cleaner or dust mop. I wish this would work. After all, he brings in most of the dirt in the house. I'm a close second.
4. Operate electric lawn maintenance equipment.
5. Trim the trees. Use long slippery ladders.
6. Test for power by sticking your fingers in the wall outlets.
7. Drive into the path of the storm.
8. Drive to Dallas and see if anything flies off the balconies of the high-rise apartments.

I hope all of us make it through this one with as little impact as possible.