Last night I caught little bits of the flood reports out of Houston on the TV, but found them too annoying to stick with. One of the newscasters started out by saying, "Who could have imagined a day like this?" Frankly, there probably isn't a person in Houston whose memory doesn't reach back to the time, two or three weeks ago, when the town was flooded in pretty much the same fashion under the last deluge. At least, to my eye, the news clips look the same.
We are on notice that the City of Galveston may call an evacuation Tuesday morning, depending upon the ultimate course that Hurricane Dean takes.
I only moved to Galveston last October and so haven't gotten the pleasure yet of evacuating - something I understand was a nightmare of waterless, fuel-less automobiles full of people and pets stretching for miles and days the last time it happened. I will be filling my gas tank tonight.
I know it's not considerate of me to hope that Dean goes south, so that people down the way have to get hit, but....
I imagine the Gulf will be beautiful - the last couple of days it's been churning - and I would like to watch, but I wouldn't like to get crushed. I'm used to Missouri weather, where you had tornado season, but you didn't spend days wondering and preparing and anticipating. When a tornado hits, you can see it, and you get down. Now! I think I like that better. (Although, when I was a kid, and there were tornado warnings, I always had visions of my father being trapped out plowing the fields with no ditch for shelter. Those were terrible moments, but they didn't last long.) Now, I'm just annoyed at having to make sure everything is up off the floor, and the idea of getting trapped in traffic for days really does not appeal to me.
But I do love Galveston. It's an amazing place. I just don't understand the people here. I think they've been steamed too long and their brains are cooked.
Who knew trying to hire help for a simple, easy job would be so difficult? They don't show up for their interviews. If they do, you hire them right there. And then one day (soon), they don't show up for work. Maybe they're in jail. Maybe they just didn't feel like coming to work.
I was talking with someone about it yesterday - a woman in an administrative office. She said her favorite was the woman who came to apply for a job wearing pink fuzzy house-slippers. Well, why not? That's pretty much the energy level around this island. Fast food? Hah! They'll stand and discuss their recent night out with each other right in front of you across the counter. They'll get to you, when they get to you.
My favorite application story from the administrative woman, though, was the woman who came in to apply and asked the administrator to fill out the application for her.
"No, ma'am, I can't do that," she said.
"Weeeeellll, I couldn't find my eyeglasses this morning. Do you have any I could borrow?"
"No, ma'am. I wear contact lenses."
"Well, can I borrow your contacts?"
If Dean does hit here, I hope Galvestonians have a little more sense when it comes to evacuating. I'm not holding my breath. Unless I don't get out in time, I suppose.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
and remember the tough decision - which is worse - a tornado or that scary cellar????
ReplyDeletestay safe!
LaBelle
interestingly enough, i do not recall a scary cellar. so, i'm wondering...which was it? you were locked alone in a cellar or i was left outside for the tornado? :)
ReplyDeletei'm sure i'll be safe. i may be royally annoyed, and if i'm stuck on the road somewhere, i might be pissed all over again at whoever broke in and stole my laptop!
i'll check out some more books from the library on monday, just in case.
just another adventure road trip.
when there was a tornado warning we were supposed to go to the cellar - remember those doors outside that opened up to the stairs that went down to the cellar? it was dark, damp, full of spiders and god knows what else. that's where mom put the jars from her canning. there was also an access from one of the closets in the house. this was before the kitchen addition was done and a partial basement dug. you can still get to the old cellar from the basement.
ReplyDeleteyou definitely need another laptop. hope you have plenty of bottled water.
i remember the cellar very well - i just don't remember it being scary. snakes would have concerned me, but i always liked spiders. i liked the damp musky smell of the stored potatoes, and the home-canned goods were treats to me. so i guess my recollection of the cool dark cellar is actually a nice one. (i know, i know - i'm weird - i always liked insects in the garden and preferred green vegetables to deserts and candy. and i always liked quiet, secluded places.)
ReplyDeletei do indeed have plenty of bottled water. gary reminded me to fill the bathtub with water before i leave if we evacuate - something i would never have thought of.
honestly, i don't think dean's going to hit here. the yucatan may take a beating. i think if it makes it to texas, it will hit further south - maybe corpus or brownsville. but, since i'm not a meteorologist or divinator, and since hurricanes can be full of surprises, i'll be ready. i see on the hurricane site that they've pushed its landfall back a day, so we wouldn't be evacuated (at this point) before wednesday.
thanks for the memories....