Blogging in the Dark Ages

Hello out there. I understand they’ve finally admitted to an economic crisis. I’m too busy to pay much attention – even if I could (still no power). The director let me borrow the AT&T wireless aircard this weekend (he got off easy – no damage, running water after 2 days, and power after five), I have 1/2 hour of battery (someone was using my laptop without the power cord - grrr!), and the aircard service is very slow and can’t handle multiple page downloads. After all the care I took to preserve the apartment, they made me move out anyway. Am living out of boxes in a house that’s being renovated and remodeled and is storing a family’s junk they’re preparing for a garage sale. Still, it’s do-able, and it’s dry. When I get power, I'm going to do a dance and pop a cork.

Perhaps I will create the journal of Ike for posting after the election in case McCain/Palin take the Dirty White House. The disaster that is Galveston will look small by comparison.

In the meantime, if anyone wants to see some pictures, there are some pretty good ones at galveston.com.

Cheers to all. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow the whole shebang could go up in smoke.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Alive and Well

And very busy working on recovery of a badly flood-damaged library. May have to move from my apartment as well, but still have a job, which I can't say is true for all our employees. Internet access is not steady, so will post the story when I can. You all be good and have fun.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Category 4 - No, Category 2 - No, Category...

The news folks and the politicians will just try to scare you to death. They even make me nervous. But we are hearing from less sensational sources that Ike is again a category 2. We can handle that, no problem. There were a lot of people on the streets (something I'll talk about later), and the City has opened Ball High School as a shelter. I guess somebody will tell the homeless guys hanging out at the Salvation Army. The bay has flooded the downtown area and is marching toward us. It's gotten as far as the street on our back side. We still have power, which surprises us. But of course, landfall is still several hours away.

I've stopped watching the media news, because even when you know they're hyping things up, it's hard not to get caught in the hype. Which is not to say that there isn't going to be a lot of damage on Galveston Island, because there is. To what extent, I don't know. The administrative office manager has a home on the West end of the island, and I'm pretty sure that's going to take a bad hit. She and her husband evacuated to Pasadena (a Houston suburb), but I wouldn't want to be in Houston for this thing either.

Perhaps we should have gone ourselves, but by the time we got spooked enough to do it, we were separated from our automobiles by thigh high water. It flash-flooded the downtown, but has been holding in place for some time now.

The talking screeching heads were saying 35 foot surges, and there's never been another with such high surge waters. Well, I don't know about that, but we figure we have a good 45 feet clearance if we're on the topmost floor of the building, and we are hearing now that Ike has downshifted a bit in intensity, so we are feeling good enough to put on a movie if the power holds. I will say this: I've always liked stormy weather, but I might not opt to stick around for another one like this. The uncertainty is too rich for my old blood.

My cousin called me from Springfield, Missouri, where he's at a conference and said they were flooding seriously up there, and he didn't know if he was going to get out. So, toast us a drink and stay dry out there yourselves.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

We Are All Texans Tonight

So says a Texan politician. I told a few people that I would blog along, but I have heard the City of Galveston has shut off electricity to certain areas, and we are certain to lose power, whether it's by the City or the hurricane, so I don't expect to get much blogging done in actuality. We put in provisions and we think we are safe on the third floor of a sturdy building. I hope to have some pictures to post when the water goes back down and I can get to my truck, which is on the third or fourth floor of a parking garage. I left my usb cord to my camera in it, and there's no getting it now. Those streets are flooded. Where we are is still dry. We will probably not try this again should the occasion arise, but it still remains to be seen how the whole thing turns out. We have food, lots of water, a dog, two cats and a lizard. And lots of books to read if the water stands for days.

P.S. We at least don't have to watch campaign crap. I will say, however, that I don't think this was the best decision I've ever made. So it will be kind of hard to make cracks at the stupidity of the politicians.

XO

Something to Get You Through the Rough Times Ahead