After the Storm

Woo-hoo! I have power! I have hot water! I have the news!

So much to write, so much to write. I'll do it day-by-day.

Friday night - the storm was fierce. The wind whipped around, trees were bending. My windows and doors didn't vibrate like some of my neighbors did. The storm itself wasn't bad. I didn't see a lot of lightening, but oh it was there. I fell asleep around 1am, woke up at 4:30 am and had no power. So I went back to bed. (On a side note, the Cop's 13 year-old son sent me an e-mail that night saying hi. Put in an awkward position of not wanting to be rude to a 13-year old yet not wanting to be accused of sneaking back in to his family, I e-mailed the Cop that the kid sent me an e-mail. The Cop actually said, "Good to hear from you!" I wasn't happy.) Sometime during the night I heard a harsh crash right outside my living room door.

Saturday - I woke up around 7am, probably. After a few minutes of watching the wind still whip around, I walked out onto my patio to see what the crash was. Oh, lookee there. That's part of my chimney! After another hour or so, I went downstairs to the Neighbor's apartment and we drank coffee and watched the weather. It had toned down by 10, so we walked to fetch our cars, taking lots of time to take pictures of the destruction in our apartment complex. That wasn't part of my chimney -that was my entire chimney that fell. And mine wasn't the only one. About 20 chimneys didn't make it, the fences didn't make it, all but 2 of the carports were down, some brick siding gone, lots of trees. When we arrived at the garage, we noticed that many cars had smashed windows. Mine was lucky, and the Neighbor just had a crack in his windshield. After we dropped his car back at the apartment, we ventured out around Clear Lake. I can't write all of the destruction that we saw. There's not enough space. Kemah under water, NASA Road 1 with water, trees and power lines snapped, bricks scattered, boats where boats shouldn't be. Streets filled with mud. We checked up on Yvonne's house (fine), Kelly's (couldn't get to it) and then we tried to get to his parent's house... but because of a gas leak, we couldn't get near it. So we came home, walked to school (lots of tree damage), and then walked around Clear Lake's UH campus. Lots of trees down. Came home, showered, and spent the evening with Doc and the Neighbor sitting in chairs in the parking lot, drinking beer and wine.

Sunday - Still no power. Woke up, went to the Neighbor's for coffee (he is a camper, so has a camping cooker) and stayed with him most of the day. Drove around, found a grocery store open. Waiting in line for 30 minutes. Saw one of my students. Came home. Read, chatted. Then the Neighbor and I went to his parent's house - we got in this time. And found a WWII era- Russian plane that was remodeled - and torn in half. Went home, read, chatted. And then the three of us had elk - seriously. We were now cooking the meat we had in our freezer that might go bad. We ate really well that night.

Monday - Still no power. Woke up, went to the Neighbor's for coffee and stayed there the entire day. Worked on editing my script. Read. Doc came over with MRE's - he collects them. He was trying to convince us yesterday that they are actually quite good. He was in the Marines for 24 years, so he's eaten many a MRE, and he buys them whenever he can for instances like that. So we each ate an MRE. It was interesting. I had cheese tortellini. Not too bad, but I still have real food so I won't have another. Walked to school, discovered that the main building was fine. Came home. The three of us took apart my fallen chimney - the Neighbor is going to help me make a table out of the wood - so I'll always have my chimney. :) Cooked elk hamburgers and boudin. Met another neighbor. We were having our own block party.

Tuesday - Still no power. Woke up, went to the Neighbor's for coffee. Then we drove to his parent's house again to clean up. Move the fence pieces, moved tree debris. It took us about 2-3 hours. Then found an open Panera bread (yum) and Cold Stone Creamery (double yum). Ate, went to Target, drove around. The Neighbor's theory was that the longer we stayed out, the better chance we had of having power when we came back. Kelly called - her classroom is destroyed, but mine is rumored to be fine. Argh. I'm going in today at 11:30 to actually see if it is. Came home, and greeted with power! Air! Hot water! The news! For the first time, we were able to see pictures of what was going on in the world around us.

Basically, the Neighbor and I made lemonaide out of lemons. True, the hurricane sucked. I have a hole in my roof, water damage in my storage area, ceiling, hallway and bedroom and mold is forming, but I am very fortunate. There's destruction all around me. We didn't have power for 4 days. But I had fun with my neighbors and made do with what I have.

For pictures, check out www.chron.com. I did take pictures, but haven't uploaded them yet.

Bye for now.