Take a hike IKE

If you don't know about hurricane Ike by now, I have one question for you... What rock are you living under? In one of the many news segments I watched I saw a store on the Galveston coast being boarded up, and they painted on the wood "Take a hike Ike". Well said!

You all know that I grew up in Houston, where my mom still lives (in the same house I called home for 18 years as a matter of fact). Well, this time around she decided to ride out the storm, all by herself, at home. I hate that she is by herself. But as hard as I tried (and I have to say I didn't try that hard because I already knew it wouldn't do any good), she was determined to stay put. You see, when hurricane Rita was headed to the Houston area, she evacuated with the millions of other people, and headed to Dallas (she was actually coming to Dallas that weekend anyway, but had to leave earlier, and wasn't planning on so much company on the road). The normally 4.5 hour drive took upwards of 20+ hours. It was awful! So this time around, she said "no way". (Her zip code was one of the many in Harris County that was recommended to stay put). Although she is in Southwest Houston, she is pretty far from the coast, and wasn't at risk of being in the midst of the storm surge. She was, however, at risk of losing her electricity, flooding, extremely high winds, etc. Well, she did in fact lose her electricity in the middle of the night last night. Big bummer, and for anyone who doesn't know my mom very well, she doesn't do well with being "uncomfortable". You can imagine without any electricity (in other words: no A/C), she is very uncomfortable. Miserable is more like it.

Then I got an email (thank goodness for blackberry's - we've been able to keep very in touch with email / text message through the phone) that her back room was major leaking. One of the big chairs that was back there that was in my grandmother's house was soaked. And she was running out of things to catch the water. In the dark, she tried to salvage what she could and move things around, but it was pretty much useless. And although it was dark, she could see that her fence was down. Then came another email that she was OVER it - she "doesn't want to play this game" anymore!! My heart breaks that she is there, by herself, dealing with all of this. I wish I could sweep her up and bring her to Dallas... Well, the latest update (we are talking every so often just to touch base, although it's difficult to get through on the phone lines), she is using the burner on her grill outside to boil water for tea, using the rainwater she caught in buckets in the leaking back room to fill the toilet tank and flush the toilet, using the grill to cook a fresh, much needed nice meal, opening the garage door manually every so often to turn on the car and charge her cell phone, and scrapbooking by candlelight. What else is there to do? Oh yeah - also praying for her electricity to be restored much sooner than the up to 1 week that is being currently quoted as a possibility. I must say - I so admire her tenacity, determination, and spirit!! Even in the midst of this pain the touchas nightmare, she is laughing. AMAZING!

My brother, sister-in-law, and niece live in Alvin - very near Galveston, with Megan's (my sister-in-law) very large family. I was shocked that they weren't among the thousands that were ordered to evacuate. They had planned to leave and go to San Antonio were my Megan has family. But San Antonio was projected to get pretty bad weather too (nothing like Galveston / Houston, but none the less) and possibly lose power in some areas, so that wasn't making much sense. They wavered on what to do, and ultimately decided to also stay put. I have to say, I wasn't happy about this at all! Even though they were technically not in the mandatory evacuation zone, I felt that they were too darn close, and I really thought they should leave. But they are adults, so they get to make their own decision. I've been keeping up with how they're doing through my mom. They lost electricity early last night, but otherwise, everyone there is fine. I'm so grateful. Allan called me this morning to check in, and Mia got on the phone to talk, and tell Aunt Rarah "it's raining". I told her Congratulations - she survived her first hurricane. She doesn't get it, but one day she will. They are all coming to Dallas next weekend for Madelyn's birthday, and I can't wait to see them!!!

Well, that's about all the news we have here for now. We're just hoping for the best of a horrible situation for everyone affected by hurricane Ike, and very thankful that everyone we know and love is doing well.