Ike, Ike Baby? Really? Should I do it?

Yeah, that's the subject line. I feel shame.

I know, I know, I know. Welcome to the thrice-monthly blog stylings of one lazy bastard. Gimme a break, alright? There was a gawldanged hurricane! Anyway. It's Monday, a week after the storm, and I am alive and with power. Thanks for asking.

So. The last ten days. The Thursday before Ike came to town, I decided I would leave. After he changed directions and headed straight for us, I figured it would be best to be somewhere else. It's not that I was afraid of a full-blown disaster in Houston. But...well, I assumed at some point the power would go out. And that's really all I need. I can appreciate wanting to stay home and "ride out" a hurricane. After all, you want to be there to pick up the pieces when all is said and done. But if the power is gonna go out? What's the point of being there? So you can sit in the hot, sticky darkness with a tire iron in your hand, waiting for looters to kick in your door? Besides, my apartment building is forty years old, so...if the roof was gonna come flying off, I didn't want to be caught sitting on the crapper reading a magazine by candlelight when that happened.

So I left for Austin at around 10:00 on Thursday morning. This ended up being a very, very smart move since I managed to miss all of the evacuation traffic and was able to glide in at around 1:00. I borrowed some office space that afternoon (thanks Eric!) and Friday morning, and ended up getting a lot more accomplished than I would've had I stayed in town.

I also watched the Weather Channel religiously (Jim Cantore = awesome) and worried and fretted about Houston and Galveston (my new favorite weekend day-getaway destination).


And predictably enough, as the night wore on, the traffic from Houston to Austin (and Dallas) got thicker. Here's the evacuation traffic I was talking about...

Anyway, it ended up being a beautiful weekend in Austin. It was sunny (seriously, not a single drop of rain) and the hurricane ended up pushing some cool weather our way. When I got up Monday morning, it was in the high sixties! That's Christmas weather!! I had a great time while I was there, and even though I knew I wouldn't have to work on Monday, I headed back to my apartment. You can only sleep on so many couches, ya know?

The road signs leading to Houston said, "Do not drive to Houston or Beaumont." Gulp. However, once I got to town it was fine, if not a little unnerving. The problem wasn't that there was flooding, the problem was that the whole damn city lost power. That doesn't sound like a big deal -- and I guess it isn't, in the grand scheme of things -- but none of the street lights worked and when the sun went down...well, it was completely dark. Which is scary when you live in a neighborhood like mine that's "up and coming" but still has some spotty blocks.

Predictably enough, once the hurricane blew through, and the national media saw that we didn't have a full-blown Katrina on our hands, they disappeared. Thanks for visiting, Anderson Cooper. See you next year!

I don't really have any good aftermath pictures, mainly because I didn't see much. Just these two...

I love that cow. Look at him. Ringing the doorbell. "Charlene, I know you're home! I saw you peek through the curtains! Let me in!!"

That's a tree. That tree fell. Umm...it is...fallen. Who needs Anderson Cooper when you've got me?

Anyway, life is back to normal. Some people still don't have power. I'm back to work (after only working Thursday afternoon and Friday last week). Normalcy is...here...uhh...to stay. Great.