Generating Power

2.25 million homes were without power on Saturday. Thanks to electric company workers coming in from 35 states, 750,000 of that number now have power. We are not one of them.

Day 5, no lights.

Not so bad since the humidity is low, the temperature pleasant and the kids are reading books and playing outside with their neighborhood friends.

Bad because laundry is piling up, the kids are out of school the the rest of the week, if not longer, and I'm afraid the house is going to blow up due to the running generator!

Seriously, we are doing well with a gas stove and water heater and running water. So many are without these luxuries and many are without a home.

Lines for fuel snake for miles and few grocery stores have perishables in stock. Restaurants are beginning to open. Slowly, life will go back to normal in our area, but it will be a long time before the folks in the Galveston area experience any sense of normalcy.

Ike has come and gone, but left his footprints!

Corbin, Scooter and Daisy settled in about 10 pm!











Gabbie made herself quite comfy in the hall closet and told us not to wake her if we had to come in due to the high winds!



This was as bad as it was here in our neighborhood. Lots of little branches and twigs down. Fred's office, however, was hit pretty badly and they will not be able to operate for a while. The roof is gone, power lines are down and about 30 trees will need to be cleared. There won't be any freight moving for a little while unless they can come up with Plan B! We are running the computer, tv, fans and refrigerators on a generator here at the house. One friend, 20 minutes away has power as of 6:00 today so hopefully we will not be far behind!

Folks, He's an Expert!

Our next door neighbor, John, called in an expert for help getting his generator to stay running longer than 10 seconds. Between the beer and the cocktail, the two of them should have it figured out by next week!

Sheltering in Place (that's the official term)

Yesterday, after hours of hard work, sweat, consultation and "ciphering", Fred made a call to a small machine shop who drained the engine of the bad 3 year old gas and made the generator good as new!


Jonathan delivered it to us this morning and here they are testing it out and here's Fred determining just how long his back will be out after they lift it (full of gas) off the truck!

The situation looks pretty grim for Galveston (75 miles down the road) and even though the hurricane may hit as a category 2 or 3, it's predicted this storm will rival the one that hit September 8, 1900. We've spent weekends at beach houses in West Galveston over the years and it's sad so much devastation may hit the area in less than 24 hours. The storm surge is already much greater than forecasters were predicting.

Our area looks to get a tremendous amount of rain and 90 plus mph wind and that equates to damage from flying tree limbs and any objects that are not tied down or secure. Continue to pray for my tall, beautiful palms!

For now though, life goes on as normal. Fred and the kids are headed to his office to ride the 4 wheeler and let the dogs chase the goats and wade in the pond. I'm going to wash and dry my hair in what could be the last time I do so from our bathroom if the electricity goes out. If necessary in the coming days, I will send you a photo of me using the hair dryer from the garage as it's plugged into a loud, stinky generator!

Don't Like Ike!

Looks like Ike is headed in our direction.

Fred cancelled his business trip to Pittsburg and Cleveland as well as his class reunion in Indianapolis and is busy trying to get the generator to run!

Not a happy camper!

Schools, of course, are closed tomorrow. News video has the roads out of Galveston and towards San Antonio packed with crawling cars. That's the reason we decided to stay put! Neither of us looked forward to a repeat of the 12 hour car ride we had trying to escape Rita 3 years ago.

The back porch and yard are cleared of all furniture and pool paraphernalia. I think I will go out and say a prayer for all our beautiful plants and trees (especially the tall palms) so they can better sustain the 100-plus mile winds coming this way.

I'm off to the grocery store for a few needed supplies and will fight to my death for the last loaf of bread!