Ike - Day 6

The good stuff:
Nice weather. McDonald’s open. More stations with gas. Stores open longer hours. Dairy and other perishables starting to reappear in small quantities. Curfews with shorter hours. People helping each other. Meeting friends and being happy they are safe. Seeing our local officials do a great job. No one is perfect but they are trying so hard and you know they are spending time away from their homes and families to take care of others. POD’s and COW’s. The absolute and total coverage being given by the local news and radio stations. Stores like HEB and Kroger that are being so generous. The mood is good around here but I think the glorious weather has a lot to do with it. Extended deadlines for dog shows and other things.

The not so good stuff:
Being ashamed to admit you have power when there are still a million and a half without. Everyone complaining about the smell of mildew and all the bugs in their homes. The amount of destruction seen by driving around the neighborhood. Your insurance company telling you there is a $6,000 deductible for wind damage. Not knowing when everything will be back to “normal.” The fact that we get a bare mention on national news and it hasn’t even been a week. The scary thought that there is still 2 ½ months of hurricane season left.

I finally started writing again although did move the refrigerator, clean the kitchen, do more laundry and go shopping as well! I’m taking four online classes and have fallen behind on homework so must decide which I can catch up on and which to lurk and read later.

It is still hard to get a data connection unless late at night. As more people are coming back from their evacuation the cell service is bad during the day. Also I think a lot of the towers are simply running out of juice.

It was amazing to walk into Wal-Mart. All their dairy / produce etc. shelves are empty. I got pictures. Kroger’s has a little cheese, a little meat, a few eggs, etc. Not much but some.

Downtown Houston is still a mess. Yay Shell for only requiring essential employees to report to work until Monday. I thought I was going to have to burn some vacation time. They are good to their people.

I have fifteen pages on my hurricane story which is going to involve arrests and curfews and mandatory evacuations and government officials and all sorts of neat stuff. Oh yeah, and a little romance too. I must remember the POD’s and COW’s!