Full House

We have a full house. My sister came over on Saturday, and my brother-in-law, his wife, our nephew and their dog came over yesterday since none of them have power. We picked up Laura's cat and some more of her stuff (and food) at her apartment yesterday. We realized the only one of us with their own room is the cat! We're very fortunate to have power and are glad to share that luxury with others that we can, we'd planned to go to someone else's with power if we didn't have it back. Much of the city is still without power (the Chronicle says 1 in 4 customers have power), and people are waiting in line for hours for groceries, gas, and at "pod locations" (FEMA supplies). My university is closed through Tuesday, and I'm guessing it'll be closed longer since so many people are without power and its tough to get gas, etc.

My parents are now supposed to fly in on Tuesday, and they'll probably need to stay with us too. Lake Jackson is telling people not to come back yet, so we'll wait and see when my parents can go back and then assess what is going on there. Keith and Julia saw my in-laws, they are fine just have no phone service, so no one could get hold of them. They have a generator to run the fridge and a window a/c unit. We are glad to have finally heard from them, we were all getting worried.

I posted some pics of damage to our neighborhood. We were very fortunate to have just our fence and a tree to fix. The fence will have to wait til it dries out and we can add sand to make it stay straight up. our neighbor and lots of others have roof damage and a few have siding damage.
http://picasaweb.google.com/minut78/HurricaneIkeDamage#

The weather is cooler today, good for everyone still without power.

Keith and Julia were even able to get some groceries - we saw a Kroger on the news that didn't look too crowded, so they went there and got some food for all of us.

After Hurricane Ike

Kevin and I are safe after the hurricane. It was a very long night. We lost power about 10:30, and were able to sleep a few hours before being woken up by the wind and rain (about 3:30 am). The wind was vicious, howling and just very loud and with lots of rain. I actually hunkered down in the hallway for part of the night to be away from the windows and the noise of our bedroom. Since its an interior hallway it was quieter there. Smokey ended up under our bed at one point, and we tried moving to the living room to get some sleep but without much luck. We also saw a very bright flash twice during the night, still not sure what it was. While I was in bed I reached up and felt the wall behind my head and could feel it flexing with the wind. It was very scary.

We spent much of the night just listening to the wind, and occasionally looking out the window to see how things were holding up. Most of the morning was still very heavy winds.

We lit candles and had our radio on most of the day to find out what had happened and where the storm was. With cellphones we were able to text friends to let them know we're ok and find out how they are, but service is very spotty (overloaded and with broken coverage I'm sure).

We haven't been able to get hold of Kevin's parents, and my parents are still in Nicaragua. I just checked and their flight for tomorrow is cancelled. We will keep trying to get hold of his parents. I haven't seen any coverage of my parents' area, but I know that they have large oak trees all around their house and its a very low-lying area and closer to the coast. I have no idea what they'll be going back to. We think K's grandpa's house may be underwater but he is safe in Dallas, and the rest of his family in other parts of the Gulf Coast are all accounted for and fine.

My sister is fine too, I was able to speak to her today.

We are very fortunate. We had only very minor (and easily repaired damage) to our fence and a tree. This afternoon, we rode our bikes around the neighborhood and saw a lot of fences and trees blown over, and some siding and roof damage. We are actually lucky that we have no significant trees around us. The bayou near us is pretty high but within its banks. We were also able to prevent water from coming in around the door by putting duct tape up around all 4-sides.

We got power back about 3:30 pm, much better than the 2-4 weeks they'd told us it could take! The water pressure is still very low, but by and large we are back to normal.

I know that not everyone was as fortunate as we were, that there was a lot of damage from the storm and my thoughts and prayers are with everyone who went through this storm with us.

Nicaragua

I've finally had time to write our trip to Nicaragua and upload pictures!

The trip was, in a word, an adventure. I was excited, but nervous about the trip – it is the first time any of us (except my brother) have been to Central America and I knew it’d be worlds away from what we’re used to. Once we got out of the cities, I could see how beautiful the countryside is, and love the exotic plants, flowers and animals, but could not get over how chaotic and busy both cities we were in were. It was also eye-opening to see the poverty and the different standard of living that the people have there. I’ve heard often that people in many parts of the world live on $3 a day, and seeing Nicaragua I now have a better understanding of that, though we only saw it from the outside. My brother and sister-in-law chose the nicest hotels available (even that varies by place – the rooms got smaller as we went, and the hotel on the island was nice but had no hot water. but they had a/c units and running water, yay!). It really does make me appreciate what I have, but also realize how much we have that we really don’t need, and I have to wonder if people with more wealth and stuff are really happier. I did feel fairly safe the entire time that I was there, even so I didn’t wander off anywhere by myself and was aware of my surroundings (good practices wherever you are).

We flew into Managua (the capital city) and took taxis, buses, and a ferry to get to the places we went.

I was surprised to see that they use old school buses from the U.S. as public transportation and the bus stations (basically a parking lot with buses painted with their routes) are even more chaotic than I could’ve imagined. As soon as we got out of the taxis, guys came up and were trying to get us to get on their bus. There were several competing buses going to the city we needed and we chose one based mostly on how full they were. Adding to the chaos, once the bus was moving people would get on and off not only because they’d reached their stop but also to sell food, drinks, and other items. On one leg of our trip, Kevin got a Pepsi and they needed the bottle back so he drank it out of a bag! We also drank water out of sealed bags, cheaper and easier to carry than bottles. I did get to practice my Spanish a lot on the trip, but still struggle with basic communication, thankfully Gene and Mache were with us and helped us get everywhere we needed to go.

We traveled there to attend my brother and sister-in-law’s church wedding. The wedding took place at a Cathedral in Leon (her hometown) the day after we arrived. It was wonderful to see them get married in front of her family and friends, and to be able to share it with them. I helped her get ready at the hotel and it was quite special to help her put on the same dress (made much smaller for her) that I’d worn in my own wedding. We walked from the hotel to the church, we were VERY lucky with the weather that it wasn’t raining when we walked there or when we went to find taxis after the ceremony to go to the reception. The reception was held at an open-air restaurant. It did rain during the reception, which cooled it off a bit and was at the perfect time – after everyone had arrived and it stopped before it was time to leave. My brother didn’t feel very good all the day of the wedding, but made the best of it and we all had fun. Mache even sang a few songs with the live band, and we all danced. At the reception, they had bottles of rum at each table, and with that I discovered a Nicaraguan rum that I like - Flor de Cana. We saw it everywhere the rest of the week and drank that and a local beer we also liked, call Tona.

On Sunday we saw some of the sights of the city of Leon – including a market, and a Sandinista museum, visited with Mache’s family, and watched the happy couple open wedding gifts at their house. It rained much of the day, so they were lucky that they did NOT get the Sunday wedding they’d originally wanted. This time of year is their rainy season, so it rained most every day – and on the island rained all night most nights.

Monday was a travel day to go down to Ometepe Island (in Lake Nicaragua) where we spent the rest of our time. We took two taxis, two buses and a ferry to get there. If I never get into another school bus, I’ll be happy! The island was much more relaxing than the city had been, and we were right on the beach. I had to keep reminding myself that we were on a lake, not an ocean, since there were lots of waves crashing.

On the island we took hikes, visited a natural spring they’ve turned into a pool, and took an all-day tour of the island. At the end of the tour, we saw two museums that a man created all on his own. The first is his collection of coins and money of Nicaragua that helps to tell their history. Each leader changes the money – its completely an ego trip, they want their face or their family/friends’ faces on the bills, and when a new bill or coin comes out you have 6 months to use or trade in the old one or it becomes worthless. Can you imagine having to trade your cash in every time that the president decided they wanted their buddy on the $5 bill, or even the quarter? And Nicaragua is a much more cash based society then ours, only a couple of places we went to accepted credit cards. Their money is called the cordoba, and the exchange rate is about 20 cordoba to $1.

The other museum was of artifacts found, mostly on the man’s property, from the indigenous people, including burial urns, stone tools used by the people to prepare food, and all manner of other items. I cannot get over the fact that he did this all on his own, and one of the museums had just opened in july! We were lucky that a man who worked there (his cousin owns it), is from LA but back in Nicaragua, so we got a bilingual tour of both museums.

At the hotel, we saw monkeys in the trees! I loved watching that, they are so fun to watch and so human-like in many ways.

Friday was another travel day, this time back to Managua for us to fly out on Saturday. This was the worst for me. I was very fortunate not to get sick most of the trip, in fact most of us (except my brother) did really well, partly because were fairly careful about what and where we ate. And came prepared with medicine. Kevin, Laura, and I even had an anti-diarrhea medicine that we took each day as a preventative. But I did feel sick on the bus coming back, a combination of motion sickness and impending diarrhea. Thankfully the bus finally did stop (and waited for me!) to use a roadside restroom before reaching Managua. It was not fun, and quite a way to end the trip. That night, I stayed in and rested (with Kevin staying with me) while the rest of the family went to visit Mache’s aunt and uncle. We actually had a pizza delivered, was nice to eat something different. I like their food, but was glad to have a change from rice. I do have to say rice with lime juice is really good!

This was the first time in years I’d been on a trip with my whole family, and the first time to go on a trip with my family and my husband, it was definitely a different experience but one I am very thankful for. It is definitely rare that we’ll all be able to take a trip together. We were both ready to get home, and I don’t know when it happened but I have bug bites all over my arms and legs. I don’t know when it happened, the only bugs I saw were flies.

All of our pictures are available on Picasa, at the link on the right and I've embedded a slideshow.

Ike

I watched part of the press conference this morning that the mayor and county judge held. They asked schools and businesses to close on Friday to prepare for the storm and to keep the roads clear so that those who need to evacuate can get through town. No one wants a repeat of Hurricane Rita (terrible traffic jams, and people died waiting in the hot cars). So I came to work knowing I’d not be coming in on Friday and the school has sent out two different notifications that we’ll close early, first at 4pm and now at 2:30pm. Kevin’s work closed at noon and I think pretty much every place is closing early today. Laura’s work is even closing tomorrow (they never close)!

We are staying put through the storm. I still can’t believe that ALL of Brazoria county has a mandatory evacuation! Most of the county, including my hometown (Lake Jackson) makes sense, its coastal and low-lying. But why did they include all of it which stretches up to Pearland which is only a few miles away from me? I was glad to see they finally decided to evacuate all of Galveston island – Pearland had orders to evacuate before Galveston, strange.

At lunch, I accomplished the preparations I needed to do that aren’t at home. I got cash and some instant coffee for Kevin. We have plenty of food, water, batteries, etc. at home. We’ll take everything in off the patio and find somewhere to move the grills tonight or tomorrow. Thats about all we can do, and I hope that its enough.

My parents are stubborn, but at least I know their plans. They are scheduled to come back on Sunday and, even though Continental will let them reschedule their flight, they're still planning to come back Sunday. They may end up spending the night in Dallas or Oklahoma City. If they do get to Houston, I’m supposed to go and pick them up. I found a way today to get flight status updates sent to my cellphone, so I signed up for that, since if we don’t have power I won’t be able to look online. I’d wanted them to stay there longer to avoid driving across town in the aftermath, or them possibly getting diverted because of it. I'm a big believer in, "if you don't have to be on the roadways - don't be" and my job and responsibilities rarely (if ever) put me into the category of I HAVE TO BE THERE. I have told them that if I see downed power lines I'm not getting anywhere near it.

Be safe everyone.

Take a Hike Ike

I saw that phrase on a picture on the news, related to Hurricane Ike. Someone had written it on the boards they'd used to board up their windows.

We got back from Nicaragua on Saturday. I plan to write about our trip (and post pictures!), but haven't had time yet. I spent most of the weekend getting caught up with all the stuff I needed to before heading back to work on Monday. Work is getting busier too since we're getting into the fall reporting crazy time.

We started watching Hurricane Ike while in Nicaragua and are keeping a close eye on it since it is headed towards the Texas coast. It is expected to make landfall early Saturday morning and could be a bad storm. We've got supplies and will just ride it out here at home. Its scary watching them showing a storm predicted to hit pretty close to my parents' house.

I feel better now, I was finally able to get hold of my brother - my parents, brother, and his wife are still in Nicaragua are scheduled to come back on Sunday. I'd sent a couple of emails about Ike and haven't heard from them at all. I felt like Chicken Little and a flip-flopper -- its coming towards us, no maybe Corpus, oh no us again. I tried calling them yesterday without success. Tonight I was successful. Luckily they are staying at the same hotel we stayed at, so I knew the hotel's name to find their phone number online. I wanted to make sure they are aware of it. There isn't anything they can do from there, but being aware of it they can be informed and make a decision if they need to adjust their travel plans. As of now they still plan to come back on Sunday, but they are well aware of it. Something funny - one of the first news stations they found to watch is a Florida station, so all their newscast would say is that Ike is headed away from them and nothing more, leaving my parents to be like -- where is it going??

EDIT (addition): I saw last night that all of Brazoria county is under a mandatory evacuation! Hard to believe, coastal areas makes sense but just a few miles away from me is Pearland, and its included too. The university where I work is still open, so I'll be on the road with them I'm afraid.
(addition 9/12): Kevin told me that later they exempted Pearland from the mandatory evacuation, makes more sense.