Wonderful Normal Weekend

Losing a week at work made last week very hectic and long. So Kevin and I were very glad when we got to Friday and could look forward to a “normal” weekend. We had the whole weekend to ourselves and no hurricane to prepare for. We took full advantage and had a great time!

Friday night we went to check out the Thai Cottage restaurant that recently opened near us. We split several dishes, and fell in love with the green and red curries. I think the green curry is my favorite! Then we hurried home to watch the first presidential debate. It almost didn’t happen, since McCain was saying he wouldn’t come so that they could concentrate on working through the financial crisis, but in the end he did show and they had a good debate, never really talked to each other like they were supposed to, but still interesting to see. The topic was supposed to be foreign relations but went all over the map, especially with the Wall Street crisis in the front of everyone's minds. Aside -- the crisis became the top news story while we were still dealing with Ike, so for a while we didn't even KNOW about it!

Saturday we did our chores (grocery shopping, mow the lawn) and then grilled our dinner. The sky was a clear blue, and since its starting to cool off we decided to take advantage of it and eat outside. The patio, with the canopy above us, makes for a great outdoor dining room! Later, we decided to check out a pub we’ve driven by for quite a while and never gotten over to, The Maple Leaf. What a great idea (all credit goes to Kevin), we stayed there much longer than expected because we were having fun just hanging out and they have board games so we played Trivial Pursuit 80s. For growing up in the 80s (and loving trivia), I know surprisingly little about the decade! I blame some of that on my being so young for much of it, though Kevin isn’t that much older so I think it has more to do with me not being as informed as I should be.

Sunday we watched football and again grilled and ate dinner outside. The Texans played a better game than I expected, but lost in overtime. Later in the day, we went for a bike ride around the neighborhood and into the older part of the neighborhood that connects to ours. There are lots of piles of branches and debris, and tarps on a large number of the roofs. On the way home, I felt like my bike was riding weird and yep, I got a flat on our ride. So I need to get that fixed, but am so glad the weather is finally cooling off to where I want to ride the bike. That night we were watching a movie and suddenly the power went out! We went and sat on the patio to enjoy the cool night, but were wondering how long it might be out for. It came back on after about 40 minutes, so we think they had to bring our power off to bring someone else’s power back on, but I really don’t know. The power going out makes me think about those people who STILL don’t have power back since Ike. I hope I never have to experience that, but know that it can’t be easy. How quickly I take for granted that I can flip a switch and the light comes on or the cold air keeps coming out..

Light is Good

My parents and in-laws got power back last night, yay! They each had generators, but like all of us were so glad to get electricity back - must remember this when I take for granted I can just flip a switch and I have lights, a/c, etc.

Keith and Julia are going to stay with my in-laws today. Kaden can play with Nana, and maybe even swim! Hopefully they'll get power back soon, its been 11 days since they've been home a long time for anyone and a lifetime for a 3-year-old. It will be a very quiet house when I get home tonight. Its been good to get to spend time with them but I hope they get to go home soon because that is a long time be gone from home, and frustrating since Julia has all this time off but can't get any of the stuff done she'd like to at the house since she doesn't have power. Patty and Smokey (the dogs) are probably going to go into mourning, they've had the most fun being together. Its also made me wonder if I really want two dogs (we'd been considering it). This week has been a good trial run for that, they definitely keep each other company, but I'd be concerned that they'd tear up the house playing all the time, and Smokey never leaves Patty alone, good thing he's fixed - he's always trying to get on top of her, trying to dominate and/or play with her, but its just embarrassing.

Yesterday was my first day back at work. I was very pleased to see that my office is just as I left it when I left early on Thursday, 9/11, to prepare for Ike. We got permission to move our reporting day to Friday since we were closed for a week, but that makes us lose a week in our already busy fall, so it'll be hectic..I think right now is the "calm before the storm", I was busy but nothing like I will be once we hit 20th day.

At lunch, I walked over to see Julia's building, and it is a mess. They are doing a LOT of work on it. Most of the windows facing the Chase tower are gone and there are large yellow tubes coming out onto the sidewalk, trash chutes or wet/dry vacuuming is my guess. The sidewalks all around it are taped off, on travis because of all of the work going on and on the other sides for safety I guess. The streets around it look like they're open. Pretty much every window on the Travis side of Chase tower for 15-20 stories up is boarded up. Since I was there, I ate at Azuma (sushi), good but expensive.

Kevin's offices were messed up, they're in a temporary office space for 30 days and after that they'll figure out what they want to do. He'll be working at home since they only have space for the office workers (he's a consultant). Hearing about all the damage to office buildings, I''m lucky we only missed a week and a day here.

Volunteering after Ike

Yesterday I volunteered through Catholic Charities to help with distributing food and water in La Marque. I got to their office at 7:30, and it took us a while to get going - but there was a great turnout of volunteers! We got down to the church and unloaded the truck by 10 am. We set it up so that people drove in a U-shape around the parking lot and got the items on the far side. Word spread quickly (based on the line of cars we had) with signs put up around the church, announcements made after they knew we were there, and some cops who stopped by to ask us what we had spread the word. I also think that word of mouth spread the news that we were there. We had food (commercial ready-to-eat meals and green beans), water, and baby food. We didn't have ice, which many people wanted, but had an entire truckload of the water, food, and baby food.

For the first hour I directed traffic to get them to come in the correct driveway and get into the line as needed. After I was relieved from doing that, I helped to load the items into cars.

We ran out of meals first and then just gave out water and baby food - as the day went on we gave larger amounts of baby food and water to those who came by since we had so much of it remaining - we even got extra water since a man came to donate a pickup truckload of water! The Catholic Charities kept track of how many people came through and how many are in their families and estimated that we helped 350 families with 1000 children!

The deacon at the church provided lunch to us, so nice of them! and we loaded the remaining water and baby food in the church hall so they can give it out to people later and loaded up to leave about 1:30, I got home about 3. I'm glad we didn't stay as late as they did the day before - they didn't get back until about 7! I don't think I'd have made it that long, I drank water and had a hat but was wiped from the few hours I was in the sun on my feet. I'm glad I could help and it makes me appreciative even more so of having power and grocery stores with food and water near me. It could easily be me that needs to get food and water donations to feed myself and my family, and these people truly are my neighbors. A woman made a comment that she's been on mission trips to other countries, and its surreal to be doing a mission trip this close to home, very true.

All of the people were very appreciative to get what we had, and I only wish we had more items to give them - beef chili, chicken cacciatore, green beans, and food is all we had, but it will help them.


We actually were able to go to a restaurant last night - Johnny Carino's - it was SO good. I don't think I've ever been that excited to go to a restaurant. Driving around afterwards many stores close early or aren't even open yet. I'm actually surprised so many restaurants have re-opened, they have to have the staffing to do so and have gotten new shipments of food to have something to cook and serve. It was nice to go out, and Kaden ate all his spaghetti and even got ice cream!

Hurrication

My school is closed the rest of the week, someone in the neighborhood called it a "hurrication", kind of a funny word for a very serious situation. I am glad to not have to use up gas to get to and from work, but know that its going to take quite a while for everyone to get back to normal, and I'm very lucky to be even able to partly think of this week as a vacation. It will take many people weeks and months to get back to normal, and some will have to find a new "normal".

My parents got home yesterday. Kevin and I picked them up at the airport and visited his parents’ house while we were up there. His parents don’t have power so they’re using a generator, and got it working again. It took us a while to get back to the airport from their house because the traffic lights are all four-way stops, and at one point we were in a gas line without realizing it - the right lane leading up to almost every gas station is stacked up with people trying to fill up their cars.

My parents were glad to be back in Texas, and went pretty quickly on to Lake Jackson to see their house. They have branches all over their yard and one branch on their garage, but the house is ok. As expected, they don’t have power, but they own a generator and have gas for it and the tractor to begin starting the cleanup. They were lucky to get on the first flight out from Nicaragua and my brother and sis-in-law flew back today.

Laura was able to go home yesterday, she has power and was able to get gas. She's been working from home for her job and will be more comfortable at her own place, and without a 3-year-old wanting to play with her while she works. Kaden is doing well, but really just wants to go home (understandably).

I saw on the news earlier today that we are in an area that still needs to boil water (after theyusi told us earlier that all houston water was safe to drink). I'll need to remember to do that if I use tap water to drink, been mostly using bottled water.

Watching all of the coverage of the devastation is really depressing at times, but we want to keep up with what all has happened and all of the people who are affected. and we see how lucky we really are.

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.