Hurricane Rita

Hey all. Well, here's the situation here in Houston. Frankly, it's insane. I've lived here almost all my life, and this is truly bizarre. I remember going out to play in the eye of Alicia back in 1983 and watching people canoe down the street. Right now, the media and weather stations have the whole thing so hyped up in this area that people have gone crazy. There is no gas to be had in Houston - or at least not much. I live in Alief, which is on the far west side of Houston, and when I went to go pick up some stuff at the grocery store tonight, they were already out of water, and running low on batteries, bread, and chips. I am in an area which is not going to to get a whole lot of rain, prolly, and people were lined up to get gas at the various gas stations in town, sometimes two or three lines per station each 10 or 20 cars long.

Rita is not even supposed to hit us straight on, but they have already issued mandatory evacuations for Galveston, and most of the small cities between Galveston and Houston. Most businesses will be closed at noon tomorrow. Metro (the local busline) will not be running from Friday morning until it is safe to resume.

I think this is all insane because we have been in a semi-drought situation for several weeks, so the ground is more than ready to soak up most of the rain. I feel for the people southwest of us and all along the coast who are going to be hit most drastically and directly, but the way people are acting in Houston is insane. I know I have used that word a lot, but you would think people would know better. I am not expecting any real trouble where I am at, except for some flooded streets, and maybe lawns. The worst I am preparing for is power going down (which is why I went groce3ry shopping, to get some foodstuffs that don't need refrigeration). We are going to be closing on a new house tomorrow, so there is not a whole lot we can do right now, except hope that the irreplaceable stuff is above the water line. Luckily we can get flood insurance that starts tomorrow for our new house, if something happens to it, but the major problem for us right now is that with everyone trying to get out of dodge (including our housemate, who has never lived through a hurricane in Houston before, and is going to visit his family up north) is that there are no moving trucks availalable in this city for love or money until Monday.

So. although I wasn't able to get any bottles of water tonight, I realized that I have 3 empty one gallon secondary fermenting jugs (which is more economical and more environmental as well). And now I am quietly (or not so quietly *grins*) getting drunk on a couple of bottles of Syrah that I have had for a couple of years. But I am just trying to empty out the bottles so that I can reuse them. Really. *grins*