Good Morning

I awoke this morning to sun streaming through the blinds.

Go th http://www.khou.com/ , Video/Mobile tab and watch David Paul's video forecast.
I have a guest bedroom full-groceries all over the kitchen cabinets. I don't know when they got in - I crashed at 2:30 pm. Oh, and there is a Chi-wennie on my kitchen table.
Speaking of pets, all the girls are afraid of 'outside'. So am I, it feels creepy out there.
The sun is shining, there is a slight breeze, but the air is THICK and HOT.
Now I understand the description in the novel about the 1900 hurricane. CREEPY. Like the whole world is holding its breath.

This is what the back looks like right now. Peaceful, eh?

Otter: It's 10:20 and I am in the open area between the clouds of the cold front and the first outter cloud bands of Ike. I didn't realize what was causing me pain the past few days until Mom called a bit ago and asked if I was hurting. Caught between two low fronts is not a comfortable place to be.

I strongly suggest your call your mother. She called me right after I checked in here and I told her updates of company but she thinks we talked on the phone. She emailed brother and he feels he will do fine.

I have my puter on, watching here and weather sites.....and my tv tuned to Weather Channel. Mom says Fox is covering it well, so will check there too.

You have a ChiWeenie on your table? That is what Beanie is.....brown weenie body with chihuahua head and legs.

Cubedog: I just took her outside. She looks like Gretchen with long legs. Everyone is still sleep, so I don't know her name yet. I emailed Mom, guess I'll call, too.

Good Evening

Well, now at 10:30 they are saying that Ike will come in over Galveston and now as a Cat 1. The evac.s have gone smoothly. I-10 is crawling west of us and I-45 is crawling north of us, but the roads are fairly clear in the immediate area. When I got home, I found out thaat BigDog's cousin and her 3 youngun's are evacuating to our house. I have been working for the last 4 hours cleaning and getting ready for them.
BigDog talked to his family's weather witch earlier. WW has never missed on a storm landfall or severity. Today, WW was evacuating and said, "Its gonna be bad." That's good enough for me.
We are preparing for 70-80 mph winds (sustained) coming at us from the NE. I have to get up tomorrow and run to the grocery store and pharmacy. I'm out of sinus meds and I need sugar for baking a "Hurricane" cake.
Gotta run now and go make up the beds and take a shower.
Til tomorrow.

Finally

Word came down about 1 hour ago. The building is shutting down this evening and not reopening until Monday (if all goes well). That means my company was forced into a decision to close tomorrow. Nice when someone else takes the responsibility.

Otter: Okay, I want to know if you made it home alright. I know you go home toward the western evac route. Hope you check in soon.

A tweek

I thought I would share that I am sitting outside on my laptop. It is cloudy with a nice cool breeze. I just ran the pump on my pool to clean it up after the rain which makes it green, and thought I might get in for a while and work on my tan.
Just wanted to share. Only thing is....the laptop is getting a bit warm in my lap...ugh.

It has begun

It has begun

Went out at lunch for food and a pack of smokes. Took 1/2 hour to get the smokes. Everywhere people are crowding the streets, jamming up the gas stations, all these people with fear as their constant motivator.

Got a voice message from BigDog: Come home noooowwwww. The Zombies are everywhere. I need help with the reloading!

Yes, they are zombies, but instead of "Braaiiinnnsss". these are moaning something more like: "Gaaaasssss", "Waaattteeerrr", "Plywooooddddd".

Otter: I find it strangly fascinating that a cold front over me is sucking in the super low of the hurricane toward us. There must be some physics extended, mind sucking explaination for it.

Ya'll laid in plenty of water, pet food, and smokes for the event, didn't you?

Cubedog: I am letting BigDog "batten down the hatches". I figure he knows better than me how that's done.

Blogging Ike

Looks like we are going to get a 'little' visitor. As of the last report I got at 7 this morning, the most likely landfall will be directly south of the house. The projected path from there, put the eye passing right over the house. They are predicting sustained winds at 80-90 mph with gusts to 110.
I will be home tomorrow posting pics and bloggin as long as the electricity holds out.
Remember, run from the water(storm surge), hide from the wind(shelter in place)-we will be doing the later.
When BigDog and I were discussing evacuation plans last night (in case the house is uninhabitable afterwards) and we were making oflist of 'must packs'. You shoulda seen the look I got when I said, "Yarn, and losts of it." Priceless. Then I reminded him that it was either that or I was gonna be whacked out on Xanax.
It is currently 9:30 am and I'm at the office-there is no word yet as to whether the office will close tomorrow. Even though the mayor, in this morning's news conference, urged all employers to close their offices tomorrow. Its a 'wait and see' attitude around here. I think the HPs(Higher Powers) are betting on this turning into another Rita and missing us all together.

Otter: I will be here with you. I have nothing else plannned, but think maybe a bit of cleaning up in the guest room and studio in case you have to bugger out and park here. We could toss the cats in the studio with a pan and food and make inaccessible anything that they could ruin by peeing on it.
May I suggest you seal all yarn and fabric in plastic bags just in case. It may seem like a lot of trouble now.....but a good thing if your roofers don't happen to have been up to par, or Ike decides to smack you upside the head. Did you get the flooding from the backyard into the living room solved? Can't recall, but sure hope so.
Cubedog: Remember, its YOUR studio my yarn peeing cats would be inhabiting.......maybe YOU should put things in plastic.....

Home Improvement

When we bought this house, we thought the roof was good. Sadly we didn't know about the big hole forming on the upside of the chimney. After 10 years of holes in the ceiling, waterfalls in the master bedroom, and salmon spawning streams across the living room, it is finally done and the new roof is here. A momentus day that has had unexpected benefits-the house is cooler!

So, without further ado-here it is:

The supplies arrived before 7 am

The work begins (you can see how bad the old one was):

New tar paper, new shingles, new flashing,

no more "Turban" vent:

You can see where they have torn out rotten wood, replace rotten fascia board,

and closed off the rat holes.

What a mess, but they cleaned all of it up:

This pic just makes me smile:

The last piece of the puzzle-the porch roof:

Its a very subtle change. We went back with the same color that was on before, but to us, its a world of change.

OK-so the roof is being destructed, but I like the way this pic makes my house look so nice: