What a week!!! Hurricane Ike really did a number here.

This is the first time I’ve been able to get online in nearly a week.

As I’m sure you all know, Hurricane Ike came rolling (or rampaging) into Texas last Saturday.  Work was cancelled last Friday to prepare for the storm.

Guess what.

Work was cancelled ALL THIS WEEK as well.

So here’s basically what I’ve been doing for the past week:

Saturday: Wake up in middle of night, power goes out around 2 a.m., watch trees whipping violently back and forth behind the fence, praying they don’t crash into the house (they didn’t–no damage to our property thankfully).

Sunday: Still no power!  I mean, no power ANYWHERE in the area.  Husband and I traveled nearly 2 hours to College Station to buy a generator (husband works from home, so power is pretty important).  Stop at every gas station, auto parts store, Walmart, etc, looking for gas cans.  Finally find some at a Home Depot.  Then stop at every gas station looking for gas.  Don’t get gas until after 8 p.m.  Husband gets generator running near 9 p.m.  YAY!  We now have a tv to watch and cool fridges.  Still no cable, hence, no internet.

Monday, Tuesday: None of the schools in my district have power.  School is cancelled the rest of the week.  I eat, sleep, read…put down my summer decorations, put out my fall decorations.  Rake the yard.  Husband tries to clean out the pool.  He literally brings the rake into the pool to rake out pine branches.  My throat starts to feel funny–kind of thick, but not hurting.  My parents stop by, our realtor stops by, neighbors come by…we’re very popular today.

Wednesday: Ok, now my throat hurts.  It feels very swollen.  And have I mentioned yet on here that I’m also pregnant and in my first trimester so, of course, nauseous all the time?  Almost done with first trimester though.  Start coughing up green stuff.  Call the OBGYN.  OBGYN calls me in azithromycin.  Now I have the task of finding an open pharmacy somewhere in the area!  Find one about 30 minutes away.  Phew.  Go home (still no power), take the first dose, take some mucinex, sleep, eat, sleep, eat, cough, cough, throw up, sleep, eat, cough, cough, cough…can’t sleep…

Thursday: Cough, throw up, cough, eat, sleep, take next dose of antibiotics, take mucinex, cough, cough, eat, sleep, sleep…hey, still no power.  But at least husband can get online for work because he bought one of the devices from Verizon that you plug into your laptop to give you connectivity…which is how I’m online right now.  School is planning on opening on Monday, but only if they get power restored tomorrow.  We’ll see.

Well, that’s about all for now.  It’s been pretty boring here, and it sucks being sick, but overall we were very blessed.  We had no damage to our home; a few trees that we planted in the yard are probably destroyed.  Some of our neighbors weren’t so lucky.  My family in the area was pretty lucky, too, except for one of my sisters who received a little roof damage which led to a leak, but it’s patched up already.

I hope everyone else that was in the path of Ike has fared as well as we have!

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Geraldo takes a swim

Being in the path of Hurricane Ike (and having the day off from work) has led to me watching the news pretty much constantly all day today.

Several hours ago on Fox News, Geraldo Rivera was at the Galveston sea wall reporting when he took quite a tumble.  Here’s the footage from You Tube.  I can’t help it; it was hilarious when you saw it live.

No work today! And some gasoline drama…

The gulf coast/east Texas regions are preparing for Hurricane Ike–thus, no school today!  A little break is always nice, of course, but let’s pray everyone stays safe this weekend.

Yesterday after work I needed to stop to get gas.  Of course, everyone else in the area needed gas, too.  This sort of crisis can really bring out the worst in people, unfortunately.  Naturally, I had to wait in line to get gas at the gas station, as several of their pumps were shut down (I’m assuming they ran out of gas).  Many people in front of me in line were angry as they got nearer and discovered the station only had regular unleaded gas (fortunately, that’s what I use anyway). 

A few drivers made the mistake of coming down the road the opposite way, trying to “cut” in front of several cars.  That’s when people get vicious.  I’m sure you can imagine the honks, the hand gestures, the yells, etc.

While I certainly didn’t want to have to wait for one MORE car in front of me, I have to admit mostly I found it humorous.  The lady in front of me was making a total fool of herself with the obscene things she was shouting and gesturing. 

At one point, a white van full of Hispanic workers crossed the street from a business across the street into the gas station’s parking lot–they just appeared to “gun it” across the road.  Oh, it was ON, then.  “Get at the end of the line, or I’ll kick your ass!” Yes, that is an actual quote from the lady waiting in front of me.  If she had waited two seconds, she would have seen that the van didn’t NEED gas.  They simply were going into the store.

Oh well.  I guess tensions are running high and these sorts of things are to be expected. 

In any case, be safe, coastal residents!