We Don't Like Ike

I have to say, one of the things about living in Houston that has been different is all this hurricane-preparedness. At this point, with Ike potentially having us in our sights, I should probably let you all know that we're pretty well prepared. But it's been a process.

Last summer, I had no idea what to expect. I bought four rechargeable Coleman lanterns at Academy -- that was the extent of my getting prepared. All four spent the last year in their boxes on the floor of my closet.

That brings us to this summer when Eduardo came knocking on the door -- in the middle of our vacation. We packed up, came home early from the Creek. If you remember, the Creek got almost no rain -- we got tons here. We should have stayed! The bonus? Step 2 of my hurricane prep occurred during the run-up to Eduardo. Suzi Bruin went and bought us water. We'd have nothing to eat, no gas for the grill -- but we wouldn't get thirsty! Oh! And I finally got the lanterns out of the boxes and charged!

Gustav brought another layer of prep. Before it roared ashore in La, it looked like it was headed for us. I went to the grocery store and purchased a few supplies (we ate them this last week.) BUT we did manage to fill up both butane tanks for the grill. And we had a great hurricane party on Labor Day!

Which brings me to Ike. This one has me nervous. He's huge. I've followed all the weather news and blogs. As of this afternoon, it looked to be coming in at Galveston. I headed to Wal-Mart. Tired of all those other paranoid moms beating me to the water bottles, I stocked up. More water, granola bars, canned chicken & tuna, Pop-Tarts, green beans, corn, Bush's beans, canned fruit, batteries and SEVERAL cans of Chunky Soup for Biggsy. It's all home in the cabinet above the fridge -- just waiting. As of tonight, it looks like Ike is going in at Matagorda bay -- right on top of the Fishin' Hut. We'll watch it for a couple of days before panicking. But if it did hit right there, we'd have the Creek house in the middle of things. And here in Houston, we'd be on the "dirty side."

Really, panicking isn't the right word. We're prepared, right? It's taken us a year and four or five storms to get it right, but we've got everything we need. We wouldn't want to "evacuate" -- remember the mess with Rita?? But I can assure you, if we're going to be out of electricity for 2-3 weeks, I'm headed somewhere. And it'll be in the opposite direction of Ike!! So if you live North or West of here, you'd better watch out! You might have company headed your way!