A sense of Normalcy?

What is normal? Is it the ability to sleep at night without listening with one ear for the sound of looters at night? Is it the ability to go to the grocery store and get anything you want? Is it the ability to drive around town and not have to see the destruction of a beautiful city?

Before the hurricane, I think the city of Houston and Galveston became complacent with hurricane season. We would breath a sigh of relief when a hurricane formed and went elsewhere. Not that we wished ill will on others, but we know how bad it can be.

Our once beautiful area is now littered with broken street lights, down power poles, broken water mains, mosquitos the size of a small dog, blue tarps stapled to roofs, people in line to get basic necessities that you don't normally see. It is not normal to see a Lexus in line to get ice, it isn't normal to see a cement slab that should have a house on it.

So I beg the question, "What is normal?"
I think it is when the city can finally sleep with electricity and not having to sit up with a shotgun in your lap to protect your property. there is a very big sense of uneasiness when the sun goes down right now. I would love to get rid of it. I want to feel safe where I live, not that I don't please do not get me wrong. I love where I live and I would gladly pay the price again in a heartbeat. But I want to feel that I can sleep without worry. Drive down the street without trying to figure out if a red light is working. Look out and not see dead limbs of trees or trunks of former trees in the yards.

Just rambling tonight. Sorry!

167 hours later...

7 days and 167 hours after Hurricane Ike. Boy how things have changed. I went for a 5 mile run this morning in League City. It seems to have weathered the storm remarkably well considering they are on the coast. It felt great to get out and stretch my legs, and forget about the "hurricane aftermath" for a while.

Half and Hour and a Flyswather later...

Since Ike decided to come ashore things haven't been the same. Walmart is closed at 6. It is powered on a generator. HEB now has milk and eggs and people have been scrambling to it like white on rice. Sam's has cold stuff, although the cheese seems to have weathered the storm (not sure I would eat it, but what ever floats your boat!). Things are nuts here!

Red lights that should be redlights are either twisted the wrong direction, not working or totally demolished. Everyone treats them as 4 way stops but at the working redlights people still treat them as 4 way stops because we are so use to them now. At night it is a journey just to go somewhere. You almost need someone else with you. One person to drive and one to look for unpowered redlights.

All of this said to point out the obvious. It took me 3 stores and half an hour to return home 4 blocks to buy a flyswater. Normally I don't have flys and I pride myself on this accomplishment. (I need to find some pride in this situation!) So I have never had a use for them. I thought CVS would have them, but alas they didn't. Went to Kroger down the street, they were closed at 5:30 so I went to Walgreens in the same parking lot. Jackpot!!!! A flyswater and a Dr. Pepper and I was in business, only to hear "we are closing in 10 minutes" you have to be kidding me? It was almost 6. Go figure.

This is our new normal kids. Stores closing at odd hours. Curfews for Webster between 10 pm and 5 am. People trying to go to work before 5 and being pulled over by great upstanding police officers trying to do their jobs.

Boy, will I ever be glad when things get back on line and I can watch Oprah without hearing about "Overcoming Ike", "Road to Recovery" and my personal favorite..."Ikes Wrath". Every station has 24/7 coverage. If I have to see the same boat on the same lawn again, or the same stretch of 45 with a couch, office chair, and 2 by 4s strewn across it again I may just loose it all together!!! A girl just wants to watch Oprah! is that too much to ask???

Ike and His Wrath!!!

I know it has been a long time since my last post. I have been engrossed with work and Football Season and that should be no excuse. I just need a place to put my thoughts about Hurricane Ike that roared ashore on Friday September 12th and lasted until Saturday September 13th.

When the storm turned toward the Texas coast we all became concerned. The meterologists couldn't tell us where it was going, how strong it would get, or when it would get here. Finally 72 hours before landfall we had an accurate (we thought) picture of what we would deal with. Big winds, big rains...period.

I was in a mandatory evacuation zip code because I am in a low-lying area. I left and went to my parents home in Baytown (30 miles east of Houston, think the top tip of Galveston Bay). I left on a Thursday (a week ago tomorrow).

Friday, me and mom when to find ice and Baytown as a ghost town. Boarded up establishments, Lowes and Home Depot had run out of everything related to the storm and closed. We went home and froze any container we could find for ice.

Friday afternoon the winds picked up and the clouds rolled in. I have never been through a strong storm before and had no idea what to expect. At about 10 pm the winds picked up and my dad went to catch a few hours of sleep, the entire house was asleep except me who was on "wind patrol" checking for breaking windows and flying debris.

About 11:00 I noticed a pair of steel french doors my parents have in the living room starting to move when the wind would pick up. Investigating this further, I found that they were bowing when the wind hit the house. Mom, Dad and I switched to "fix it" mode and tried to find a way to fix the doors from flying open and compromising the integrity of the house in 70 to 80 mile an hour winds. We found a piece of steel from my brother's dismantled bed in the garage and wedged it under the door handle. Then the wind became right down terrifying!!!

Have you ever given a kid one of those long plastic horns that make that really deep whistling sound? That was the sound the windows made when the wind kicked up. That went on until the eye passed over Baytown. I still jump when I hear a whistling sound, be it from a person or from a sound similar to it. Finally the winds changed direction almost immediately after the eye passed over.

I have never been more terrified in all my life. I was praying so hard to God and my Grandparents to watch over us that I think they got tired of me praying and were trying to tell me to let them handle it. They did and we came out of the ordeal with water leaks in my parents house, a fence down at my sisters and my screens on my patio twisted inwards.

Let me tell you a few things about Houstonians and Galvestonians:

• We handle things ourselves and try not to lean on others.
• We volunteer to help a neighbor we may not know.
• We come together without fanfare or praise for what we are doing.
• We rebuild what is ours because that is what it is...ours.
• We do not blame others for our choice of location to live.
• We accept that hurricane season is part of our lives and there isn't a person down here who doesn't know when hurricane season starts or ends.
• We all have "hurricane kits" with emergency supplies (or we do now)
• We do not ask for government assistance or blast the government on TV...we are too busy cleaning up afterwards.
• We look forward to the future...what will rise from the ashes.
• We do not whine on TV for help, what you see are Texans helping Texans.
• We are patient with our first responders and help feed them when they have no food or water.
• We help our communities even if our properties are damaged or we haven't seen them yet.
• We know that our elected leaders are doing just that...leading us to safety and security afterwards.
• We house our neighbors without electricity, or run extension cords over roads to power their freezers so all is not lost.
• We volunteer at POD's to provide basic necessities to our friends we do or do not know because it is the right thing to do.

We are Texans, we will rise from the ashes of this tragedy and rebuild our communities bigger and better understanding that we live on Mother Nature's property. We just rent from her and she can take it back when she has the desire.