Nothing but blue skies...

Gracie keeps her eye on the rainy remnants of Hurricane Ike – September 13, 2008

My post on Friday afternoon, prior to Hurricane Ike’s arrival, was decidedly lighthearted, mostly for my benefit, but also for the benefit of family and friends around the country. In fact, watching the approach of a monster storm as it churns across the Gulf of Mexico can be (and was!) very scary.

Having prepared for the possibility of a hurricane making landfall in the Galveston/Freeport/Port Arthur area several times in the past 35 years, I knew what I needed to do to get ready. I knew, too, that my townhouse had been sturdily built and flooding wouldn't be an issue.

I’m a firm believer in the power of prayer (“Work as if it all depends on you; pray as if it all depends on God.” ---Sister Kenneth Maureen, Notre Dame High School, St. Louis, MO, circa 1967), and I’ve become rather adept at sending positive thoughts into the Universe. I’ve also had enough life experience to know that since I wouldn’t have minded if my old sofa and chair blew out a window and into the pool, the winds weren’t going to be strong enough to budge them. I was right.

With Ike more than three days gone, I am happy to say I’m one of the really lucky people in the Houston/Galveston/Beaumont area. The storm wasn’t as terrifying as I thought it would be. I spent maybe two hours on my living room sofa – 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. The wind gusts were the worst then. Otherwise I slept most of the night and into the morning. Gracie was miffed that she had to leave her cozy bed at 4 a.m. and was happy to return at 6. She wasn’t bothered at all by the storm. In fact, she wanted to play in the wind and rain early Saturday morning. Zoey stationed herself halfway up the staircase when the power went off Friday night and stayed there until late Saturday afternoon – hedging her bets, I suppose. There was no damage to my townhouse, no flooding in my neighborhood, and my power was out little more than 24 hours, going off at 8:15 p.m. Friday and on again at 9:45 p.m. Saturday.

My many friends, neighbors and co-workers living in the Houston area made it safely through the storm, as well. No one was injured, and only two of my co-workers had damage (nothing major) to their homes. The Kingwood Branch Library wasn’t damaged, either, and the power also came on there Saturday night.

Unlike many businesses in the Houston/Galveston area, we’ve been open the past two days, offering members of our community a place to read and relax, make local phone calls, and charge their cell phones and laptops. Our computer databases, Internet and WiFi powered up mid-day today, so folks are now able to take advantage of those (free!) services, too.

My co-workers and I have been pooling resources so we’ll be able to enjoy hot lunches the rest of the week – a huge pot of vegetable beef soup today; ham and beans and cornbread tomorrow; my chili pie on Thursday and my King Ranch chicken casserole on Friday (I’m one of the few with power, I love to cook, and I'm good at it, too!). I have a freezer full of ice to share, and my townhouse will likely be washateria central if the power’s still out on Saturday.

Our children’s librarian, Connie, and her cutie-pie dog, Lucky, spent Sunday and Monday night with me. Her townhouse, near the San Jacinto River, had some minor flooding in the ground-floor garage, but it’s already dry again. She and Lucky were especially good company and the source of many smiles – something I sorely needed as I watched the news reports of the devastation left behind by Ike.

So many of my favorite places – the Strand, Seawall Boulevard and the state park on Galveston Island, the Kemah Boardwalk, Seabrook Marina – are little more than fields of debris. So many people have lost their homes. So many businesses were demolished or could be shut down indefinitely, meaning so many people will likely lose their jobs. Times have been tough for so many people already, and Ike has made the prospect of tougher times ahead a reality, as well. Gassing up the car and buying groceries has become an exercise in patience. Simple tasks like cooking a meal or washing clothes haven’t been quite so simple the past few days. With Internet and cell phone service spotty at best, communication has been anything but high-speed. Life in my little corner of the world is a lot more stressful than it was a week ago.

The good news – it won't stay that way forever. Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, we’ll have the opportunity to make choices and changes, large or small, all because of Ike. Maybe we’ll have the chance to be kind, generous or understanding, and we’ll like the person we’ve become as a result. Maybe we’ll share a meal with a stranger and make a new friend. Maybe a move to a new home will lead us to an interesting new neighborhood or a new job will finally allow us to do work we truly enjoy. Maybe we'll savor that hot meal or cold drink a little more. Maybe we'll sit back one day, close our eyes and be grateful, not only for everything we have, but also for everything we've always had.

It's true that Ike has swept many of our “houses” clean, perhaps not literally, but figuratively. We've said goodbye to "normal" life, as we knew it. On the upside, we've already begun to create a new, and hopefully better, "normal." I, for one, am already on the lookout for new delights. I hope you will be, too.