Well, Ike has come and gone. We ended up spending the night of the storm about 25 miles inland with the Mooneys (my honorary sister, SuEllen!). It was more fun that way, having the distraction of someone else to talk to and watching the dogs to be sure they didn't get into a fight (their dog, Allie, is not usually friendly with other dogs, but since Ginger is such a timid, submissive animal, they did pretty well with each other). Robyn and Jason kept their laptops humming until the power finally went out around 4 a.m. On Saturday morning, as soon as the rain let up, we loaded up the car and headed home. It took us a while to find our way to I-45 because many of the main thoroughfares were under lots of water. But we managed to get home, picking our way through and around tree-obstructed roads and underwater intersections, only to find that we could not get into our own driveway, since a tree from across the street was literally across the street!
Our neighborhood suffered mostly tree damage. A few houses had some siding blown off, but nobody got flooded, and we are feeling very blessed. If you've seen pictures of the devastation in other areas, you know what I mean. Our power was out, of course, and it was seasonably hot and humid, so it was pretty miserable inside the house. The water pressure was low, but it improved quickly. Robyn sat in the house with the two baby squirrels we found on the ground while Ben and I got the front yard cleaned up. Tim and his friend, Scott, who had spent the night at Tim's place, came by to check on us, and Tim offered to take the squirrels home. Unfortunately, with the city shut down, there was no way to get help for them, and they died within a few hours. I've read since then that the SPCA opened up on Sunday and has taken in several hundred baby squirrels from the public.
Anyway, we got tired of the heat and decided to get some a/c by driving over to Pearland to check on Ben's banks. One of the banks had "total roof failure," and the other was unscathed, so he had to go back on Sunday to start the cleanup process.
After sleeping fitfully and sweating all night, we awoke Sunday to heavy rain and thunderstorms, which were both a blessing and a curse. The extra rain caused even more flooding in many areas, but the storms brought cooler temperatures to the region, for which we are all grateful. We made our way to the church and fanned ourselves with the pre-printed worship guides (which we did not follow)in the hot sanctuary. Not many people were there (50-100), and most of us were dressed very casually, but we sang and prayed and worshipped together. I was overcome with emotion just walking into that beautiful sanctuary and knowing that it is my "family of God." On our way home from church, we stopped to check on Robyn's apt. and found that her power had been restored, so she was happy to leave us after lunch and return to the comfort of air conditioning! (As of right now, Tim is still without power at his townhouse.)
There are many things we take for granted in our modern world. We know that flipping a switch will turn on a light, that our fridge will keep food fresh and cold, that we can pull into a gas station and fill our tanks whenever we desire, that our cell phones and computers will keep us connected with the rest of the world, that the TV and newspapers will keep us up with the latest news, that we can buy whatever food we want at grocery stores or restaurants, and that the USPS will deliver some junk mail to our boxes six days a week. Needless to say, we've come to appreciate all of these things even more these last few days. Our power was restored on Tuesday afternoon (half of our neighborhood never even lost power!); one of Ben's coworkers brought us a generator Monday night, so we were able to get the fridge running again; I managed to find a station with gas on Monday with only a 20-minute waiting line; cell phone service was really spotty but has improved a great deal, and our internet was available Tuesday night; we got four newspapers yesterday, making up for several days of no delivery; Kroger finally had full power yesterday but no perishables to sell, and the resturants that are open have to close early due to curfew; our mail service, which had been suspended last Thursday, finally returned on Tuesday. Normal sights and sounds (it's seriously QUIET when no air conditioners are running!)are beginning to appear, but there are still many things that are abnormal. Driving without the benefit of working traffic signals is a real adventure if somebody else on the road doesn't understand the rules. Almost every house has a pile of tree debris in front of it waiting to be picked up, and many people who evacuated still have not returned to begin the cleanup process.
We learned some new things about cooking on the grill, as we had some meat that had to be used up. Did you know that you can bake biscuits on the grill? I made up some Bisquick drop biscuits and put them on the warming rack over the grill, and they cooked up beautifully. We were very glad to have a propane grill to use while the electricity was out!
Many, many folks were affected by this hurricane much worse than we were. I'm sure that the recovery process will be a long one. We've made it through with minor inconveniences, but lots of people can't say the same. We'll do whatever we can to help out!
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