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How often does a 115 year old house face up to a category 5 hurricane?

I decided Thursday morning I would hunker down in my old house with my three dogs Symy, Cocoa, and Patch. Yes, I said it. Hunker. Hunkering. Hunker-doodle-doo. Hunkerdory. HUNKERAMA!

Throughout the day I vacillated on whether it was a good idea or not. Now I think I have no choice.

A tragedy in the making?

A Texas National Guard spokeswoman on KHOU 11 (decent web site) is stating that trucks with fuel have not left Austin yet because thier pumps do not fit civillian vehicles so they had to fly in adapters from somewhere else. So they won't be leaving until later this morning. Why couldn't they anticipate all this? KTRK 13 (web site is visually too busy) is reporting that according to the governor they were supposed to arrive by 9 p.m. Thursday. Channel 13, like Channel 11, continues to give authorities the benefit of the doubt when it seems that some of these problems should have been foreseen, meanwhile people have been stranded for hours. Are they going to get to all those people in time before the rain and the winds arrive?

Friday, September 23, 2005 4:14 AM

KTRK reports seeing many vehicles abandoned along the Eastex north of Splendora. At least Don Nelson is calling this situation "a nightmare." A woman on the phone, Donna Wilson, says that her son and his family have been on the road for 26 (!) hours. They are near Lufkin now.

The victims are telling their stories while the talking heads are talking over them.

On KTRK: Caller Doris Maxie, from Harris County, says there are hundreds of cars out of gas at a filling station in Shepherd. Don Nelson's sympathetic tone and intelligent comments are a welcome contrast to the numbing dumbness of the two regular anchors (Minerva and Tom).

On KTRK: A caller stuck in Huntsville, says they have been waiting for 14 (!) hours without gas.

On KTRK: Governor Blanco of Louisiana is droning through a prepared statement. She and Mayor Nagin of New Orleans should marry eachother, Homeland Security Secretary Micheal Chertoff will give her away, Dubya will be the best man, and former FEMA Director Micheal Brown should be the flower girl.

Big Love Fest Press Conference

On KRIV 26: The politicos are all in one place at the same time. Everybody is getting along. It's like the Oscars. Everyone is thanking everyone else for the great job they are doing. Money quote: "Everything that needs to be done is being done everywhere," U.S. Congressman Tom Delay tells us. He says it, so it must be so.

I'm back. The Conversation is fascinating but we got sleepy and we made it through only about 45 minutes of the film. Will try to finish it tomorrow.

Dr. Neil Frank on KHOU 11 sounds a bit disappointed Rita is only a category 3 storm. Maybe he's just tired too.

The morning after.

Slept through the storm.

Walked my dogs. There are mostly small tree limbs lying in the streets. No flooding. Still have power. My porch furniture did not budge.

Breaking Nuz

Katz's is Klosed! Drove by there this afternoon and here's the proof.
The Katz family's hubris is no match for Mother Nature.

Last Word on Rita

I've always been a live and let live kind of guy when it came to our official city bird, the mosquito (BTW: it's a "Spanish word meaning 'little fly'", which is yet another reason to thank me for being Mex'can).

Malaria? What Malaria? West Nile Virus? Everyone knows that all the VIPs lived on the East Side of the Nile.

Most of my life I've had no trouble with them critters with the supermodel-long legs. They didn't bother me. But some of the sweetest women I've known in my life would be feasted on by those voracious blood suckers (BTW: These ladies all were fair-skinned, blondes, or red-heads, or dyed thier hair red). Anyhow, I figured I just wasn't sweet enough. But this Rita Mosquito seems to be a different animal. "Houston's #1 Disinformation Source," the Chron, reports that there's been, "A massive hatching of far-flying salt-marsh mosquitoes up and down the Gulf Coast — spawned by Hurricane Rita's storm surge." They were all over me when I walked my dogs tonight. I never knew they could be...well...such pests. They're in here now! Will someone please get these darn Rita 'Squitos out of my house!