Welcome to the Caribbean, Love!

I make no secret of my strongly atheistic views on religion, but I rarely talk about them, for fairly obvious reasons. I was tempted to make an exception by reading this excerpt (by Sam Harris, published in HuffingtonPost.com) from an upcoming "Atheist Manifesto," to be posted in December at www.truthdig.com.

What I have seen so far of the "manifesto" indeed speaks for me. Mr. Harris expresses my thoughts eloquently, though a bit more blunt and strongly-worded than I would have chosen. Please don't click on the cut if you think it will bother you.( excerpt from an excerpt )


Note: Subject quote is from Peter de Vries The Mackerel Plaza.

First of all, thanks to Rita for not coming here.


Next, thank you to everyone who was thinking and worrying about us, and those who sent good wishes, and especially all those of you who used your thought-waves, prayers, and magic to make the storm miss Houston -- we really appreciate it!


Thanks to all those who offered us a refuge to flee to and all of you who offered advice and encouragement. Thanks to connielane for passing on my "okay" message when we didn't have power.


Thank you to my son's 2002-2003 Odyssey of the Mind team for leaving us a source of scrap plywood.


Thanks to Reliant Energy workers for restoring our power the same day.


And thank you to my husband and kids and pets for being so well-behaved, hard-working (except for the pets), and cooperative though all the recent activity and the failed evacuation ordeal.

We lost our power at about 2 AM last night and just got it back at about 4 PM today.

Goodness, the air conditioning feels good! Yes, it was just like pioneer days today, with only water, gas (including hot water and gas stove and oven), cell phone, and telephone working. :p


I had plenty of ice to keep the freezer and refrigerator cool, so all is good and happy now. Rita was kind of dull, with sporadic wind gusts to maybe 75 mph and hardly any rain. We lost a lot of small branches and a gutter from the Guest Lair, and our next-door neighbor lost a major branch, but that's nothing compared to our usual Texas thunderstorms.


Now all we have to do is wait for the gas stations to have gas again, the grocery stores and restaurants to re-open, and schools to start up (I hear they've already cancelled Monday). It's nice to know we don't have to fight all that traffic coming back in to town.


I know less than most people about what Rita did, but I understand she hit a lightly-populated stretch of Louisiana near the Texas border -- yay!

*must watch news and catch up*

The wind is really whistling now.


We saw the prettiest sight this evening. We were out giving the dog a mini-walk in the light drizzle and surveying our domain one last time right before the sun set. There was a fantastic rainbow -- a full arch -- I think the prettiest rainbow I've ever seen. The sun came under the storm clouds giving that weird "tornado green" glow that made the grass bright fluorescent green, and overhead white clouds were scudding across the sky at an amazing rate. Too bad we misplaced the camera!


I am sipping a Rita 'rita made by my husband (who has his priorities straight), newly clean from my one last shower, and enjoying the fact that we still have power. I guess I should probably take advantage of that and make dinner.

Still here. Very busy. Here's the status report, for anyone who is interested: ( Read more... )

My husband thinks we should go out and driverealfast on the eerily empty roads. Like, it might be the first time in our whole life we could go the speed limit on the West Loop northbound.

Okay, so much for the whole fleeing-in-terror idea. After sitting in traffic for six hours and never getting more than 20-30 miles from our house, we have returned, bruised and bloody, but unbowed. Okay, a little bowed.

Right now, folks, you can't get there from here.


We might try again tonight, if the storm doesn't veer further east, and if the traffic looks bearable. Not likely, though, because we only have half a tank of gas left. I guess the storm will just have to go further east.

Here in Houston, it seems like the whole city is obsessed with the hurricane, and especially with the displaced people our city has taken in. Here are some of the things I've seen and heard:

From my daughter's school's e-group: ( Read more... )

Yeah, I'm proud of my city, probably more so than I ever have been before.

What are we going to do without New Orleans and the rest of southern Louisiana and Mississippi? It's not just about jazz and Cajun food and beautiful architecture and Mardi Gras and conventions. New Orleans and surrounding ports were the biggest ports in tonnage in the US, and fourth largest in the world.

In 2002, last year I could find data for, Louisiana ports moved 484,927,000 tons of goods, 21% of the U.S. total. Alabama (Mobile) had another 66,888,000, and Mississippi (Gulfport) another 47,735,000 tons. Assuming the Port of Mobile can soon operate again, we just lost 23% of our total shipping capacity, including the only outlet for the Mississippi River barge traffic.

Then there are the oil platforms, oil and chemical refineries, natural gas storage facilities and pipelines, the fisheries, the cotton, rice, soybean, and sugarcane markets, and some major universities.


And what about the state of Mississippi? What percentage of its GDP, of its tax base, came from the coastline? A lot, I'll bet. And 75% of the state's customers currently have no power.


This is bad.



ETA: Not to mention... what the heck are we in the South going to do without I-10? They still hadn't finished fixing the bridges from last year, and now this. Not to be trivial, but... how am I going to visit my family in Florida?

...knowing that we have an empty house here in Houston while so many are homeless. Does anyone know anyone who needs a place to stay and can get to Houston?


It's a small three-bedroom, one-bath house with sleeping room for up to 13, full kitchen with washer but no dryer, and fenced backyard suitable for dogs. Pets would be okay, but no smoking in the house. Grocery store in walking distance, but not easy walking distance, 2-car garage, safe neighborhood with good schools, furniture but no TV. Cost could be anything from free, to paying utilities, to paying rent, depending on the family's needs.


It would be cool if someone I "know" could use it, because I'm kind of scared about just offering it blind.


Trying this friends-only first...

For everyone who doesn't have rhrsoulmates on their f-list but is worried about hippie_girl8...


She and her family are SAFE and OUT OF NEW ORLEANS and on their way to stay with relatives!


Now I can breathe a little easier for the first time since Friday. :)



hippie_girl8, we miss your icons and posts!