Forgive me if this is a little "stream of consciousness" but I have a lot to say and it may seem a bit disjointed at times. It is now Tuesday morning. The power has been on for 20 minutes. We were in the dark for a total of 73 hours. The conventional wisdom, after Hurricane Rita was that we'd be inconvenienced for a few hours and everything would be great. If you have ever been in a hurricane you know there is a clean side and a dirty side. The clean side is typically the west side as was the case with Rita. It came ashore at High Island, Texas and we got some high wind and a lot of rain. Ike came straight across Galveston and up Interstate 45. I live a quarter mile from I 45. We experienced the phenomenon of all hell breaking lose and the calm (or false sense of security) of the eye passing over and the cycle starting over again. Once you realize you've survived and reality sets in, the next fun bit is venturing out and finding out exactly how lucky we truly were.



This does not begin to show the numbers of shingles that were blown off my building.



Help me State Farm man! A 100 year old plus magnolia tree slammed into two of my neighbor's cars.



Here is where the same tree took out a ten foot section of fence.



Any place there was a fence or anything flat facing straight into the wind, the wind won. The car that stayed in the garage sustained no damage other than perhaps some hurt feelings since we had to wait for the staff to manually unlock the door and rescue it . The car that braved the storm got some paint scratches from falling shingles. I wonder when Taco Bell will be open?