Before the Storm II
Picking up my kids was unreal. It might take 45 minutes on a bad day for the round trip. Today I left home at 3:15 and did not get home until 6. The drive home was along an evacuation route. I do admit I stopped to pick up some cash at an ATM and fish food for my poor fishes.
Told the kids the bad news as soon as they got in the car. We have to eat all the ice cream before we leave. They were crushed of course. But I have decided to go to Bryan and stay with Preston. So it could be a major game-a-thon in the making. I still have my work cut out for Skinwalker though. So much to do still. But Preston pointed out something that I think will be brilliant. Cannot say more as I don’t want to spoil it for potential players.
When I got home I took pictures of my house from as many different angles as I could. These will serve as reminders of what it looked like should it get leveled. Also can show the insurance folks as well. Then I cooked supper, ate too much ice cream and paid my bills. Also washed the kids’ uniforms so they will be ready when we come home. Talked to my sis-in-law. She has to stay and work during the hurricane. Her hospital is requiring her to work. I told her to stay at the hospital no matter what. Don’t bother going home. Too dangerous. Did all this while watching Lost and Invasion. Invasion looks really cool. And I love Lost. Got pretty strange tonight.
I’m pretty much packed. I told the kids to bring 5 days worth of clothes and whatever the did not want to lose. I’m bringing the laptop and I hope to post on occasion. Also lugging insurance papers, passports, my wife’s jewelry and lots of games. Got the X-box, the playstation and my dice. Also taking some books for the game marathon that will incur. There will be a couple moving in from Houston and the guy plays and there are some other gamers in Bryan. Gaming will help keep our minds off the potential loss of the house.
The weather map looks pretty intimidating tonight. Still going to have to face 75+ mph winds. Though it will be over 100+ mph as projected for my home’s location. The worse thing today is my neck is really stiff and sore. Has to be the stress and lack of sleep. Well I better get packing. I want to get gas tonight and leave early in the morning.
I’ll remember you all in my prayers. Thanks to Caracola, Jane, and Misti for posting well wishes on my IM. You girls always make my day. Hugs to you all.
September 22nd, 2005 at 7:32 am
SA, hope you and your family are well. While you are running away from the wrath of Rita, we are having all-night-long tornado warnings. “Lost” was interrupted … in fact, the 2nd episode was not aired, because the local ABC decided to report on the weather for an entire hour. Apparently, there were sightings of funnel clouds, thank goodness no touch-downs … Take care!
September 22nd, 2005 at 8:47 am
By now you are prolly on the road, but good luck and God speed J. I know from first hand experience how bad evacuating and not knowing what’s going on with your home can be (did it twice last year and rode out another… won’t do that again). We’ll all say some prayers for you. Try not to worry and you guys have some fun and slay many monsters.
September 22nd, 2005 at 9:02 am
Give one more BIG HUG for you…and talk to you soon!
September 22nd, 2005 at 1:18 pm
i can’t get you off my mind. i guess i can only pray for you & your family to stay well during the journey and that your house will be not damaged.
September 22nd, 2005 at 9:50 pm
@lynne Be careful with those tornadoes. I have been able to dodge those buggers so far. Its all luck. Hope you have a comfortable cellar in your home for hiding from thsoe storms.
@DU I know you know hurricanes living in Florida and all. This is the first time I ever ran from a hurricane. Next time I’m catching a plane or a train. That traffic jam was unreal and unnecesary as well.
@Jane I have big hug for Jane. I’m doing good. Tired. Real tired, but I’m wound up too.
@misti As I said earlier this is my first time to run away from a storm. Packing up my important belongings was more difficult than I could ever imagine. And it was not the labor, its just the thought of what could be lost.
September 23rd, 2005 at 7:41 am
We never had major damage (thank the good lord!), but we did have lots of tree limbs down. In fact one crushed the corner of our shed in the backyard. The worst was really the after effects. We had no power for 3 days. That sucked. That sucked bad. No power meant no well and no well meant no water. There is nothing worse than sticky, sweaty heat and no power. We tried living on bottled water, but if you have evr tried to wash off with a half gallon jug of cold water… well you can imagine. We also realized that modern society is ill equipped to handle no electronic entertainment. It really was much less fun than it all sounds
I can say we never had the problems you did evacuating though. We had slow crawling traffic of course, but it was only a few hours, never an entire day!
You did the right thing though packing up your most valuable possesions and leaving. Better safe than sorry!
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:59 pm
@Thanks DU. WE are definitely playing it safe. Just cleared the yard of all the loose stuff.