Hunkering Down

So it appears that Hurricane Ike will be headed to the Dallas area in the morning. And if it seems really far inland to be having tropical storm warnings, well, this could be a very unusual time. I'm not worried about flooding here; we're only supposed to get about six inches of rain, and Casa de Kev is at the top of a small hill. The same steep driveway (pitched at about a 45-degree angle) that can be a curse during icy weather may well be a blessing during this rain. Other than that, it's pretty much the sustained winds that are a concern out here, although the fact that the houses are pretty close together out here is evidently a good thing.

Meanwhile, down in Sugar Land, Mom and Dad's place could get it much worse than here. They're in the part of Houston that was instructed to hunker down rather than clog the highways full of Galveston-area evacuees, so they've done what they can (bring in the patio furniture, etc.) and are just ready to ride the thing out. Flooding is more of a concern for them, though they're on a slight hill as well; perhaps the bulk of the water will converge on the golf course rather than in the neighborhoods.

I guess the thing we can prepare for most thoroughly is the possibility of the power going out sometime tomorrow. I managed to snag a little power-outage food (peanut butter, bread, jelly), and there's plenty of water on hand (which is good, because the water aisle at Super Target was nearly empty as of nine tonight). Both of my clock radios have battery backups, and I now have backup batteries for those battery backups (say that ten times fast!). I also have a full tank of gas (and was more than a little miffed that prices rose 15 cents a gallon over my 45-minute lunch break). I can conceivably let enough light in to read stuff if I don't have any power, and otherwise, I'm just preparing to be bored, bored, bored.

For those of you who are also in the crosshairs of this storm, be safe, and best of luck riding it out. If I post tomorrow, that's a good sign.

Holding up a whole hand now: Happy fifth birthday to my middle nephew, Caleb. Born in the first year of this blog, the joyous day was announced here.