If I ever ride a hurricane out, I'm going to go ahead and have a party, because at least then the clean-up will feel justified.
Came back this weekend. Rita's prudent decision to dodge Houston (and Mom's twitchy AOL account) convinced us to return. No, we didn't heed Mayor White's request to sit tight, but only because we were already to Waco by the time we heard about it. We stayed off the interstates, at any rate, and made it back in only slightly more time than it took to get to Lubbock in the first place.
The best money I spent for this whole ordeal, and that includes the cost of plywood, gas cans, and water, was a $23 power inverter I got in Lubbock that allowed me to plug my laptop into the cigarette lighter and kept She Who Shall Not Be Named happily immersed in Elmo and Barney for the majority of the trip.
With all the crap off the porch and the lawn (which reminds me, Chauncey the gnome needs to be returned to his place of honor) and the windows boarded up, the place looked condemned. Happily, except for branches (a few big bastards, too) and a shitload of pinecones and needles, the house was fine.
Not entirely true; one window pane was broken. By me. When I put a knee through it boarding it up last Wednesday.
The power was off until the morning, necessitating a complete refrigerator clean-out (made all the more entertaining by a loss of Popsicle wrapper integrity at some point). Then there was unpacking the car, cleaning the yard, unboarding the windows, and shopping (I apparently hit the Kroger about an hour after the truck showed up, so we were able to restock pretty well).
I've only been back online for a short period (no connectivity from Saturday AM to this afternoon), but it looks - from my cursory blog surfage - like everyone is okay. I've still got some things to take care of at the house, but APCB will be back wasting your time shortly.
Thanks to everyone (again) for the good thoughts. And thanks to Michael for posting my occasionally coherent ramblings from Lubbock.
I'll echo that -- welcome home, and well done. Let us now bend our minds to the idea of a celebratory we're-not-dead party....
again, welcome home. :) glad your house is still houselike.
I'm amazed by all these accounts of everyone getting their house back in place in short order. I think it must be must be my bachelorette life style, but all my bags and valuable belongings that made the trip with me are still by the door where I put them 8 hours ago. I'm making progress slowly, but I guess since I don't have a family or children to worry about, I don't care if it takes me a few days to put things in place. Gosh that sounds lazy, but oh well. I did get my internet and wireless back up and running quickly!
Congrats, Pete. I'm glad all is well. Now, LET THE DEBAUCHERY AND REVELRY BEGIN!
I have to confess that I'm slightly disappointed there wasn't more carnage, because I was looking forward to those sweet, sweet government debit cards.
I was all set to purchase some diamond and platinum fronts that spelled F-E-M-A across my grill.
Happy help Pete, if for no other reason than to have every comment on those posts mailed to me.
Pete! Glad you and the fam are O.K. I've been out of town since Thursday and had no net access. Not that you were always on my mind every second of my trip , but I was definitely hoping you guys were O.K. Rita kinda pussed out it seems which is good news unless you're an "embedded" reporter hoping for the worst.
And, FYI, it was every 4th second I thought of you sweet cheeks.
Welcome back. Bummer about the window.
Pete, glad you and your family are back safe and sound with only some minor clean-up to deal with. Looks like those windows needed more protection from you than the storm! Just kidding - if I had tried to put up plywood, I would have somehow managed to end up in the ER in the process, so I'm in no place to ridicule.
Welcome back! Glad you sustained no major damage.
Hey, Pete -- welcome back, and I'm really glad that nothing was damaged by the storm.