midnight.

Still have power. Surprised.

FWD:Last hot meal

grilled cheese and beer

Wind

Last call at the grocery store

Arturo's a real bread-winner: He grabbed the second-to-last loaf of bread at Kroger.
I snapped a photo with my crappy camera phone:


There seemed to be an "idiot surge" going on.

Ronnie and Chris were nice enough to help us drop our car off downtown at Arturo's garage. We noticed the homeless are taking cover from the storm in various garages downtown.


It's 6pm now, and the wind is really picking up. We checked out a website that told us to expect 80 mph winds. ouch. Given our abundance of trees, I expect we'll lose power sooner rather than later. Then it'll be all up to the shortwave radio and a laptop to keep us connected to the rest of the world.

Friday: The Eve of Hurricane Ike

It's Friday morning and Hurricane Ike is less than 24 hours away. We woke up briefly at 6am to see if Ike was still coming right at us. it is.

The news cameras are all aimed at Galveston, showing the first signs of storm surge, with water already crashing over the 17ft seawall. It's funny how you theoretically talk about this "thing," you view radar depictions of it, prepare and shop for it, change your behavior and schedule for it, etc., but somewhere in the back of your mind you can't really believe it exists until you see it with your own eyes. This is also exactly my dilemma with religion.

Anyway, the word for the day is "surge." Influenced by the talking heads' incessant use of the term "storm surge."

Today we've got a list of serious chores, as well as a couple of pre-storm social gatherings. Let me explain: Suddenly finding yourself free from the usual workday commitments presents you with the oppourtunity to have a "mental health" break before we're all forced to hunker down and endure hours of shack-wackiness. The social gatherings become therapeutic and necessary. Plus the booze helps take the edge off the next few hours.

On the agenda today:

• Boarding and taping up windows.
  
• Picking up potential projectiles around the yard.
• Picking a "safe room" and how we're going to handle the cats.
  
• Small gathering at Ronni and Chris's.
• drinks with Tina.
• hunker down.

Time for me to initiate a "coffee surge" before I embark on the day's chores and social events.

p.s. My birthday kind of sucked. yeah, I said it. This just means next year's will be better.

Cindy's birthday present: Ike

Looks like I got a hurricane for my birthday this year. Shoes or a purse would have made a better gift, but whatever. I think we're as prepared as expected.

So we're hunkering down over here. I'll post more over the course of the next couple of days.

El Cozumeleno Beach Resort

El Cozumeleno
Originally uploaded by Romero-Rama

Cindy's Cozumel weekend.
View from our hotel balcony.
What I did on my summer vacation:
naps
booze
food
swimming

No chupakabra sightings.