Kansas trip -- recap in pictures

We've been back at home for a week now, but life has been crazy and things are still far from normal in Houston. Plenty of places still don't have power. Plenty of stoplights are still not working, which makes traffic even worse than usual. My office building was damaged and out of power until late last week, so tomorrow will finally be my first day back at work. Samantha's school was out of power as well, and she starts back tomorrow too.

First things first, though. I'd like to share photos of our week in Kansas with my parents. It was a beautiful week -- an unexpected hiatus with family.

We packed so quickly for the trip (to get out of Houston before sundown/curfew, at which point the police would have probably turned us around and sent us home) that we forgot a few items. Things like Samantha's shoes and Jack's pajamas. So during our first day in Kansas we went to Target to get some things. Jack got Superman PJ's and put them on immediately. We played outside non-stop until bedtime -- a perfect midwest autumn evening:

First Day Pictures



















Mo had a great time with the Kansas terriers -- Opie and Andy.

Mo






Andy


On Tuesday morning we went to a nearby playground, where 3yo Jack showed only a tiny bit of fear, and plenty of coordination, while descending the fire pole:

Playground






Later in the week Jamie took the kids to a farm/petting zoo while I helped Mom with some chores.

Farm pictures










On Thursday night we met up with local friends and went to dinner and bowling. Samantha bowled over 90 in both games and hardly ever used the bumpers! My buddies and I had a good time making up funny names for ourselves, and in the final pic I circled my choking performance that sunk what could have been a great game.

Dinner/Bowling








On our last day the kids played football and then we went to my dad's annual company party. Although there were fun activities there for kids, I think their favorite was when their PawPaw gave them rides on the dolly. We also got a family caricature portrait done. So completeth the update!

Last Day

Made it!

We're here in Kansas, happy and exhausted. Here's a rundown on the past three nights:

Thursday: measuring, cutting and mounting plywood on the windows until midnight
Friday: huddling in the bedroom and listening to the incredible 100+ mph winds all night
Saturday: leaving our house at 5:30 pm and driving non-stop to Kansas City (via Waco... not a direct path but it avoided flooded areas), arriving just after 7am

Time to sleep tonight! We are very blessed. We are comfortable, laughing, and who knew that Mo the schnauzer would be instant best friends with the terriers Opie and Andy? I don't think Mo's gonna go willingly with us to return home whenever it's time.

Speaking of that, we don't have a clue when it will be time to go back to Houston. But we'd prefer to wait until things like power and water are functional again. We're still thinking about the millions staying there and we hope they make the best of it and continuing looking out for their neighbors.

I continue to be impressed and proud of our city. Yesterday morning the streets around our house were all impassable because of downed trees. By afternoon the streets were clear, and it wasn't because of official city crews. No offense to the crews, I'm sure they would have done an excellent job, but the citizens got there first!

Change of plans

So things aren't all that comfy after all -- the temperature has been much higher than initially forecast. They're saying that it will be in the 90s for the next two days, with obviously ultra-high humidity.

We're packing to head out of Houston. Plan is to start out going west where the roads are open and the storm impact was smaller, then head north, through Waco and eventually into Kansas to see my parents.

It's an odd route but a much safer one than trying to go due north or northeast out of Houston. Those areas were hit too hard and probably have road issues.

Power is almost sure to be out for quite a while here, so it's not like we'll drive for a day then find out Samantha has school on Tuesday. I doubt there'll be any school next week at all around here.

The adventure continues!

The gang's all here

We made it just fine. It was definitely a loud, loud night, but Jamie displayed her genius once again and found a battery-powered noisemaker machine that she cranked up on the "white noise" setting. It drowned out much of the lower-level wind sounds, although nothing can drown out the palpable impact of the biggest gusts.

We slept on and off all night, with me and Samantha in the master bed and Jamie/Jack on the inflatable mattress on the floor. It only took about an hour before I turned over to look at Samantha and saw two little feet. She had already turned upside down.

It's warm but not swelteringly so. The rain has slowed enough so that we can open up a couple of windows and get some air moving in the house. We turned the circuit breakers off last night so that no power surges would hurt our appliances/computer/TV/etc...

We don't anticipate power being restored for quite a while. Over the next couple of days we'll eat our food/water, check the radio for news and check on the neighbors. Best case scenario would be to be able to leave the city on Monday and head north somewhere, but that will require confirmation of clear roads and available gas.

I'm on a national wireless network card that I just got at the office last week -- good timing! My battery power is limited on the laptop so I don't plan on posting again today. Just wanted everyone to know we're fine and the intense storm-phase is over. Now it's time to take it easy, try to be as comfortable as possible, and wait to see the timeline for the city's restoration of basic services.

Later!

Ready as possible for Hurricane Ike

Several people have called/emailed wondering if I am in an evacuation zone of Houston as Hurricane Ike approaches.

We are not in an official evacuation zone as we're about 50 miles inland from the coast (our zip is 77035 for you map geeks out there). It's 11am on Friday right now and starting to get pretty breezy, but it's still hot and sunny. Scheduled time for the hurricane to hit our area is about 1am Saturday, although from this afternoon forward we'll have constant winds over 50mph. So our prep needed to get finished by now, and fortunately it is.

The exposed windows of the house are boarded up with plywood. We have plenty of food and water to last several days. The storm itself will be intense tonight but my family will all huddle together in our bedroom and sorta have an indoor campout. Total psychological manipulation to make it as fun as possible for the kids, but that's what parents do! :)

If I had to guess I'd say the recent turns of the storm help us out in Houston. It looks to me like we won't be on the east ("dirty") side of the hurricane's eye. If anything we'll be dead center although there's a slight possibility we'll be on the west side of the eye, which is much better.

Yes, it'll be a night of howling wind and lots of sideways rain, but we've followed all the recommended steps to get ready. We're almost certain to lose power for at least a day or two, and possibly even a week, so don't be alarmed if I don't post again for a while. Cell phones will be my way to keep in touch with people.

Ike will speed up as it hits land, so by Sunday it will be in Arkansas, and by Monday it could be in Indiana. This means that if we lose power and get uncomfortable, we can always head out of town on Monday. Both vehicles are full of gas and we've got family in east Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas, and we have no qualms about inviting ourselves over to see any of them.

Hopefully pretty soon things will be back to normal and I'll be posting deep thoughts once again. This blog has now come full circle -- some of my very first posts revolved around the chaos from Hurricane Rita three years ago. Most of that chaos was due to our attempted evacuations, not the storm itself. We're not repeating that this time.

For everybody else out there in the Houston/Galveston area -- stay safe!