crIKEy...

So Ike really is on the way...

Hard to believe at this stage as it is hot and sunny outside with only a moderate breeze... but we are told it's going to go right through this part of The Great State of Texas (tm). Galveston is in some trouble - they're predicting Ike will push a storm surge of about 20 to 25 feet onshore... their seawall is 17 feet. They were already flooding this morning and the storm was still hours out in the gulf.

We went out this morning and put away the patio furniture and the grill so we won't have those flying around later on. We're as ready as we can be. Unfortunately there is plenty of construction going on in our area and they didn't do too much to prepare... so we have dumpsters full of construction debris and houses partially finished all over the place so if it's as bad as they say it's going to be we're going to have quite a mess to clear up tomorrow afternoon. And when I say bad, they're talking about category 1 hurricane force winds as far inland as North Houston and 12 hours of tropical storm force winds for most of the area.

Here he is as of an hour ago:

It seems that English men have a tradition of doing ridiculous things in the face of adversity (the Brits in the movie singing 'Men of Harlech' when faced with seemingly overwhelming enemy Zulus comes to mind)... so if it's bad, I shall don the rain gear and my bicycle helmet for protection and go for a walk in the wind :-)

Now where did I put that helmet...

Ike - he's big, mean and not going to miss

So Ike appears to be the real deal...



Here's a picture of him from a couple of hours ago:



For reference, the Gulf of Mexico is almost a thousand miles wide from the Mexican coast on the left to the Florida peninsula on the right... it's a big storm.


We have been somewhat comforted by the distance between us and the gulf - we're about 80 miles North of Galveston... but Ike has hurricane force (100mph+) winds extending out over a hundred miles so we may be in for a breezy weekend.


We went out today to stock up a bit more just in case. It was mayhem.

We drove about 20 miles to the South to buy a few things and we got caught in the evacuation traffic on the way back even though the news said there were no issues... apparently 15 miles of stop and go traffic is 'no issue'.


We also decided to heed the warnings and fill up the car just in case. We drove past loads of gas stations before we found one that even had any gas to sell - people were lining up in the road to fill up their car and any gas cans they could find.


The store was out of bread, almost out of water, out of plastic bags to carry out your shopping, out of almost all the soup and cereal too. And the lines! My god...


But anyway, we're back home and safe. It was a gorgeous evening with blue skies and no wind... I guess this is what they call the calm before the storm! We have plenty of water and plenty to eat so I guess we wait to see if Ike is coming.

For the love of all that is holy...

Ok... so we are now officially at the "For the love of all that is holy, look at the size of that thing" stage.


They do seem to have a point:

So we will not be evacuated or anything like that but they have mentioned that the Woodlands will get some heavy weather if it continues on its current track... that means possibly 90mph+ winds and up to a foot of rain.

Of course, it's still quite some way off and it could turn away between now and tomorrow:

I am working from home today - they are announcing evacuations for the coastal areas already so I am just going to avoid getting caught in all of that.

They say we should have a hurricane kit available with all sorts of foods and supplies. We have pared this down to the absolute minimum - alcohol and peanuts.

Think about it - it's all you really need. Peanuts are packed full of protein, they don't produce smelly garbage AND they're salty which forces you to keep up your fluid intake, thus staying hydrated... and alcohol kills bugs and helps you get to the "don't give a crap" stage by the time the winds get up to danger levels :-) And we'll have a margarita every now and then - that fresh lime will ward of the skurvy...

Hurricane Ike - be very afraid... maybe

So we have another hurricane on the way... Here's Ike wending his way across the gulf:

Now we're only just in the dreaded cone of death and destruction or whatever they call that thing (you can see Galveston bay again just inside the North-East edge of the cone) but when we went to sleep last night we were 100 miles away from trouble... so Ike could be coming closer.

Frankly I am bored of hurricane season already - I think I preferred living in earthquake country where you never knew what was coming. Here we get a week of "oh Hurricane X is coming. It's a big one. Prepare the hurricane kit. Ooooh, look at the cone of death and destruction, look how bad it's going to be. START PRAYING. KEEP PRAYING. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING.... Phew! It wasn't as big as we thought and it missed anyway. And now to our intrepid reporter who is looking like an idiot standing in a puddle in the Walmart parking lot in his storm gear trying to make it look worse than it is to justify the hysteria we whipped up"

Then we'll get a week of normalcy before the next one fires up the cycle all over again.

So let's see what Ike brings us...

M is for Margaritas

So when we were in SF we went to Macys - they had a rubbish sale on most things but the kitchen sale was half decent... I spotted something I have read about online that I have been secretly coveting for some time (since we thought about moving and putting in a pool).

Yes, I saw the Margaritaville DM2000 Premium Frozen Concoction Maker in the sale...



I had to have it and we had spare 'bag' capacity to check it onto our flight so we bought it... and we had to carry it up to the top of Nob Hill to the hotel, and then man handle it around the airport, onto the parking shuttle and then it wouldn't fit in the car so I carried it on my lap for 20 miles to the house.

It was so worth it!

So far I made 2 sets of margaritas (tequila, triple sec, fresh lime and a splash of orange) which were good... but last night I made strawberry daiquiris... fantastic! This thing is phenominal! It has settings for margaritas, daiquiris etc - all you do is tell it what you're making and how many and hit the button - it shaves enough ice, blends it all at the right time and out comes a frosty beverage!

Thankfully you can't drink and drive in The Great State of Texas (tm) so I have not been able to drive around in my little convertible listening to disco music drinking strawberry daiquiris!!! Otherwise I think I might have been shot by now!

One of these things is not like the others...

So it's a perfect day here in the Great State of Texas (tm)...

For some reason related to what is now tropical depression Gustav, we have picture perfect weather - it's a balmy 72 degrees this morning, the humidity has disappeared and the sky is a gorgeous blue with not a cloud in sight.

I hope this is a sign of things to come!

So this morning on my commute I was listening to a CD from Mika... if you haven't heard of him, here's a fairly representative video:




So, not the most, erm, masculine man in the world...

As I mentioned, I was driving in listening to this gentlemen... in my little Mazda convertible (which I admit is not the most masculine muscle car in the world)... wearing my bright pink candy stripe shirt...

... and I looked around at all the huge pickup trucks and even bigger SUVs around me and thought to myself "one of these things is not like the others..."

Hurricane? What hurricane?

So we headed out to San Francisco this weekend as we had the Labor Day holiday. We had an absolutely fantastic time - it was nice to see some of our friends again and spend some time in beautiful California.

Thankfully it didn't make us feel like we've made a huge mistake moving to Texas so that was a plus!

If anyone we saw is reading this - we had a fantastic time and we can't wait to be back or see you in Texas :-)

We were worried we might not make it back to TX given the size and ferocity of hurricane Gustav. When we left TX on Friday there was nothing but scare tactics from the local news organizations so we were expecting the worst. We even sat in San Francisco on Monday wondering whether it was worth going to the airport for our flight.

Well it was all a bit of a non-event for this area - Gustav came ashore further East than we feared and it helpfully kept going Northwest at a fair pace meaning that it weakened quickly and missed Houston completely. We landed at midnight in fairly flat conditions, 81 degrees F and with a completely clear, starry night sky!

In fact the biggest issue we had was getting our clothes, a case of wine and a margarita maker into the Mazda... thank goodness it wasn't raining as we had to put the top down and lay the margarita maker on my lap for the journey home!