September 12, 2008 - brief power outage

About an hour ago we heard a loud BANG! and the power went out. It was more than mildly annoying, considering that the storm hadn't really begun yet. Just a few minutes ago it came back on. I was afraid that we wouldn't have any electricity for the rest of the evening.

The wind is really starting to kick up. I hope the power doesn't go out again for a long while!

September 12, 2008 - another Fiesta trip, starting to rain

We made another trip to Fiesta, and fortunately we went when we did because a) they were getting ready to close, and b) it has started to rain. It was decided that a couple of bottles of wine were not going to get us through a potentially waterlogged weekend, particularly if West Alabama street becomes a Venetian canal like it usually does when there is heavy rainfall.

As you can see above, they were pretty cleaned out - no bread or milk left, and a few remaining bags of chips. I just want to take moment to say THANK YOU to Fiesta and our other fine neighborhood grocery stores for staying open today to help Houstonians get ready for Ike. You guys rock!

September 12, 2008 - calm before the storm, more tape

The sky is white and gray, and it is eerily calm outside. I really hope that we will be able to sleep through the worst of the hurricane when it gets to Houston. I have heard that it is supposed to reach us in the city around 7 am tomorrow.

Our landlord brought us a few rolls of duct tape to reinforce our glass patio door along with the masking tape we used. I really hope it works!

I am getting worried about my office, which has flooded before and is located in the basement of our building. I hope we don't have another big washout like tropical storm Allison back in 2001, during which much of downtown and the medical center was laid to waste by heavy rain.

September 12, 2008 - taped windows, palm tree worries

Martin went around and taped up our windows. Hopefully that will keep glass breakage to a minimum. Fortunately (most of) our windows are double glazed. The big glass patio door has me worried though!

I'm also concerned about the two very tall palm trees in our front yard. You can see the base of one of them in the photo above. I hope they don't fall over and smash through our roof! I've been assured however that palm trees are adapted to tropical environments like ours, and that it takes a hell of a lot of wind to blow them down.

September 12, 2008 - at Fiesta

We went shopping this morning at Fiesta, which is located just across the street from our duplex. We got there when they opened at 7 am, and they were already starting to get thronged.


We only bought the essentials -Perrier, wine, salmon, cheese...and a few nonperishables too.


No surprise, they ran out of tortillas.

The meat shelves were pretty cleaned out too.

We are going to do brunch at home this morning and then tape up some windows. Hopefully we'll be OK in our sixty year old brick house. It'll be interesting to see what happens to some of the newer Montrose townhomes though...they're not made of such sturdy stuff.

September 11, 2008

Above photos taken on Westheimer, between Dunlavy and Mandell: "Take A Hike Ike!" - in the window of American Apparel; "We Are Open" - Hugo's restaurant.

We ate dinner at Hugo's last night, and we were the only customers in the restaurant. I'm certain that we will never again have the entire place to ourselves!