So, things here at the Casita were quite relaxed during the run-up to Hurricane Rita. On Tuesday, I made the decision to not evacuate unless it got REALLY bad, and Thursday morning, the traffic snarls headed out of Houston confirmed my decision to stay in place. I had a couple of guys who were wanting me to help them understand what to do, and the hooker was totally reliant on me to save his big butt.
Thursday morning, listening to Mayor White scared the living crap out of me. Then, I logged onto the computer, and checked out the tracking map and the advisories and felt more settled. The dogs were frantic on Thursday.
Had a knock-down, drag out conversation with my sister on Thursday afternoon, after I took the hooker back to his place in Pasadena to pick up his scooter. She was insistant that I should have left for Dallas or Corpus Christi - never mind the traffic or the fact that Corpus was under a mandatory evacuation order. Came home, talked to David (my neighbor) about what we were going to do, and mapped out a plan for staying here.
The hooker never showed back up on Thursday.
Friday morning, the hooker sent me a text message asking me to come pick him up (again) and I told him he should have ridden over on his scooter as planned. David and I went to breakfast at Lankford's - then to Spec's to score some supplies - then had lunch at Lankford's. People were unconcerned. We checked out a few more things and then, around 2:00, I went to pick up the hooker, who was about to come unglued.
David and his boyfriend came over around 5:00, and hung out the rest of the night. About 1:00 a.m., we were confident that we would have very little weather where we were, and they went back to David's apartment. I went to bed. The hooker stayed on the computer, chatting.
Got up Saturday morning, made breakfast for everyone, watched "Roger the Rabbit" cartoons. By this point, I had done six dishwasher loads in three days, and had cleaned the coffee table about five times. The hooker slept until past noon, and then wanted me to take him BACK to Pasadena. At this point, I was ready to unload him, so I drove him back there lickety-split. Saw the "damage" on the east side of the county. It was small tree limbs, badly constructed car ports, that sort of thing. No roof damage. No flooding.
The hooker hopped onto his scooter, and said he'd be along in an hour or so. It's now twenty-eight hours later, and he's still gone. Let's keep it that way for a few days.
Came home from a GREAT session at New Vision, fooled around a bit, took a nap, then had dinner with David and Marc, and then a drink or three with Mikey at EJ's. Jarred was there, looking like a hundred million dollars in loose cash, and looking VERY put upon that his "girlfriend" was there waiting on him.
Poor lad.
Been looking online at concrete building plans - trying to research how one builds a hurricane proof house. I found an article about Bob Villa building one in Florida; and then found a blizzard of plans online - one REALLY makes me happy. It's gorgeous, it's huge, it's perfect for entertaining, it has a home theater upstairs, it has a three car garage, and it can be made into a self-sustaining home, from an energy standpoint.
And, the lot that Lisa and I used to walk by in River Oaks is listed on HAR. WHOOP!
So, back to work on the processing manual tomorrow, the four closings I'm working toward, taking Ruby back to NTB and challenging them on the coolant they used when replacing coolant a week ago, and ..
No comments:
Post a Comment