Houston Proud

Know what is making me Houston Proud? The looting. It started prior to the damn storm.

HOUSTON -- Thieves targeted a dozen parked cars in a downtown Houston parking garage Friday, KPRC Local 2 reported.At least 12 vehicles in the garage at the Post Midtown Square Apartments, located on Bagby at West Gray, were broken into.A resident blamed Hurricane Rita, saying there is less security than normal."When I got up, I wanted to come check on my car to see if there were some good spots. I wanted to park on (a more protected) side to keep my car away from the opening. And when I came up on my bike, just riding around, there's a police officer here. There was a Hummer (with the) glass broken out and a bunch of people out here and I just asked, 'What's going on?' and they said about 12 cars were broken into," resident Kevin Hicks said.The thieves took a variety of items -- from stereos to laptops to anything else of value.The crooks broke windows and locks to access the vehicles and their trunks. A cloth convertible top was sliced open."So many people are leaving town -- they're getting friends to drive them out, or otherwise, friends are coming here to ride out the storm. There's just a lot of cars, so I guess it's just an invitation to those who would like to break into cars," Hicks said.He said that car break-ins have never been a problem in the garage before.
( more looting info )

We are getting very little rain, and the wind is gusts of 30 MPH tops. Not bad at all. My sister is hoping for more rain, but I don't really see it happening.

I sincerely doubt we are going to get anything uglier than this, and I am grateful. It is actually a very nice night to sit outside and have your hair blown silly and enjoy the cool breeze.

Dumbass Cats

The kitten, Bodhi, is apparently dumb as a box of rocks.

Fini has been telling me one of the cats has poo problems, you know...the shits...

I hadn't noticed, but she is much better about cleaning the cat box than I am.

Just now upstairs I hear her yelling at him, "No Bodhi! You dumbshit! No!"

He was eating the handsoap. A bar of soap. In his defense it is oatmeal soap. Not in his defense: It is friggin' soap.

Voice Post: Marilyn's "Hurricane Rita" voice post #1

Voice Post: Marilyn's "Hurricane Rita" post #2

Anitclimatic Aftermath

Heavy Photo post (shrunk so as to not take up to much space) and cut for your pleasure.

( Before and after pics )

Like the phone posts said, the wind never really got that bad. I got a little nervous for a while around 3 AM and made Connor get out of his bed that was by a window.  I kept setting the alarm on my phone every hour so I could wake up and assess if we needed to move downstairs. I am a really hard sleeper and was afraid I would miss the warning sounds that woul alert me that something ugly was about to happen. Needless to say, I was exhausted this morning and have done quite a bit of napping ever since.

I sent text messages to lots of people to let them know we were okay and still here.

My sister was up right before me and went outside to photo the limited damage. I grabbed cam and took some too when she was done.

( Anticlimactic Aftermath )

Rita in NW Houston

My mother snapped a few pics ofRita sky. She is about 19 miles from us in NW Houston.

 

This one is arounda quarter to 10 AM this morning            This one is almost 7:30 last night.