Lets see, where to start. I had a stomach bug, which pretty much ruined my weekend, and then there was this wind and rain thing... We cavalierely thought it really wouldn't be that bad, all the predictions had the storm hitting the central coast, then going NW. And by the time I could actually make a logical decision about evacuating, I was in no shape to drive very far, I couldn't stay vertical for more than 1/2 an hour. So I policed the yard, rolled down the storm shutter, and went to bed. And yes, I slept through most of a hurricane. Lost power this morning around 8:30, would read, listen to the radio, drink water, and nap. Oh, and I obeyed the demands of furry beasts to feed them. And they helped me nap.

Around 5 pm, I noticed my porch light was on - ELECTRICITY! Closed the windows, turned on the a/c, and started resetting things.

I lost one piece of soffit - found it, and tucked it behind the shrubs, my rusty gazebo is still standing (has multiple guy-lines ), some branches down. Basically some very minor damage.

We're still supposed to get rain as the southerly winds come up from the Gulf, and it's still pretty windy out.

Thank you for the good juju, butterflies, and sending the DRY northern winds that sheered the west side of the storm off. I think it was only a Cat 2 when it came on shore.

The northern part of Louisiana and east Texas are about to get hit hard.

My office is closed for the next couple of days while the powers that be assess damage and make assignments. And maybe this time the owner of the breached levee in Plaquemines Parish won't argue when we want to fix it. After Katrina we (Uncle Sam) had the authorization and funding to repair all the levees in the area, federal, local, and private. One owner fought us tooth and nail.... Who would turn down FREE repairs? At least the press states that it's a private levee - what they haven't said is that the levee is a pump and drain levee, and not a hurricane levee. An 8 ft levee won't hold much back. grrrr

OK, calm thoughts, LBTC's happy butterflies flitting about in the light breeze...

And since my garage flooded in Katrina, I rolled my two new bikes (post-K) into the guest bedroom, so their pretty little tires would stay dry. I do have some of my priorities right. One bike I bought when I was evacuated, my Breezer; and the other survived the flood in the attic of a bike shop, my Specialized. So neither bike suffered the indignity of being flooded, and I plan to keep it that way. And once the wind stops blowing, I'll take them out to play. Maybe tomorrow, if it isn't raining....