Well I am still in Houston. I read the Galveston Daily Newspaper and here are some of the highlights:
Conserve water by flushing only when necessary. Do not use water for washing cars or watering yards.
A boil water notice is in effect until further notice.
Water unsafe to drink for another 2 to 4 weeks.
Residents should only use the water to bathe or to flush toilets.
Don’t drink tap water, don’t give it pets and don’t brush your teeth with it.
Here are the complete articles.
Water unsafe to drink for another 2 to 4 weeks.
Essential information when returning to the island.
My work email is finally working 2 weeks after the storm. I had over 40 emails to sift through. That is too much email just for work. Still no word on the water situation.
We had lunch at one of my favorite places, Sweet Tomatoes aka Souplantation.
Here is an interesting place to put a boat that size.
A Boat.
Did a little composing but mostly was playing Diablo II. Played my Druid 1st in Act I which kicks butt. Then played my paladin who is on Act II (there are 5 acts) was awesome during one of the longest quests so far. I have been playing this game during the weekends (and lately everyday) since I bought this game for Jennifer's B-Day in the beginning of August and I am still not even half way through the game. Jennifer is much farther along with some of her characters since it is on her computer and she plays everyday.
I am still up here at Jennifer's. Even though they have now opened the island is it still not ready for living on comfortably. I am one of the few who have electricity in my place but the water is still not drinkable. The few grocery stores open on the island have huge lines to get in. Only a few restaurants are even open. The island is not ready to live on yet. So I what quietly until I can leave back to my 1st home.
I drove down to the island at 5a to avoid the large amount of traffic that will be coming in later. There was a little line up (I was 7 miles away from the causeway) since we were all waiting for the island to open. At 6a the traffic moved slowly but consistently and I was finally on the island after almost 2 weeks later. The main part of the island did not look as bad at everyone describes. I am not talking about the west end that I did not go to because that place is a mess and is probably just as bad as the pictures show. There were boats scattered all over the island near the water. Some just on the side of the road.
My place weathered really well. No breaks in the windows or skylight. I was told that my downstairs (the building's 2nd floor) french doors to the balcony opened during the storm. Surprisingly not much water got in. Some papers I had near the doors were ruined by the water and some leaves and dirt got in. But that is it nothing compared to a couple of my friends who have houses and their places were flooded.
The seawall looks different with the Balinese room and other stores that were on piers are now completely gone. Only the stumps sticking out of the water is was is left of those places.
Downtown from the street looks ok with just windows broken Most of the buildings look fine. Inside the buildings are probably a mess since it was flooded over 10 feet. There were dirty and water ruined clothes on the curbs among other things. The houses down there had ruined furniture on the curb.
It is a sad place and so many people have many of their things ruined. May you pray and think positive thoughts to those who have lost. If you would like to donate, there is now an Ike fund.
Click here to the site to donate.
While Jennifer was at work I did some more composing on my orchestra piece. I also made dinner. I made baked Tapioca fish, couscous, salad with Black Tower wine. She said it was good and that I did a good job.
I have started composing an orchestra piece based on the recent events. After taking Jennifer to work I realized that this was the 1st time I have been alone by myself since all this started. So I was able be with my thoughts and start composing. I have only 14 bars so far but composing a large piece takes time. Usually time sketching out ideas and planning the piece in one's mind. It will have 9 large sections or uninterrupted movements. I kind of know how 3 of the movement will sound. It is just a mater of coloring in the notes to express the sound I have in mind. So it have been a good day.
Made Jennifer biscuits and gravy for breakfast. It is her comfort food and she really likes them for breakfast. Played the video game Diablo II during the afternoon. Then lunch-dinner at Chuy's and we also shared a house margarita which was good. I will still hungry for some reason and Jennifer was craving a coffee so we went to House of Pies. She got her coffee and I got my great tasting Key Lime Pie. Then took her to lab for a bit. Then to my 2nd home.
I also found out the they might be letting people back on the island on Wednesday. It will be a mess so I will be going early. I just want to see my place.
Jennifer went to Melissa's to work out with Melissa and Sara. Then Sara and I went to get Chinese food for everyone. We ate lemon chicken, beef and broccoli and General Tso's. Mellisa and Sara went shopping and Jennifer and I played rock band. Nathan came in and played during his writing paper breaks. We all switched between drums, bass and singing. Not something I would play all the time but it did keep my mind off of things. Then back to my 2nd home.
Took Jennifer to work and I went right back to sleep. (You see a pattern forming?) Got up at noon. Picked Jennifer up around 1p and took her for sushi lunch at Oishii's. Came back to her place. We threw out the rest of the perishable food and cleaned up the fridge. For dinner she made her famous lemon rice soup which is very good.
Woke up and took Jennifer to work and then went right back to sleep. Woke up again at noon. Melissa stayed home working on her poster. She made up some packaged quesadillas. I spent the day playing Mario Galaxy on the Wii. When Jennifer came back with Nathan, we had pizza for dinner. We had a 4 cheese, a chicken and 2 Sicilians pizzas. Around 7p, Jennifer, Melissa and I went to Jennifer's to get a few more things at her place when we discovered that her apartment complex looked like it had power. So we went up stairs to her apartment ad we finally have power. Jennifer was really happy. We went back to Melissa's and got our stuff. It was nice of them to allow us to stay with them during this. Sara is the only one staying with them now . Now she can sleep in the guest bedroom instead of the couch and Nathan can stay up late downstairs on the computer or watch TV without disturbing Sara since she is a morning person.
It is nice being back to my 2nd home.
Still at Melissa's. Jennifer and Melissa went to work and Nathan was here working on a paper. I had cereal and watched news. Talked to Mom while laying on the bad. When I hung up I was relaxing and fell asleep. Got up and picked up Jennifer at work and we went grocery shipping. Lots of things the store was out of: water, bread, milk, meats and frozen foods. We got 4 frozen pizzas and some other stuff. Then back to Mellisa's. Nathan made Jennifer, Mellisa, Sara and I spaghetti which was quite good and watched one of the movies I brought, Freejack. Just another day in Paradise.
Still at Melissa's. Jennifer and Melissa went to work leaving me here alone to entertain myself. Mellisa then went to pick up her husband Nathan from the airport. When they came back we had Rice-A-Roni for dinner. Then I played Wii. This is my life. Get up, eat and watch news, play a video game or read. Then eat lunch and wait for Jennifer and Mellisa to come home. Then make and have dinner. Then played a video game, read, watch a movie or play a card game with everyone. Not very exciting. The only good thing is that we have power. Other parts of this neighborhood still does not have power.
Sara, Melissa and Jenifer went into lab while I played video games. They came back to pick me up and went to Pappadeaux. Checked Sara's place and checked Jennifer's place. Still no power. Back to Melissa's and no power? We had power and now it is off? This sucks. We played canasta. We made sandwiches for dinner. The lights came back on around 10:30p We have power back. Yay.
We woke up and I made Melissa and Jennifer pancakes. Melissa made the turkey bacon. We then went to Jennifer's to get food out of her fridge since her place still has no power. We spend the rest of the day watching movies. Sara came over and we had hamburgers, turkey burgers and bacon.
When it hit us in Houston, the wind and rain was so loud, it was really hard to sleep. It sounded like the window was covered in a plastic bag and that bag was being beaten around against the window. Our electricity cut off around 2 or 3a. We also lost water.
The next morning we had some tuna and cheese bread. We took a look a walk around her apartment. We saw a lot of treas fallen with their roots pulled out. Some of the trees broke through the metal gates. We went to Melissa's to use her charcoal grill for a hot dinner. During the lighting she got power. So we made pizza bread instead. Jennifer and I slept in Melissa's guest room in a cool house.
Watched the TV on what was happening at Galveston at the storm was heading to the island and watching the storm surge flood my city's downtown.
Here it is in motion.
Looks like it really might hit Galveston. I packed my computer, my external hard drive, pictures, my music scores and some special papers box into the car. Covered my keyboards and some other thinks. I covered what I could and left to Jennifer's. I hope my stuff will be ok.
In the afternoon I was keeping track of Hurricane Ike. Galveston College announced they will close after 6 today and close on Thursday and Friday. Currently it looks like Ike (what a name) will hit Corpus Christi but a couple of the computer model predictions has it hitting Galveston. We shall see.