soft landing in the ft. hood area
Hello on a bright, sunny, and warm west-central Texas morning. All of Sea Myst Moon Coven has gotten out of the Houston area and are safe and sound. Valetta and Stacy are in the Dallas area with family. Bruce and I, along with our roomie April, are in Copperas Cove with some of Carolyn's students (Wayne and Lisa) and had a wonderful time in the hot tub, pool, and nice bed. This morning was a good breakfast of eggs, bacon, and English Muffins. We're spoiled on this evacuation.
The mayor is telling those of us who evacuated to stay put until they get the gasoline situation straightened out and some idea of how to get 4 million people back that direction in something better than the way they left. Ravyn, Andrew, and Bunny, with their kids, FINALLY got here last night sometime near 10 pm after 36 hours on the road. They ran out of the gas and there was a great effort by the Pagan community to find them and get gas to them. Then they went back from Tomball to I-45 where they were told the gas trucks were to get filled up. They got some gas and headed out toward Killeen again, only to get into more problems with gas. Carolynn finally had one of her people, who is in the heavy equipment industry, sent out from the Austin area to intercept them and get gas to them and lead them through the back roads here. I'm quite sure they are sleeping and trying to figure out how life goes now. I was so worried about them for so long, especially when it looked like that damned storm was going to stay Cat 5 and jam right down our throats.
Bruce is walking the floor wondering if we need to head back. He's "mission critical" for his company but the Mayor of Houston is saying not to head back and asking businesses not to open so we're going to stay put at least until tomorrow or so and see what goes on. We're wanting to know about our house and how it fared but we're going to have to be patient (at least all of us except Bruce is being patient). April has been a real trooper here, helpful as heck in not only getting organized to leave but keeping up with cats and keeping me calmed down on the drive. She also helped me stay awake by getting simple on the last two hours of the drive and keeping me laughing when all I wanted to do was sleep (a BAD idea when driving). I need 4 water balloons, a lead pencil, and a 6 ft length of hose. Don't ask what the pencil is for....
The other adventure has been the cats. We left Friendswood with 4 cats and a dog in the three cars. One of the cats throws up on trips (April's) and the other is used to being able to be out of the carrier on trips. My two do not take trips and don't respond to carriers well. Morrigan has settled into the whole "well, we'll live through this" thing and went into the carrier ok. Kennan, on the other hand, is a BIG problem. First, we almost killed him by putting him in a Sterilite tote with air holes poked in it and he got over-hot. We had no choice, he couldn't be loose and he was acting stupid. We stopped in Sealy and I built a carrier out of two stacking crates, zip ties, and a bathmat and towel. He got over being hot and got surly.
We let him out that first night at Carolynns and he was ok until we went to put him back in the bigger carrier we got from Carolynn and he went nuts. Feral is the best word. He was totally nuts and kept being nuts. We finally had to open a can of Fancy Feast and drug him with Benedryl. He's asleep in the cage now and we hope to keep him drugged until we come home again Monday. I hate keeping him caged but there's no way I'm going to fight him again.
Next, my oldest son had to spend his storm in an apartment ON Clear Lake because his damned girlfriend would not leave her mother and her mother was being an idiot. He could have been killed and I was horridly worried about him. I finally lost it and cried last night when the storm was coming onshore. He could have been killed by wind blowing that apartment apart or by fire (there were apartment fires and house fires both in Clear Lake and in Galveston.). I know it's his life and his decision but I've got very little respect for someone who will not evacuate when told to do so and this woman's mother is, in my opinion, an idiot and is the responsible party for putting both her own daughter and my son in danger. Of course, my son needs a good smacking for allowing this woman to push his buttons as well (sorry, baby but I have to speak my truth here).
Was evacuating a picnic? Nope, 15 hours in a hot car with upset cats and NO food (we didn't stop to eat, wanting to get gone as far as possible as quick as possible) was no fun. We spent yesterday trying to recover and I still feel horrible. My throat is really, really sore. And I do not regret getting out at all.
Life is going to be better soon. We could have been a whole lot worse place, believe me.
The mayor is telling those of us who evacuated to stay put until they get the gasoline situation straightened out and some idea of how to get 4 million people back that direction in something better than the way they left. Ravyn, Andrew, and Bunny, with their kids, FINALLY got here last night sometime near 10 pm after 36 hours on the road. They ran out of the gas and there was a great effort by the Pagan community to find them and get gas to them. Then they went back from Tomball to I-45 where they were told the gas trucks were to get filled up. They got some gas and headed out toward Killeen again, only to get into more problems with gas. Carolynn finally had one of her people, who is in the heavy equipment industry, sent out from the Austin area to intercept them and get gas to them and lead them through the back roads here. I'm quite sure they are sleeping and trying to figure out how life goes now. I was so worried about them for so long, especially when it looked like that damned storm was going to stay Cat 5 and jam right down our throats.
Bruce is walking the floor wondering if we need to head back. He's "mission critical" for his company but the Mayor of Houston is saying not to head back and asking businesses not to open so we're going to stay put at least until tomorrow or so and see what goes on. We're wanting to know about our house and how it fared but we're going to have to be patient (at least all of us except Bruce is being patient). April has been a real trooper here, helpful as heck in not only getting organized to leave but keeping up with cats and keeping me calmed down on the drive. She also helped me stay awake by getting simple on the last two hours of the drive and keeping me laughing when all I wanted to do was sleep (a BAD idea when driving). I need 4 water balloons, a lead pencil, and a 6 ft length of hose. Don't ask what the pencil is for....
The other adventure has been the cats. We left Friendswood with 4 cats and a dog in the three cars. One of the cats throws up on trips (April's) and the other is used to being able to be out of the carrier on trips. My two do not take trips and don't respond to carriers well. Morrigan has settled into the whole "well, we'll live through this" thing and went into the carrier ok. Kennan, on the other hand, is a BIG problem. First, we almost killed him by putting him in a Sterilite tote with air holes poked in it and he got over-hot. We had no choice, he couldn't be loose and he was acting stupid. We stopped in Sealy and I built a carrier out of two stacking crates, zip ties, and a bathmat and towel. He got over being hot and got surly.
We let him out that first night at Carolynns and he was ok until we went to put him back in the bigger carrier we got from Carolynn and he went nuts. Feral is the best word. He was totally nuts and kept being nuts. We finally had to open a can of Fancy Feast and drug him with Benedryl. He's asleep in the cage now and we hope to keep him drugged until we come home again Monday. I hate keeping him caged but there's no way I'm going to fight him again.
Next, my oldest son had to spend his storm in an apartment ON Clear Lake because his damned girlfriend would not leave her mother and her mother was being an idiot. He could have been killed and I was horridly worried about him. I finally lost it and cried last night when the storm was coming onshore. He could have been killed by wind blowing that apartment apart or by fire (there were apartment fires and house fires both in Clear Lake and in Galveston.). I know it's his life and his decision but I've got very little respect for someone who will not evacuate when told to do so and this woman's mother is, in my opinion, an idiot and is the responsible party for putting both her own daughter and my son in danger. Of course, my son needs a good smacking for allowing this woman to push his buttons as well (sorry, baby but I have to speak my truth here).
Was evacuating a picnic? Nope, 15 hours in a hot car with upset cats and NO food (we didn't stop to eat, wanting to get gone as far as possible as quick as possible) was no fun. We spent yesterday trying to recover and I still feel horrible. My throat is really, really sore. And I do not regret getting out at all.
Life is going to be better soon. We could have been a whole lot worse place, believe me.