Rita 2

Okay, enough already with the "worst storm to ever hit Texas" stuff on the news. Good grief. Everybody is plenty freaked out here. Every gas station on the way home from work was full of cars waiting for gas, most stations with the digital price signs had at least one grade of gas with $0.00 indicating, I assume, they were out of that level of gas. I filled up last night with mid-grade, because most of the stations near our house were out of regular.

Sheila and the boys arrived safely in Ft.Worth this afternoon with only one incident. Sheila was stopped for speeding this afternoon. When the troopers (one on each side of the car) asked her if she was evacuating, she tried to maintain her composure (wink, wink) as she told of her husband working around the clock at a Houston hospital caring for the sick and dying, and how she hated leaving him behind, etc... As she was about to squeeze out a fake tear, a young man (it's always a young man) came speeding by at 100+ mph (Sheila's estimate). The one trooper literally tossed her driver's license back in the window, yelling "drive safe" as he ran back to his car, with the other trooper a step behind. Sheila passed them with the poor speeding lad a little further down the road, but not before she realized that he had been caught speeding in a work zone. (For Oklahoma residents other than Steve, who will be VERY familiar with the Texas Highway Patrol regulations, that means double the fine!)

You are probably seeing pictures tonight of cars lined up forever on all major roads out of Houston. Glad my family got out ahead of all that. And they closed Austin's school for Thursday and Friday, which means no bad marks on his attendance record! With more than 1,000,000 evacuating, it's already starting to feel strangely quiet.

Our hospital had 80 patients this morning at 7:00am, and 129 by 7:00pm tonight when I left. All the patients from our "at-risk" hospitals were safely evacuated, and the hospital is well prepared for the worst.

Spoke to Austin tonight, who had 87 questions about this contingency and that probability. Tried to answer them all patiently and thoroughly, because I know he is going to be anxious until he gets home to see for himself that the house and I are still standing.

Shelley, whom I adore more tonight than ever before, is anxious too, but tired and busy being brave for the boys. If I could tell you only one story about her that would shed the most possible light on her personality, it would be this. Sunday night she started freaking out about the storm. Monday, after printing hurricane preparation tips off the Internet, she had a sit down planning meeting with me to get our important documents in order. Tuesday am she went to the grocery store, Costco and a number of other places until she felt like she had all the necessary supplies. Tuesday night, after I told her I had to be at the hospital all weekend, we decided she would leave with the boys Wednesday. So up to the attic to get baby pictures, clothes worn when we brought the boys home from the hospital, all precious keepsakes. Wednesday she picks Austin up early from school and leaves Houston, fully prepared to never see her house and her belongings again. But not before she vacuumed all the floors. I suspect if time had been a little shorter, she might not have vacuumed, but I can't say for sure. And that tells you everything you need to know about, and why I so love, my Shelley.

I'm packing clothes to last through the weekend tonight to take with me to the hospital. I expect to be able to come home tomorrow night before spending the next 2 or 3 days at the hospital, but can't be sure. Brought in all the stuff from outside (lawn furniture, potted plants, bird baths) and put it in the garage. We had a lot of stuff outside, I decided!

I am hoping to be able to blog throughout the storm, as several administration computers will be running off the generator even in power goes down, which we all expect. We'll see how that goes.