Hurricane Ike  9/12/2008   3:35 PM

Talk about people hunkering down. Ever since Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans & surrounding areas a few years back, any time any type of storm hits near the gulf, people go into panic and preparation mode. This of course is a good thing, but sometimes it may seem like a little much.  That’s probably weird coming from me – the girl who’s “always prepared” and carries “everything she owns” in her purse.  Yea, Yea… But I heard a news report the other day that was warning Dallas-ites to prepare with several gallons of extra water to flush your toilets with – just in case the power to major water plants is lost. WHAT?! I was just concerned if  I would have electricity to power my cell phone, lap top, refrigerator, & radio.  I didn’t even consider not being able to flush my toilet!

It looks like the worst Dallas is going to see is lots of rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph Saturday night into Sunday. Hopefully this storm won’t be as bad as predicted. Although, in an earlier news report this morning Geraldo Rivera was reporting from a’top the Sea Wall in Galveston, TX and got smacked by a giant wave (mind you the  sea wall is 17 ft. tall) and was submerged. And it was still about 8 hours before predicted land fall for the storm. That was just the effects of the storm-surge. Wow.  My prayers are with those in the coastal/Houston area (pretty much my whole family). It’s pretty strange preparing for a big storm when it’s a beautiful blue-skyed minimally breezy day.

I’ll probably be back next week reporting on the remnants for Hurricane/tropical storm IKE.  For now I look forward to spending my weekend curled up reading books (I just joined a book club *nerd voice* and picked up our “assigned” book, The Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell, at the Dallas Library) and watching a few movies.