Ike's Visit
I lost my bet with Loren. The power went out at 1:10 am, only 20 minutes before the time when Loren supposed it would go. I guessed 11:30, so I was way off. :) We didn't, as I suggested, immediately break out the left over chocolate ice cream from the freezer. Pity.
By this time, the wind had picked up a lot, and it was raining hard. Staring out the window was almost irresistible at this point, even if all we could see were the shadows of trees whipping in the wind. Some places in Houston must still have had electricity, for the sky had an eerie gray-yellow back glow to it. Sleep was elusive. Too much nervous energy, really, coupled with a lack of information now that the power had gone out. We slipped in and out of consciousness and woke often, each time to the warm, stale air that filled a house that was all shut up with no air circulation.
We had set the alarm for about 5:30 am, some time in the middle of the period we knew the forecast had specified as having maximum winds. I woke up to the alarm, groggy as could be, having slept as well as if I were in the middle of the woods with no mosquito netting. The howling of the wind outside the house stirred me to action, though. I peered cautiously out the back window: some horizontal rain, lots of trees bending to and fro, and the omnipresent howl of the wind. That was the "safe" side of the house, though.
All the action lay at the front of the house, where the pecan tree loomed over us. Again, I peered out the window between the mini blinds. It seemed to me that more sky was visible between the branches of the tree...perhaps we were missing some branches. The street was completely flooded, and the rain was pretty much all horizontal. That was all the impression I allowed myself in the 15 seconds I looked out the window. The pecan tree's remaining branches waved about all too ominously.
Satisfied that the house was intact and that we were safe for the time being, we went back to sleep, or at least what passed for sleep the night of Ike.
By this time, the wind had picked up a lot, and it was raining hard. Staring out the window was almost irresistible at this point, even if all we could see were the shadows of trees whipping in the wind. Some places in Houston must still have had electricity, for the sky had an eerie gray-yellow back glow to it. Sleep was elusive. Too much nervous energy, really, coupled with a lack of information now that the power had gone out. We slipped in and out of consciousness and woke often, each time to the warm, stale air that filled a house that was all shut up with no air circulation.
We had set the alarm for about 5:30 am, some time in the middle of the period we knew the forecast had specified as having maximum winds. I woke up to the alarm, groggy as could be, having slept as well as if I were in the middle of the woods with no mosquito netting. The howling of the wind outside the house stirred me to action, though. I peered cautiously out the back window: some horizontal rain, lots of trees bending to and fro, and the omnipresent howl of the wind. That was the "safe" side of the house, though.
All the action lay at the front of the house, where the pecan tree loomed over us. Again, I peered out the window between the mini blinds. It seemed to me that more sky was visible between the branches of the tree...perhaps we were missing some branches. The street was completely flooded, and the rain was pretty much all horizontal. That was all the impression I allowed myself in the 15 seconds I looked out the window. The pecan tree's remaining branches waved about all too ominously.
Satisfied that the house was intact and that we were safe for the time being, we went back to sleep, or at least what passed for sleep the night of Ike.
posted by Pascal Mickelson at
16:11
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