The skies are starting to get a little dark here...

[fudge stripe cookays]

and some small scudding clouds. Stiff breeze kicking up a little.

Your friendly neighborhood Rockwall County correspondent, :hi:
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[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. stay safe

Are you well stocked with water, food, batteries, emergency radio, etc, etc?

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. Indeed.

I bought a little bitty generator yesterday. Car's fully gassed- reprehensor's out trying to see if he can find ice anywhere in town.

We don't have a LOT of non-perishable food, but I'm sure we can come up with something. Plenty of bottled water, and I filled up the tub today in case we need it. Bought plenty of batteries yesterday afternoon. We have a little weather band radio and teeny tiny battery-powered TV to see how things are progressing.

Thanks for the good wishes! At least the storm got downgraded a little. I'm not as worried as I was yesterday.

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[Stil]

3. Toss some of that bottled water

in the freezer. It should at least help keeping food cooler.

[fudge stripe cookays]

6. Good idea...

rep came back with 2 large bags of ice. We'll keep em in the freezer til we need em. Hopefully we won't!

I'm printing off tons of stuff from my genealogy files right now. I want to be able to scrap by candlelight if I have to. It will keep my mind off all this!

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[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. I wish I could email you food!

We have foil pouches of Thai and Indian food that doesn't have to be refrigerated and can be eaten cold. Hope you have peanut butter and crackers and such things.

[fudge stripe cookays]

7. Pop tarts baby!

The staff of life. :9 And beef jerky. Needless to say, my dog is hoping against hope that the storm passes through quickly so he can share some of that with us!

I'm not much of a peanut butter gal, I'm afraid.

We have a gas stove, so we should be OK if we lose power. I can whip up some pasta or something. We always have lots of that on hand.

Thanks for thinking of us!
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[WestHoustonDem]

8. LOL -- my daughter's favorite foods

stay safe FSC! We're feeling very lucky here tonight.

[fudge stripe cookays]

10. You too!

You girls don't imbibe too heavily now.

Yeah, it's a category 3 now instead of the monster it almost was, but watch it on the tequila! :P

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[WestHoustonDem]

14. We're on our first round of Rita-Ritas

but we'll be careful. :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast:

[Stil]

12. About sprayed my pop tarts on that one.

Been watching news far awhile picked up some pop tarts tossed em in the oven and came in here to login. Great minds think alike. ;-)

[WestHoustonDem]

13. When this is all over

we should have a poptart party!

[AirmensMom]

4. Say safe, fudge.

Check in now and then. I hope you don't get any damage.

:hi:

[fudge stripe cookays]

11. I'll try!

If the thunder and lightning get bad, won't wanna turn on the computer for awhile.

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[flordehinojos]

9. my thoughts and prayers are with you. stay safe.

[moc]

15. Thanks for the update from the eastside!

:hi: Similar here in Richardson. We've got all the kiddie toys in the shed and the mister found diet coke for our stash to ride out the storm.

I'm just glad to be off the roads. Preston Road was a parking lot and folks are TESTY out there.

:toast:

[muse]

16. We're doing good here in Fort Bend County

Electricity is going on and off, but it's not stayng off. We have candles lit all over the place in case it goes off for good. We have a TON of junk food and I'm sure we'll all gain 10 pounds off this. We'll have to go on a Rita diet next week!

Winds are picking up and we are getting some rain. We are getting the first outer bands. Tonight should be interesting even though we will not get the worst of it.

[WestHoustonDem]

17. Good to hear from you muse! Glad you're okay.

Our electricity hasn't faltered.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

[muse]

18. I came here looking for you, too. Here's my evacuation attempt story.

I was involved in a 13 hour evacuation debacle. I left Sugar Land at 10:30 p.m. on Wed. night and made it to where the Grand Parkway meets I-10 13 hours later - at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday. I only had 1/2 tank of gas left and my kids in the car with me. KTRH was saying that there was no gas between me and Austin (my destination). By that time, the reports were that the hurricane was moving to the east and would not be coming straight over Fort Bend County which was the trajectory when I started my evactuation. So, after 40 miles in 13 hours, I turned around and came back home. I felt like we could ride it out safely here while I could not predict if we could make it to Austin OK or not. It seemed absolutely ridiculous to me that our government ordered evacuations, but did not at the same time open eastbound lanes on I-10 to westbound traffic. There are no words to describe the awfulness of what all of us experienced stuck there on the Grand Parkway. No way to go to the restroom for 13 hours, people running out of gas all during the night, babies, elderly people, sick people, pets, etc. People were remarkably good humored. We basically just parked our cars and wandered around on the road and visited with each other. Every so often we'd start our cars and inch forward. Some people just pushed their cars forward to save gas.

It was a nightmare. I can't imagine what it would take to convince me to evacuate ever again.

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

19. Just got in from having dinner in the West End (downtown Big D)...

...and pretty much a quiet, normal night. Restaurant was not at all busy, but I don't go there often enough to know if that's normal. High clouds have moved in, but nothing threatening yet.

[brook]

20. Stay safe, all of you.

I have not been able to get a call throught to Dallas all day. Just wanted to check on my brother. Did get in touch with my son in Louisiana. He's fine - I was just concerned about rain because he lives on a lake. We'll touch base again tomorrow.

Keep us posted - we'll keep the prayers going!

[Scooter24]

21. I'm right next to you

in Hunt County...Greenville to be exact. :) Hope all is well over there :)

You should have seen the liquor store today. It was amazing to hear how many parties have sprung up around town. :D

Stay safe...

[WestHoustonDem]

22. We may have a tequila emergency tomorrow and

have to switch to vodka.

[muse]

26. A true disaster.

But, that's OK. You'll be saying goodbye to Rita and goodbye to margaritas and hello to vodka drinks.

[WestHoustonDem]

23. Hope y'all stay safe in Hunt County

keep us updated!

[Scooter24]

24. thankyou

:hi: I think we'll be ok. Right now we're hoping the storm doesn't stall over our area like they are anticipating it to do. We need the rain, but not 20-30 inches of it :)

You stay safe as well.

[fudge stripe cookays]

25. You too!

Nice to know there's a DUer in Hunt County!

Ya'll are pretty lonely out there, but the Dems are far better organized than us! Guess cuz it's a bigger county.

:hi:
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[Stil]

27. Looks like Houston

Is at the midway point on this. No problems here. Just one power outage for a few minutes earlier.

[fudge stripe cookays]

28. It's close to 9 AM here.

Steel gray sky, and kind of windy. Threatening rain, but nothing yet.

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