Nothing like a little hurricane to keep you on your toes.

Well, the sent the kids home early from school on Thursday.
Then they were out on Friday. BR finally turned the TV off of the news and put it on Rambo. So I went in the bedroom to watch the news.

Boredom and agervation set in right around 7. So we headed over to my inlaws.

BR’s two brothers and their wives were there, plus the parents.
We just went over to visit. They have a front porch and we sit out there and talk. We waited till the lovebugs had went to roost. Sitting outside when they are at their peak and its 95* is miserable. And since they don’t have AC in the living room that was NOT an option.

The kids eventually fell asleep, but we were still talking. Eventually the wind picked up some. Nothing bad, but by then it was nigh on 2am. We spent the evening alternating between sitting out and talking, and coming in to catch the news. Galveston was getting hit badly. At 3:30 the lights went out. We had till about 6:30 for daylight.

For the most part we just watched the wind blow. And blow it did. It was laying the trees down pretty good, and snapping off branches all over. But the porch was situated so the wind was coming from the back of the house.

Bow woke up around 2:30 and never went back to sleep. We alternated holding him, playing with him and entertaining him. Rayley woke up around 4. She wanted to go out in the yard and try to fly. She was NOT happy when we wouldn’t let her. The inlaws do have a HUGE old Oak tree that has quite a few dead parts, and we did worry about it falling and hitting the house.

My sister in law and Brother in law went upstairs to get some sleep. About 30 minutes later their was the most GOD AWFUL bursts of wind. Suzie came back down the stairs right quick. About 5 BR went to one of the bedrooms and went to sleep. He slept till 9:30. He missed all the good parts.

Where we were sitting on the porch, we look out over a pasture, then there is a line of tree’s. Around 4:30 I was sitting on the porch, feeding Bow dry cereal, My father in law and sister in law were sitting there. BR had just gotten up to walk out to the back porch and get a coke. Luke my other brother in law was sitting behind us, in the dog trot playing with his cell phone.

I started to hear a loud noise. It was louder than the roar of wind through the trees, and somehow struck a chord with me. We could see green flashes behind the trees’ and fiqured these were transformers blowing. Finally I turned to Elray and asked him, “is that what a frieght train sounds like?”
“yep, I reckon it is”
and there we sat. For a full 30 seconds. Then it dawned on us. Suzie, Elray and I all jumped up like our pants were on fire and we vacated that porch right quick and in a hurry. We ran past Luke, who looked at us kinda funny, and into the living room. BR came off the back porch asking if we were crazy.

It dawned on Luke what we had done.
Finally Elray went back out and said it must have just been the wind going down the Roederville Road.

So we all took up our positions on the porch again.

When Daylight came we were more able to see the wind. There were times when you had to hold on to an upright to stay standing. But the wind felt good. The house was still in the 90’s.

Around 7 I got ahold of family, and started texting friends to make sure they made it. I fiqured noone was sleeping through this anyway. Everyone was fine. No major damage. Just lights out, branches all over and lots of tree’s topped.

I also started texting friends in other states to let them know I was alive. They were in turn writing me with updates about the rest of the world. Which was so needed. And letting me know just how much more wind we would be subject to. Hours was the general concensus.


There wasn’t much rain. It was constant wind. It was still a cat 2 when it hit us. The kids woke up and then ALL of them wanted to go out and play in the wind. They were not happy about having NOTHIN to do. Brett wanted me to go and wake up his daddy in Mason’s room. I asked him why. He said “so he could at least watch a movie on that TV.”

We told him to just sit and stare at the one in the living room. Something would happen on it eventually.

We went and checked on our house as soon as BR woke up. The wind was still whipping, but we hadn’t planned on staying over there and the dogs needed out badly. If Duke didn’t have a heart attack. We drove over and everything was fine. Duke was already outside. The door was open. Not the screen door, but the real door and the screen was shut. Darla was glad to see us. She was in her cage so she wanted out.

Unfortunatly Ike didn’t get rid of our lovebugs. He didn’t come in till after dark, and they were back in full force.

We went and got our other generator to take to Elray and Martha, I got some bread and lunch meat and we went back over. It was WAY too hot to sit in our house. Even with a fan going. So we opted for the porch, where Ike was still coming through with a few decent gusts.

We stuck around till about dark, then came home and got our generator going. The kids didn’t understand why on earth they couldn’t go and play in the mud. Since there was NO water and our community water has a problem with going out, we didn’t want them getting filthy.

Once we got here, we had no more cell service, and the phones had went out completely. Which is typical. We took showers (there was still hot water) and turned on the TV. The kids got to sleep in the living room and we all sweated. It was awful. I did get to sleep eventually, then Matt woke me up. They had all been watching Movies and BR had fallen alseep. They wanted me to change the channel, cause the show coming on “wasn’t appropriate for kids”. It was some scary movie.

When we woke up on Sunday I asked BR if he wanted to drive and get a newspaper. We did. Lights were out 40 miles up the road. The gas station was open, but the paper was a double edition put out on Friday night. They were running on generators and had nothing left on the shelves.

We were able to catch the radio and it seems like Jasper didn’t get hid badly. Since we actually live closer to Tyler County than Jasper we got what Woodville got and they are in pretty bad shape over there.

They lifted our mandatory evacuation on Monday morning. But are telling people that if you come back its at your own risk. Some stores in Jasper are opening. Walmart is opening for like 8 hours a day. Letting a few people in at a time. And most of our stores are able to get gas, but the lines are LONG and its limited.

We were lucky that I filled up that 55 gallon drum before Gustav. My grandfather, inlaws, and great aunt plus us are all using it. The generators use about 7 gallons every 10-12 hours. Making it very expensive to use them.

BR has been home since Friday night. There was no sense in him trying to haul oil when there were so many cars on the road.

And now he cant do it cause there is no electric to pump the oil off their trucks, and there is noone allowed in Tyler County unless you live there. That’s where most of their wells are.

They cancelled school for Monday and Tuesday. So BR and the kids are watching Movies. I would prefer to watch the news. At least on Friday I could go in the bedroom and watch TV, while they watched Rambo in here. I am considering hooking up the other TV to the generator. They are watching Airplane II right now and its all I can do to not scream. They keep having to rewind it cause they are laughing so hard they cant hear what is happening.

They cant go outside. The skeeters and lovebugs are TOOO bad. Yesterday BR and I went out on the tractor and cut a pine tree off our power line. Between the skeeters and the lovebugs you couldn’t do anything. Our lines are not down, but there are hundreds down, plus all the transformers that have blown. Its going to be a long process. And since we are still paying out the rear for Rita on our electric bills I dread seeing what happens here.
We actually pay for electric, and then half as much again for the ‘recovery effort’ from Rita. Now they will double that for the recovery effort from Ike.

I got about 9 text messages around 3:40 this morning. They had been sent yesterday. I swear, if I ever see Bill Curtis in person I am going to knock the HELL out of him. If they can get AT&T service and ‘find’ the internet at Amelia Airharts plane, surely they can find it here in the middle of Texas.

Its time to fiqure out something for supper. I guess I will get out some chicken to BBQ. Funny how when you don’t have choices, you end up craving something that you cant get.

I reckon I could pull the microwave out of the wall, and then heat up stuff like that. But that’s such a PITA.

Right now we are very lucky, we have a fan going. Can watch the TV, I am alternating between the fish tanks (expect when I plug in the computer) and the fridge and freezer are going. I have a few cases of water, loafs of bread and powdered milk.

This time the Red Cross and FEMA are not in my area handing out food, water, and ice. So its all coming directly out of your house. If you didn’t have it before hand you are hurting for it. I feel sorry for those that were relying on them to come down here.

Of course the laundry is PILEING up. And I am SOOO not into a wash board and creek. I have done that before, and I hope I don’t have to do it again.

THis was written on MOnday, I dont have enough battery power to write my update through today. But will get on later and get it done.