Monthly Archives: September 2005

71° this morning at seven a.m., a welcome change from recent conditions, when it was at least 82 first thing in the morning. We’ve had our first 36-hour stretch without a power outage at home, too, which is also great. … Continue reading →

Word to myself—don’t drink four huge cups of iced tea two hours before bed time again. We were hit by the rolling blackouts three times yesterday, once in the afternoon, once from 5:45 to 6:45 and again from 8:20 to … Continue reading →

Our house lost power twice yesterday, once in the afternoon and once in the evening. I was working on a couple of book reviews at the time. Aware that an abrupt power outage was possible, I was diligently saving my … Continue reading →

We’re having rolling blackouts in parts of the community to help spread the electricity load. Ironically, this means that areas that didn’t lose power during Rita are now experiencing outages. Here’s what Entergy has to deal with. Gasoline seems to … Continue reading →

Some stores started opening up again. There was a line at McDonald’s this morning and the bagel shop where we often have breakfast was open and booming. The nearby Starbucks was still closed, though. The grocery store opened for part … Continue reading →

Rita missed us. We got some modest winds — not enough to blow the pine needles off our back deck — and a little rain, but so far we’ve had worse rainstorms. We could still get some more rain, and … Continue reading →

I went into work for a while this morning, but we were under voluntary attendance and it was a skeleton crew so I came home after a couple of hours. We spent the day cleaning up stuff from the yard … Continue reading →

Rita is now an immediate threat to our region. Mandatory evacuation for the coast, voluntary evacuation as far inland as the county where I live. Schools and businesses are to close Thursday and Friday. The store shelves were empty of … Continue reading →

It’s half a continent away at the moment, but soon-to-be-hurricane Rita looks to be aimed straight at the Houston/Galveston region. Of course, if you check this link in a day or two or three, the projection may have changed radically. … Continue reading →

Last night I had a reading in Central Park. No, not the one in Manhattan but the one in The Woodlands where I live. It was part of the Books on the Bayou project that got together 18 authors to … Continue reading →