Friday, September 26, 2008

Hurricane Ike




On September 11, 2008 Mom, Jim and I loaded up the pets and evacuated to Fort Worth. We beat the crowds on the freeways by leaving early. (In 2005 it took us over 20 hours to reach Fort Worth.)
This time it took just 4.5 hours to get there.

I was hoping that it would be another false alarm, like Hurricane Rita in 2005. But, on 9/13/08 the hurricane hit Galveston straight on and then headed right for Houston.

We stayed at my cousin, Rosemary's. She let Jim and I use her bedroom. The 2 kitties stayed in that room the entire time. The dog just slept in there at night with us. Mom slept in the guest room. Rosemary slept in the guest room, family room or Tommy's room.

It was difficult on Mom. She had to climb the stairs every night to go to bed. We had to help her up and down each day. Plus, we had to carry up her toilet lifter upper seat.

Rosemary did far too much cooking for us. I kept wanting to take her out but she kept wanting to cook. By the end of our stay on 9/21/08 she was exhausted. After all, she's 75 now.

We returned to Houston on Sunday,the 21st. We got power back on the evening of 9/23. I'm so glad that we only had to spend 2 days without power! I had so much housework to do but it was too hot. We borrowed a generator from our friend, Jimmy. That just ran the refrigerator and a fan.

Luckily, our house survived pretty well. The roof over the garage has some damage, the fence in the back is partially down and we lost lots of tree limbs. The pictures show all the tree limbs in front of our house and down the street.

Bull-riding!



Jim and I got into the action in Fort Worth Stockyards and did some bull-riding.

Fort Worth




Jim and I went to the Stockyards when we were staying in Fort Worth. It's quite the tourist attraction. Twice a day cowboys drive some longhorns down the street. The streets look old time-y Western and there are some cute shops.

Family is great!




Rosemary is the daughter of my father's sister, Lucy. My dad had 6 sisters and 1 brother. Aunt Lucy was the closest to my family. She and Uncle Joe came over frequently to play pinochle. Rosemary was already an adult by the time I was born.

She has 2 children, Cyndi and Tommy. I knew them as I was growing up but we didn't get together very often.

Cyndi got married after I had already moved to Houston. She and her husband, Larry moved to Fort Worth. Her mother and brother soon followed and made their homes in Fort Worth, also.

When I was growing up, there were lots of Calabria family parties, weddings, funerals, etc. I missed all these gatherings after I moved to Houston. It's so nice to have family close by (relatively speaking-for Texas) again.

Rosemary welcomed us into her home during the Hurricane Rita evacuation in 2005 and again in 2008 for Hurricane Ike.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Rosemary!!!!!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!




I GOT CAPTURED IN LAS VEGAS:

The Borg got me!

Look at Jim - he was happy to be turned into a borg. I tried to escape.