Cone of Uncertainty

Doesn’t that make one feel safe and secure now that Gustav is a Category 4 hurricane with winds @150 mph and a Cat 5 = 156 mph? Cat 5 is the worst.

My cell phone rang at about 10:30 tonight putting the fear of God in me, death of a family member, serious illness. It was Jim’s mother, a nurse at the VA saying there were emergency personnel on hand and they’re taking in patients from New Orleans, Beaumont and Houston.

Several oil company reps have said they’re taking personnel off the 3.500 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico (I never imagined there were so many).

So what we’re told (nothing by City officials) is that we’re in the “cone of uncertainty,” which is certain for they can’t predict the storm. We’re told to stay put to only allow mandated evacuees on the roadways but we may be among that number soon and Hurricane Rita let us doubt the effectiveness and efficiency of local, state and federal government in dealing with natural disaster.

Right now we plan to stay until we hear otherwise. Seems like a lot of folks from Louisiana are coming to Texas but right now we have no idea if they’ll be safer here. If it gets bad we may just head west instead of north to Jim’s parents.

We’ll see. Jim’s excited for gyros and will set up the Kitchenaid with the grinder and we’re good to go for at least tomorrow. We still have about 30# of ice in the freezer from Edouard, which never hit except as continuous rain, so if we get another 20# and fill the coolers and I really clean out the frig we may be able to keep things cold if we lose power.

Hey, don’t look at me! I didn’t want to live in the Gulf! I prefer earthquakes and arson-induced wildfires. Or blizzards, whiteouts on the highway. Forget about Disneyland, let’s just check out the weather in various sections of the country for a while. Whee!!! Dee