hurricane

Just a quick note to say that we were far from the hurricane’s path. We didn’t even get any rain from it at all, as we are west of Austin. Just some gusty winds today, but no damage of any sort. It was VERY hot — tropical — and humid today, and they are forecasting a cool front tomorrow that will bring us down to 88. That will feel like winter to us!

It’s coming. Ike is going to hit landfall just south of us during the night tonight.

We’re about 3 or so hours from the coast and 2-1/2 hours from Houston, so we’ll be fine.

We are mercifully far from its real path, but nonetheless, since we are a major evacuee shelter area, out schools closed early today to get people off the roadways when so many are coming here and people were gathering provisions in case of a big storm or heavy winds.

Many of our friends and neighbors are sheltering their family members among the 1 million who have fled this natural disaster.

We’ve been weather-watching for days. We are southwest of Austin, and are only forecasted to get 1/4 inch to 2 inches of rain. But because we live on a mountain/hillside, we always have heavy winds and that, I suspect, will be where we see the brunt of this.

So, this morning, I set about bringing all my plants up onto the back patio area where it’s sheltered and I pushed all the patio furniture against the wall of the cabana. I’m a little worried about my tall, lanky plants, like the Cassia and the new Ancocha Orchid tree.

The clouds were forming, but they may just breeze on by us. These were taken before dinner and now there are none and no rain dropped out of these, in spite of being full of it!

My fingers are also crossed for my DH who is scheduled to fly home on Sunday. He already changed his connection from Houston (which will definitely be down) to Dallas, but the land path projected for the storm will likely make for a bumpy flight as he’ll be flying right toward it. He flies all the time and it won’t bother him, so that’s good. (I, on the other hand, would have postponed my departure to ensure avoiding that lumpy/bumpy plane ride!)

We’re going to keep our neighbors to the south along the coast in our prayers tonight and hope they’ve all gotten to safety.