The food is stocked, the supplies are ready, and the yard is secure. I’m ready for a nap.

There’s an odd glow to the half-light outside my window. Earlier, the
streets were deserted when Jay and I went sightseeing. It’s actually
kind of eerie to see a huge city like Houston looking like a ghost town.

I feel much better about weathering this storm (pun intended) for a
couple of reasons, key among them that Rita has been downgraded to a
Category 3. We live on the very far west side of Houston (just east of
Katy), so I don’t think that it’ll be too bad at all. Honestly, what
concerns me most is the chance of tornadoes.

The breezes haven’t picked up much yet. If one didn’t know a hurricane
was coming, one would swear it was beach weather. Jay’s taking his
second nap of the afternoon and the dog is following suit. The cat has
been asleep on the stairs for hours. (I check every now and again to
make sure she’s breathing. Does any animal sleep more than a cat? What
on earth is she doing that makes her so tired?)

I’m thinking a nap sounds good. I’ve been carrying boxes of books
upstairs to put in the office closet, and then Jay and I rearranged the
furniture in the living room to get it away from the windows. We’re
planning on sleeping out here tonight – thank goodness we have such
comfortable furniture.

The food and water has been placed in one central location, as have the
first aid supplies, candles, batteries, walkie-talkies, tool, pet
supplies, important papers and records, laptops, and of course, work I
brought home from my job. This will speed an evacuation if we need to
leave suddenly.

The worst is supposed to be here this evening. That’s going to stink as
it will be dark. There’s at least a small measure of comfort in being
able to see what’s happening. Before I go to bed tonight, I think I’ll
take KTRH’s advice and wear shoes to “bed”. The rationale is that if
windows break you won’t have to worry about cutting your feet in the
dark.

I’m off to take a nap, then a shower. If the power goes out later tonight, or we lose water, I want to at least be clean.

I’ll post more later.