Back to normal

She’s gone.

For us in Houston, she was a flirtation. The bat of an eye, a smile, maybe one close slow dance. But then she ran off with that Beautiful Hill, Beaumont.

No hard feelings, of course. No hearts here were broken. We knew that she would leave us at some point anyway.

We now have sunny skies, and almost no wind. We took a nice bike ride this afternoon, and saw a lot of leaves blown down. A few big branches down, mostly from the brittle trees – Pecan, Chinese Tallow, maybe a Water Oak or two. Everyone is in a very talkative mood. It reminds me of that Churchill quote “There is nothing so exhilarating as being shot without result” We have been shot at, and missed.

Many folks boarded up windows and did other serious hurricane preparation. They were all taking their plywood down today. One couple asked us why we didn’t do anything, as “You live in a glass house!” Just playing the odds, I guess.

Now I just hope that our local NPR station gets back to their regular programming in time for Garrison Keilor.

We lost our cable modem for about five hours. That I can live with. A couple of plants got beaten down. And now we get back to our normal lives.