Ike’s Visit

'Twas the night before Saturday, when all through the town,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a drunk college students;

The boxes of canned goods and bottled water were stuffed in the pantry with care,
In hopes that Hurricane Ike soon would be there;

The freshmen were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of flying cows danced in their heads;

Ok, now for the real story…

On Thursday afternoon I received word that Friday classes were canceled in preparation for Hurricane Ike, which was making his way to the TX coast – straight for Galveston/Houston area. B/CS is a little bit north west of there, so I was slightly concerned, but knowing that the coast always gets hit hardest, I wasn’t too worried. But, I also didn’t want to be the dumb ass who didn’t pay attention to warnings and got stranded in a raft floating down George Bush Ave with my kittens in my lap. Ha, isn’t that an entertaining picture?

I went to the store on Friday morning, but they were out of bread and milk by then, so I ended up with beer and donuts. I figured I could at least survive several days on that, plus the left over pizza in my fridge. One good thing about being a field biologist in a hurricane I had a small camp stove, an inflatable raft and chest waders ready to go, just in case. Don’t tell me you’ve never seen aftermath pictures of people in Florida kayaking down the street after a hurricane.

So with Friday classes canceled and the storm still not supposed to make landfall until early Saturday morning, what is a group of graduate students to do? Party! We (10 or so lab mates) went out for Jerrod’s b-day Friday night—to Murphy’s Law Irish Pub/German restaurant that no one can pronounce. We ordered large slabs of delicious German meat (with names no one could pronounce), and drank beer-- but you had to go to the Ireland side of the building to go pee, which we thought was rather entertaining. And even more entertaining was the balancing act of drink coasters, salt shakers, and other various items found on the table—yes, this is what graduate students do to prepare for a hurricane.

Before getting kicked out of the restaurant for rolling mini gourds across the tables, we decided to bail and head for P.O.E.T.S. No idea where the name came from, but it was your typical pool hall/bar with Friday night Karaoke, shuffleboard, etc. I saw a game of Big Buck Safari going on in the corner, which reminded me of Amber.

Come midnight, there was still no rain. But one girl’s father insisted that Kyle Field, home of the Texas Aggies, was underwater. It may be now, but sure wasn’t last night.
We finally headed for home, and I went to sleep around 1am, only to wake up to strong winds and pouring rain around 9am.

It rained all day, but really wasn’t too much of a storm. Well, at least not where I was. My kittens were acting bonkers, running around and bouncing off the walls, literally. Now they are zonked out. I went out to see my car, which was washed clean from the rain (believe me, it needed it). Everything seems to be fine, and things will be back to normal tomorrow. Much less exciting than Hurricane Wilma in 2005 when I had to abandon my trailer and evacuate the island, and watch the category 3 storm turn the streets into a river. But I do feel bad for those who had to leave everything behind in Galveston and Houston, and have to return to nothing. Although I don’t feel bad for the morons who stayed and needed to get rescued because they cared more about their personal belongings than themselves or others.

On that positive note, I will end this blog. Until next time…