Harvey (Day 2)

I awoke Friday morning hearing a little wind but no rain drops on the roof.  The eye has traveled North of us already, the winds have switched to reflect that and our forecast for both wind and rain has significantly dropped.  Although many people are still right in the path of the hurricane it appears that this time we have been spared the worst of what is shaping up to be a terrible situation.

That said, we have tried to fill our 2 bathtubs with water to assure emergency water supplies (in addition to the bottled water we have) and have discovered that both tub stoppers that we have do not actually hold water.  (whoever stops the tub if you’re a shower guy?) In the future (if there’s a delay in the sale of the house) we’ll seek out a more reliable drain stopper for the tubs.  (One full of water for drinking & one full of water for flushing in case there is a problem with the water supply — as has been the case for other Texas friends in previous hurricanes — coincidentally I have heard some funny stories about people making coffee from bathtub water and from the water in the toilet reservoir — which idea while sounding disgusting is probably not as bad as it sounds!  Unless of course you use those blue hockey pucks to clean your toilet bowl!  Yuck.)

To be honest the bigger concern I have is the issue of power outage potential.  We have learned that we do not fare very well in the temps/humidity we are experiencing. Earlier in our lives I think we could have managed quite nicely, but no longer and the idea of being without air circulation/air conditioning is more scary than the idea of not being able to cook (in our all electric home) So far we’re looking to be ok and all we can do is wait out the reality of what shall be.  Not good to spend your time worrying about what ISN’T going to be.  Be prepared as best you can and then just live it.

Right now the media are having a field day, of course.  As much good as The Weather Channel and other media do, there is no denying the fact that they make a bigger profit from creating a frenzy that will keep viewers tuned in so their advertisers can sell them all sorts of things. In particular I was rather disappointed at one video The Weather Channel was running which took all the most explosive words out of the National Weather Services communications and lumped them all together into one video that was clearly designed to spread fear.  There have always been problems with media pandering to our baser instincts for the sake of profit or advancing their agenda — and every media outlet has some agenda no matter how much they may seem to agree with your own personal viewpoints.  Agreeing with you doesn’t make them the best media, it only identifies their bias.  Which is all the more reason we all ought to balance our news sources so that we get a little bit of every side so we can judge for ourselves what we think to be true.  (Notice I said, “what we think to be true” — because just because we might agree with the point of view does not guarantee it’s accuracy — we all make mistakes and we all hold some invalid viewpoints.)

So, cooped up in the house for a couple/few days we’ll try to maintain a sense of balance and optimism.  And to be of assistance to anyone nearby that we can help.  But the storm (so far) appears to be light enough that no one here has structural damage and we’re happy for that. May it stay that way over the next 96 hours.