Got Power Back - 9/17/08

...just too busy to post.

couple miles west of downtown Houston, Monday night, looking out my office window. Couple million people out there.

...glad I didn't mail the Netflix.

...please let there be ice cream...

ohh, and don't forget Galveston/Bolivar Peninsula

Gas line

This is life in houston for the time being. No power in the woodlands, but the weather is nice.

woodlands power out

it was a good run. cant complain

west wind now

fewer boards on that side of house. more rain now

slight slackening...

of wind at 5:45. many roof pings and bonks. still have power

Tree down

in our neighborhood. now blogging on phone

Live Blogging Hurricane Ike...4:20 am

woke up from branch landing on roof - that's the sound I've been afraid of. Big winds right now and will get bigger for next half hour at least. Power still on. Something small just fell on neighbors car.
Cat wants out. Maybe not.

weather nerd

The Weather Nerd is serving as a pretty nifty clearinghouse of info on Hurricane Ike. At least until my power goes.

Live blogging Hurricane Ike...waiting

The boards are on most windows, trimmed a few tree limbs away. Stood in awe of the number of trees around our house and cars and decided one of them would fall by morning.

The problem with the Woodlands is that every property has five trees that can hit a house two properties away. It's impossible to guess which one has your name on it. But at least we're not in Galveston. Lord help those people.

9:05 pm and the breeze is blowing. Galveston is already a major mess but the outer bands haven't really hit Houston yet. Local weather says Ike has slowed down. Not good.

As reported elsewhere, we have our first death. I was cutting limbs down this afternoon with my daughters in attendance. Those things fall HARD.

Here #1 daughter patches some roof leaks I've been ignoring.

#2 daughter hands me a nail. Can't imagine why so many end up at the ER.

Live blogging Hurricane Ike - 90 miles north of Galveston

A few weeks after Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Rita tore through the (relatively sparsely populated) Texas - Louisiana border region and made a helluva mess.

It’s easy to forget that Rita was supposed to hit Houston, but broke right, leaving 1 million Houston-area evacuees on the highway.

Now comes Ike. It may break right but for the time being it appears that it could hit Galveston Bay and head straight up Interstate 45.
I’m here in The Woodlands. Note the trees. Lots of trees.

My house. Waiting on those 100 mph gusts!

We haven't had 75 - 100 mph winds for over 20 years. Some of these babies are going to fall. I saw Punta Gorda, FL in 2004. I don't want that.

Summarizing McCain

Waaaay better than I hoped. The crowd helped. He showed good instinct in taking the crowd with him.
Brit Hume and Juan Williams mention green backdrop. Heh.
Rove goes through his checklist. He keeps stats. Cool. 67 paragraph.
So I wasn't the only one wondering what the hell the backdrop was. Oh it was a school.

Sorry I was so slow posting comments. Don't get many of those.

Live Blogging McCain

College night... a little late to the party.

Well, Cindy's never going to project a lot of warmth. The new hair almost makes her look too young and for such an old guy.

The little sincere head shakes seem kind of overdone with the camera so close - too close.

Here comes the video -
Nothing here you couldn't do with a nice home computer
Momma's boy. Okay

First I've heard of his father standing at the North Vietnamese border. Kinda creepy/cool.

"ferocious opponent of pork-barrell spending" Good.

not in it for the glory? Are we sure? "The stars are aligned." Kinda weird for RNC.
________________________________________
Darkness - the voice of God, no, Fred Thompson.

On stage - finger point - wave. The year of the shiny solid necktie.
Not the rip-roaring response of last night....but pretty good.

USA USA. tiresome. tiresome.

In good voice, looks a little nervous and wide-eyed but this will pass. What's behind him? Tara?

No success without a good fight. Nice compliment to other Repub contenders and Bush. Might as well link up with Bush now. BHO will do it tomorrow.

9:18 - sweet compliment of Cindy. Hope he doesn't slap her on the ass when she comes on stage. Sudden interest in her charity work, of which I will admit ignorance.

9:20 - very sneaky reference to his mother's age. Nice....

9:21 - shout out and snaps to BHO.

9:24 - reach out to any patriot...how about the screaming grandmother. "Don't be diverted by the ground noise and the static."

9:25 - stand on your side and not in your way....could do without the "fight" reference. Sounds too Clintonian/Edwardian.

9:28 - "I can't wait until I introduce her (Palin) to Washington." Perfect

- "I understand who I work for." also perfect

9:30 - he fought corruption. I hope he's fighting Ted Stevens. Genuine emotion regarding using the veto pen.
He fought a lot of people.

Wish he hadn't fought free speech quite so hard.

9:33 - Props to David Petraeus and troops. I hope the war is as won as everyone says.

Fight, fight, fight, okay... guess it doesn't hurt.

I don't know. The new stage kind of works for me. It makes him look like late period Sinatra.

- good bit about the deceased soldier whose name I missed.

9:36 - we let Washington change us... we lost their trust.... welfare for oil companies Silence in the auditorium.
- "a culture of life" a clever formulation... "don't legislate from the bench." bloody red meat.

9:39 - I'm not so cool with the kindergarten teacher cadence when talking about Obama. With attendant boos.
- second highest business tax rate in the world....I did not know that.

9:41 - least effective when he talks like he's explaining things to a six year old. He's slipped into a lot of that here in the past few minutes.

- aaaahh retraining - that old bugaboo. We need more nail salons.

9:43 - good poke in the eye of public schools. NEA is already lost. Resent the bad teachers comment - almost never the real problem. "I want schools to answer to parents and students." I'd also like parents to answer to basic sociological requirements, but maybe that's just me.

9:46 - drill new wells offshore (not ANWR). His energy programs sound as empty as ever. "restore the health of our planet". yawn. Maybe the oceans will stop rising.

9:49 - Smack at Russia - good. The only adult on this topic so far. "The brave people of Georgia need our solidarity and our prayers." That's pretty thin John.

9:51 - good bit about his father again. excellent language on stable and enduring peace.

9:57 - "I didn't think there was a cause more important than me." Excellent. Admits that his father's status saved him. Classy.

10:00 - "and they broke me" "no man can always stand alone" Tears all around - horrifying in it's understatedness.

10:01 - all the reasons he loved his country. Painful contrast with BHO and MO. I think he'll get a bump in the polls for now. Now some self-deprecating self-awareness...."so help me God"

- calls for public service or military service...'bout time somebody did.

10:04 - big climax re: fighting. I think he feels it and is feeding off the crowd. Just outstanding. I didn't think he had it in him. Wow.

Now the godawful music.

Postscripts

CNNs coverage seems a little better than Fox at this point. Love Brit Hume but he's talking too much. CNN is capturing the size and energy better.

Love the use of the song "Barracuda". Repubs always have better senses of humor.