The air is smokey here as much of the brush and fallen tree limbs are being burn from the Hurricane. My asthma is kicking in big time with all the smoke in the air as a result. Some people are complaining as a result of this process of getting rid of Ike's destruction. I'm not too thrilled this way either. Other places are taking their brush and making it into mulch, which I prefer. Many houses are still without electricity in the older sections of town where tree branches down power lines that went directly to individual houses, or streets. Trees did the most damage to the power grid here in Houston. They have the main stations back on line, but it's getting all the neighborhoods back and running due to all the lines and poles that got knocked down. There is a shortage of qualified tree climbers who can go up trees and poles to do the wiring. These are different from the people who were sent down from other states who work on the trucks with cages. These guys can't shimmy up trees. Thus some of them were being sent home causing an up roar here.
Some of the grocery stores are still having trouble getting their stores stocked with certain items. The frozen foods are the hardest hit. You still can't get a lot of items here. There are plenty of TV frozen meals, but few frozen vegetables. We had plenty of tater tots, but those sold out like wild the first day they were put out much to the dismay of my husband who loves them. I got a package of them for him and was going to pick up another the next day and was completely surprised to see they had sold out ! Why out of all the frozen foods did people go for the tater tots ? I saw when I was at the store that day swarms of mothers, men, kids, grabbing those packages. Everyone was replacing those taters and not those frozen green beans ! Now, I never eat the things, but my hubby has them every Saturday for lunch with his sandwich as his treat after he mows the yard with his beer. That is his treat for the week. 12 tater tots, beer, a sandwich, carrots, fat free ranch dressing. That is what hubby eats after he mows the yard every Saturday, and he looks forward to it like clock work. I guess everyone has a tater tot story but me.
Other than the poor souls who are still without power here, My world is back to normal. I almost feel guilty that I never missed a meal, only suffered two days without power before I went over to my daughter's house an enjoyed her air conditioned house, and never really was inconvenienced any by the storm. I look around me and read the stories about the people who had damage to their homes, cars, and those who lost everything and feel real guilty. I don't know if I came through this disaster because of luck or because of some divine plan and how I should feel about it. I do know you shouldn't harp at your husband for not buying a generator when you asked him to two weeks before the storm came in ! ( Remember my blog ! ) Hubby has agreed we need a few more things for Hurricane survival, all of which I have been telling him for years that we need. I think now he won't complain when I come home with a better ice cooler, one which will actually hold the temperature of ice for five hours and not two, a gas stove grill in case they turn off the main gas like they did in some places (we have a gas stove top which meant we could still cook unless for some reason that gas would be turned off, then we would need a portable stove ). We had the radio, lights, batteries, we need more tarps...we saw what could happen. And, we learned it would be good to board up our windows which he wouldn't do because he didn't want to hurt the frame of the house. Better to have to refinish the frame and touch it up than to let watter get into the house from blowing rain like it did, thankfully, the rain damage isn't real bad.
If you live in an area where there can be a natural disaster, take my word for it, do prepare. Don't get caught and believe me when I say, it's worth it, do it now. Spend a little here and there to get your supplies. You can get snowed in, lose your lights, rained in, or what ever, even in an apartment, so be prepared. Ck has taught you how to eat during a disaster by teaching you how many calories you need to survive on and how to eat good snacks. Take those snack plans and make meals out of them. I used my air plane and travel food as my main fuel ideas. I never had to use them, but they are in my pantry ready for the next time !