This is going to be an extremely long post, so forgive my verbosity.

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That’s an evacuation order. Well, I don’t scare easily but this one’s got me spooked. Earlier today, I attributed it to doomsday media hype. But when I learned from the NOAA web site that Rita was predicted to become a cat 4 at some point in the next 72 hours, I ratcheted my worry up a couple of notches. With Robert’s paralysis, I cannot afford to wait until the last minute. I let my flood and renter’s insurance lapse because we simply couldn’t afford to pay the premiums at the time; I’d just shelled out a huge copay for a hospitalization of his.

So if between now and Thursday afternoon, the thing grows to a cat 4 [Update: Rita was just upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane moments ago, 6:45 am CDT, 09-21-05 She's now a raging bitch of a cat 5 as of 3:33 pm CDT, 09-21-05], Robert and I have made plans to load up the Honda with our laptops, my monitor, my cat, the wheelchair, some clothes and food and water and head for the Hill Country. My brother’s house hasn’t sold yet and I just spoke to my niece and she said just come get the keys, you’re welcome to stay as long as you like.

Tonight, I went to the grocery store and stocked up on canned beans, tuna fish, paper plates, paper towels, zip lock bags, leaf and lawn bags, and cat food. Portable cat litter pans, like we use when we travel with Sunny and which normally are in abundance at my neighborhood Kroger, are completely gone, as is every kind of water, both drinking water and distilled water. But I spent most of yesterday evening making “Brita” water in my pitcher and we have several gallon containers in the freezer and four down below. Plus, I plan to fill my bathtub with water for bathing.

I hope we end up at home this weekend, eating tuna fish sandwiches and laughing about how silly we were to freeze four gallon containers of filtered water. I hope.

Check out these great cat videos featuring Smiley Muffin the cat. (There are some other great videos at channel102.net, too, but these are, IMHO, the best ones!)

I’m furry, I’m pissed off and I want you all to kiss my pouch!!

Picked this photo essay up from Me-Fi. Take the time to pore over the almost 200 personal photos - this is indeed a photo chronicle of the days immediately before, during and after Katrina hit New Orleans. The commentary itself is interesting and the emotional changes the photographer goes through as he experiences this hellish incident are disquieting.

This writer had laid the groundwork for a what-if book about the likes of Hurricane Katrina and its effect on New Orleans. If only someone had listened.