Power was restored to my neighborhood around 3:30 p.m. today. I was in the shower at the time, soap in my eyes and shampoo in my hair, when I heard the security system screetch like a banshee. It took me a split second to figure out what was going on. Sooo very happy about that.

And my house … “She’s a brick house // she’s mighty mightay…” Our 75-year old girl stared down Ike with only the loss of a piece of gutter, a few shingles, a part of a small tree, and a strip of siding off the big garage. After surveying the damage in my neighborhood, I’m grateful we were basically unscathed. There are a lot of old, tall trees here in Idylwood and quite a few of them ended up on top of houses or garages or in the street. The sound of chain saws buzzing filled the air this morning like the droning of a hundred angry bees.

Sophia home now!

From the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management:

Status of Hurricane IKE at 8AM CDT Friday, September 12:

• Moving WNW at 12mph
• 100 mph sustained winds
• CAT 2 could make landfall as a CAT 3
• Will make landfall West of Galveston Bay Area
• Houston/Harris County will feel Tropical Storm force winds around
  3pm Friday
• Onset of Tropical Storm Winds for South-East TX 9am to noon Friday
• Hurricane Winds South-East TX after 6pm Friday
• Some areas in Galveston Bay will receive 23 ft storm surge
• Accumulative rainfall will be over 10 inches

We’ve decided to hunker down here. I don’t know how prepared we are. I haven’t (and don’t plan to, since it seems to be an utter waste of time and effort) tape or board windows.

I made a grocery run today to Sellers Brothers, a small local grocery around the corner from my house. At 1:30PM today, it was wall to wall people and kids. Fortunately, because they were closing early today and wouldn’t be open again for a few days, they put all their produce, meat and dairy products on sale for 50% off. I came away with some cold cuts, apples, oranges, lemons, pineapple, hazelnut coffee creamer and milk, plus a few other staples. No one seemed particularly frustrated or rude, but heh, it was still early.

The gas station in front of my house was pandemonium, however. Fortunately, I had a pretty full tank of gas and since we aren’t evacuating, we’ll be fine.

Landfall is expected around 1AM Saturday morning. Here’s my hurricane preparedness to-do list:

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Famous line uttered by Cledus Snow (Jerry Reed Hubbard) in the 1970s ode to truckers, Smokey and the Bandit. Jerry Reed, 71, died yesterday of complications from emphysema. Will miss you.

What a great cat. Maybe my fat cat, Sunny, should try this. And maybe I should, too.