Be Prepared

"It's the Boy Scouts' marching song," for those of you who remember Tom Lehrer. Sorry to be late getting to the computer, but there are still things to put away and gotten under cover.

Thanks to Stormwatchers and this blog, there has be a tidal wave of feedback and inquiries (pun intended). Again, many thanks for the best wishes and the advices. As you can see by the highway cameras at http://traffic.houstontranstar.org, the traffic has diminished. An old friend in Fayette County e-mailed me earlier this AM about the "hundreds of stalled cars" out to the West.

Particular thanks to our European friends, who watch the news just as much as we do, and have sent their regards and wishes for our safety.

It's very quiet in the neighborhood. Barbara gestured me out onto the patio after dinner and said, "Listen." I smiled - no traffic noises anywhere.

For those who are inclined to rail against "the government," especially about the failure to provide gasoline for the long lines of evacuees on the highways yesterday, I offer a counterpoint: Houston and Harris County have done as excellent a job as they can. No plan survives contact with the enemy, sayeth the old military epigram. In this case, the "enemy" is a major threat to the fourth largest city in America...Rita. We learned from Katrina - and now we have more lessons to absorb.

Now that I have blogged, it's time to go take care of the large pile of heavy pine tree trimmings which "magically" appeared in a neighbor's front lawn between our shutting down last evening and my waking up this AM. Don't know where they came from, but we have to get them under some sort of cover. More later.