First, the light stuff. The gig was okay last night. Not as stunning as I would have liked to have been. I flubbed the soloes more than I wanted to. My fingers were sweaty is my excuse (it may have been the hottest show we've had all summer!), but I was also incredibly nervous. Maybe I should have been drinking before I played. I do that at the Spoke and am not usually nearly as nervous there. So, anyway, that is over and I won't be playing for a while. They have a gig Saturday at the Spoke, but I may be on the air during it.

Which brings us to Hurricane Rita, churning in the Gulf as a Cat 5 storm and it has moved into the top 3 worst storms to ever be recorded, surpassing what Katrina looked like four weeks ago before it hit. That is a frightening prospect. There is not an inch of Texas coast that I don't love and I pray for everyone and every seashell down there. I don't have the memories of the Texas coast that I have for New Orleans, but that Texas connection makes me fear for them all. I think, fortunately, there is not the concentration of poor urban dwellers along the coast that there is in Lou. and I hope that helps. This is the only thing is anyone is talking about.

As for us, I was not too concerned about Austin during all of this until yesterday. I knew we would have high winds and rain, but yesterday my friend (the housesitter friend) said that his mother lives in Jackson, Mississippi. They are as far inland as Austin is. When Katrina hit, she was without power for six days. That is a LONG time to be without power. I get really really antsy and bored in 30 minutes without power.

So, thinking of all that, I was ready to stock up. Fortunately, when I got home from the cafe last night (after passing a gas station with ten cars in line), Mark had already taken care of a lot of things. He bought water, peanut butter, too much bread, tarps, duct tape, plywood, batteries. He's thought out what windows need protecting. He bought another kitty carrier in case we needed to control the boys. We have one, but it would get mighty crowded with two little guys in there. So, seeing his preparations, I went back out to the gas station and filled up with the medium premium since they were all out of unleaded and went to the grocery.

I have never been to the grocery store during a time like this. Usually when Austin is in panic that we are going to have a "freeze" I scoff after having lived in really cold places and I refuse to panic and stock up on supplies. This time, there was no water or gatorade, no bread, meat, batteries, STUFF! No, I found plenty of what sounded important to me. I got dried fruit and nuts and fresh fruit and pop-tarts and some cans of beans and cheese. We're ready... unless a tornado takes everything away.

Today things look better for Austin, but no better for the coast. I hate to "hope" for it to hit anywhere, but I'm hoping it will be between Galveston/Houston and Corpus, just because they are more populated. But poor Victoria and Palacious and so many other great coastal cities there.

I hope I'll look back on all this and go "Whew, I'm sure glad none of that was necessary after all" instead of "God, how naive was I?"