Thursday, August 28, 2008

Preparedness

Gustav is knocking at our door and we are being told to be prepared. Walter & I are actually more prepared than we've ever been and I'm glad. We have never owned a generator of any sort. We made it through Katrina with no electricity for a week, with only 1 fan and 1 tv. When we built our house, we installed a backup generator that runs on propane and will run most of the lights in the house, refrigerator, freezer, etc. It will not run the air conditioner, but we bought 3 small window units that we can put in different rooms if needed. We have gone and bought cases of bottled water, batteries (for what, i'm not sure), filled up our cars with gas, bought some canned food, although we will be able to cook on the stove or bbq, and should even have internet access, if we hooked everything up right. So, now we just wait. It is my understanding that busses are beginning to bring people from New Orleans to shelters north of Baton Rouge today/tomorrow. Skeery.

Tonight is STEAK NIGHT!!! For my new readers, a restaurant near my house, Hilltop, has the best steak ever and they have a steak special on Thursday nights. Walter & I go nearly every Thursday night with our neighbors/friends, Cathy & Brent. I am excited to go tonight because this was not in our plans! Cathy & Brent were supposed to leave for New York this morning, so we were skipping it and would have been joining them in New York tomorrow. Steak night isn't as exciting as going to New York, but I don't have to fly there and it is really pretty darn good!!

My shirts that I ordered with my birthday gift certificates from Land's End came today! They took a little longer than I thought because I never actually SUBMITTED the order online!! The biggest part of placing an order is actually PAYING for the stuff!! I realized what I'd done and went back and placed the order and it got here really fast! My sista, Kimi, always likes to see my new shirts, so here they are!

I bought a white & a beige shirt like this to wear under other shirts & blouses when it's cooler.



And here is my ever faithful, giant cat, GoGo, guarding my new possessions!


Questions & Comments:

Chelle asked if we could postpone the New York trip and go later this year. I would think so since Brent's boss owns the house. He seems to let them use it whenever they want, so maybe we can go some other time.

Lula asked if I am safe re: Gustav, and I would have to say yes. We don't ever get evacuated from our area, although if there was an evacuation order, I would surely go. I don't think Walter would want to, but if I whined enough, I know he would. I usually start to worry that we should have left during a storm, but our house is safe and I think we'll be fine here. We do live on a river, but that has not caused any flooding or problems in the past. Our house is up on a hill from the water, but there are many low lying homes that will flood in our area. And thanks for asking!

And for Joe...my beloved friend in real life, Joe. Thank you for clarifying that Walter is not a drug dealer or something. I laughed at your comment, but then realized I really didn't know what he gave you! I remember the story and how bad your head was hurting, and it seems like you kept taking that afterwards cause it worked so well. And yes, I remember the other bad story that weekend. I'm not sure I could ever forget! That's a post for another year! LOL

Have a nice night!!

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have fun at Steak Night and I hope Gustav passes you by.

Aubrey said...

Hi Dawn!
Stopping by to say thanks for dropping by my place today! It was a lot of fun "seeing" a lot of new faces! Hope to see you back!

Steak night sounds great! Prob more so that you have a couple of great friends to share the night with.
Stay safe with Gustav coming your way!!

Blog Stalker said...

I hope Gustav skips you and everyone else down there. I want to thank you for the glimpses into your life. Definitely cool blog. I think its great how prepared you guys are, just in case.

Stay safe.

Amy said...

The wait is the worst part of this whole thing. I guess by tomorrow at this time we may know more. Hard to say, they are so darn unpredictable!

April said...

Stay safe during the hurricane. Sounds like you are really prepared.

Michelle said...

Love the new shirts, especially the red one. Pretty styles! Hoping and praying the storm skips y'all. I have been watching the weather channel as much as I can today. Glad you are so prepared in case. Atleast with the water, you're stocked up for a long time hopefully. I saw on our local news this morning that hotels up here are getting prepared for evacuees again.

taratoons said...

I'm glad to hear that you are pretty prepared! I pray that "he" doesn't do much damage. I love you new shirts, too! Eat a bite of steak for me!! Yum!

MBKimmy said...

Glad you got Steak ... not as great as NY, but nice!!!

Stay safe and I will be praying for you !!

Tam said...

Stalked by to say HI! Again I hate Hurricane Season!!!! UGGGG COOL that you guys are prepared! MRE..Military Meals Ready to Eat....yep the one and only time I had to leave was for the Hurricane FLOYD in 99 and MY Husband packed up MRE's to eat...YEPPERs.

HOPE Steak Nite was good!

Aunt Julie said...

Did you know that Land's End is in Wisconsin? Yup, Aunt Julie & Uncle Lynn used to live quite close to the outlet, which is even less expensive when you visit in person! Quick Question: Will you be taking your new wardrobe with you when you flee Gustav? Hope he decides to skip your neighborhood and go elsewhere!

Laura said...

Hi, Dawn! I work for a hospital in Northern LA, so we had meetings today preparing for the evacuations. Very scary. I didn't know there were actually 3 hurricanes, now.

My family and I are headed to Orange Beach at the end of September, so we're praying there is no hurricane and the beach even still exists when our vacation time comes!

Like your blog! Hope you enjoyed Steak Night!

Rhonda said...

Stay safe and nice shirts! if you do have to evacuate you'll be the most stylish evacuee!

Nonnas News said...

Glad you have everything prepared just in case!! Very smart!! I hope you stay safe!! Did you enjoy Steak night?

Unknown said...

How was steak night? That sounds so yummy!

Everyone is worried about Gustav coming here too. It's getting crazy already! Maybe it will go to Texas!

Thanks for posting pics of your shirts for me! My favorite one is the red one, it's cute!

I was thinking that the "runner" was about 16 or 17! Hope you have a good day tomorrow!

oº˚ Homeschool Mom˚ºo said...

We are getting ready for the storm too. Seems to be moving even more our way. Good Luck and God Bless -- Stay Safe.

Lady Dorothy said...

Steak night sounds like a great tradition!

I will be praying that you all stay safe. A hurricane is definitely scary to me. But, I guess we all have "something" -- I live in earthquake country!

Lady Dorothy said...

BTW, your "support group" comment made me laugh! I have had two ladies who said they would come, though! Fun!

cherry said...

OHH steak sounds sooo good right about now...even though here it is almost 10:00. I just wanted to say hi..found u from over at Susies and came for a read. I hope you will be ok with the storm comin you rway, it is good u are so prepared. I LOVE your kitty. We have two. I will be back for a visit. cherry

Briana said...

I'm such a geek - I think it would be awesome to live through gustav. I'm kinda jealous! Will you send some rain to me in Texas??! Please?

Send me some steak too. That sounds good :)

Ronnica said...

I'm glad that you all are prepared. I've never been in a hurricane (tornadoes are more my style). I don't even know what to do (though I'm 2 hours inland, so the storm would have to be really bad to give us anything but rain).

Jen said...

It's great to hear that you are prepared and that the gov't seems to be better prepared for this storm.
Keep safe and God bless you throught the storm.

Rene said...

Dawn -- stay safe!! I think we might be trading prayers right about now too! Thanks!!!