After the Deluge, the Dishwasher is Good for Something

2:10 PM Sunday
Power has been on here for a little over an hour now. I think it is safe to disconnect and the generator and put the cords away. We had three false starts with the power - once last night around midnight, on and off within a minute, and again twice this morning. It came once more about 12:40 and has stayed on. So we are ready to start getting back to normal.

A cold front came through about 5AM this morning and dumped a ton more rain on us. In fact the streets flooded worse today than yesterday. Water was about half way up our yard today. Yesterday it was only over the curb. I took some early morning pics, not too great, as I did not pay attention to the settings. But you can see some trash bags of tree debris floating around on the street.

Once the rain stopped, we got out and cleaned up the front yard. Raked all the pine needles, leaves, and twigs; cut the larger branches into small pieces; swept the front walk a bit; cleaned off the cars. we haved a few larger branches that will need to be sawed into pieces for the trash service to pick up. Not sure about the fence, will look into that Monday I guess. Got to get my car in to get looked at as well. On the way to Luling, Chris plugged in the converter for the little car TV and some circuit blew. There is no radio or data screens working. The A/C has been making noises anyway, so it is a good time to get it in.

Since the storm this morning dumped more rain on us, there are tons of roads and intersections under water and lots of people still without power out on this side. Cy Fair is keeping schools closed till Thursday. So I have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to get stuff done. And I know Glencairn (where Watkins is) still is without power. Even if all schools had gotten power today, it would have been hard to open on Monday. All the cafeterias have been without power for 48 hours at least, so that means no food. There are so many ancillary things that need to be in place just to have school. And all buildings have to be checked for damage, and then repaired if necessary.

Thirty six hours is the longest I can remember ever going without power. It is utterly amazing how much you find yourself paralyzed because so many things you do are tied electricity. I found myself digging stuff out of the garbage disposal a couple times, can't use it without power! I was happy I had a stovetop coffee pot and remembered how my mom used to make coffee, the old-fashioned way! I tried to boil water first and just pour it through grounds in the coffee filter in the coffee maker. That took way too much time and got grounds in the coffee. So I made it in the stovetop pot and just strained it through a big strainer I have. I broke down last night, too, and did dishes by hand. They were kind of piling up in the sink, in hopes that the power would come on sooner. So the useless dishwasher was not so useless, serving as a great drying rack for the dishes.

Watching cable TV now with footage of the devastation on Galveston Island. Bolivar and Crystal Beach look horrible. A flyover of the west end of the island is painful. Some houses still standing on their pylons, others with the pylons still there but no house. And water EVERYWHERE. A marina in LaPorte has boats in the parking lot. Boats in the middle of the road in Seabrook. Reports of boats on the causeway (I45) going into Galveston. The boardwalk at Kemah is no longer.

I added the bad pics from the flooded street this morning. Apologies for the poor settings. I was a little sleepy. More in the coming days! Thanks for all the positive thoughts and prayers. All is well with the Ostermans today.