Hunkering Down

Couldn't resist the opportunity to say "hunker down" on the blog. We are preparing for Ike. Houston is already virtually shut down -- and it's an odd feeling for a city of 4 million to be completely shut down when, by appearances only, it is a beautiful day. We have plenty of water, food, batteries, and propane for the grill. We took the kids to the park this morning to let them expend a little energy before they are stuck inside. After lunch we'll remove all our projectiles from the yard. Then, assuming it is still safe, we will host a little hurricane party for neighborhood friends this afternoon. Once it hits, we'll hunker down. We have a plan to spend the night in a windowless closet if necessary. We should be plenty safe, and hopefully since our house is new it will withstand the storm with minimal damage. We may be miserable afterwards without electricity, but we've been trying to explain to the boys exactly what that means. (If there electricity goes out, we won't have any TV, maybe for awhile. But our TV will still be right here on the wall, right? Right, our TV will be here, but it won't turn on. Right, but we can still watch the Astros. No, the TV won't be on at all, even for the Astros.) It certainly does look like we are going to finally experience our first hurricane since Cort and I moved to Houston ten years ago.