If you are reading this it is either random chance or you know me or want to know me better.

Ok - weather update from Texas as of 3 pm texas time

Did I sleep - no, not until about 4 am. Got up at 10. Wind all night and morning...some gusts but not what they predicted. Wind chimes played all night and morning long. Nothing blew away but then we secured everything pretty good. Did we get rain...not enough to even wet the ground so I may have to water darn it.

At this moment we are now deadly calm with big flat sheets of grey clouds over us. We are hoping for rain and it feels like it the air feels heavy like its full of water but it will probably all head northeast of us. We may have more rain later (tho it went from being 70% chance of downpours to 20% chance of scattered showers in 24 hours). It hit the coast pretty hard but nowhere near the amount everyone thot, which is not to minimize how bad it will and is for some who stayed or who lived on the beach.

SIDE NOTE: Dealing with evacuees has been interesting to say the least. Most are extremely polite. I had one guy ask me where the nearest Starbucks was. I had to tell him that um...no we just have regular coffee here but the store has 'flavored', the next 'civilized coffee' was in Bastrop....back the way he came, and they only had ONE store. Go figure the barbarity of it all! But I live in a SMALL TOWN, we don't have Starbucks or malls here yet thankfully and I live close to the border on the city limits. The only place like A&W is Dairy Queen. The only other all nighter is the local 7-11 where all the kids cutting curfew and the drunks hang out...oh and what very few gang memeber wannabes show off their new cars and tatoos and hope that their mothers don't find out.

Had people come and ask me where the nearest hotel with vacancies was and get angry because I didn't know. Hotels around here have been full for a week. I just looked at him as I bagged up his 'to go' order and said..."Inland maybe." I did tell him his best bet was to pull off and sleep in his vehicle, he was from a coastal town, had got everyone else out and was the last to leave. He'd been up for almost 2 days. I hope he got to his family ok and took my advice. Constant parade of cars reminds me of Bay Area gridlock at rush time during right before game time when the 49's or Raiders were playing the World Series or whatever. A 45 minute drive could easily be 2 hours.

Lot of evacuees here are starting to go home today tho Houston won't let anyone in. Officially they are turning everyone back and the hotels are full still I am sure, so I'm looking forward to more frustrated travelers at work the next few days but we will do our best to accomodate them and be patient.....(sighs) after all we ARE a family owned and run restaurant and it is one of our selling points..

REMEMBER - the media is in the business of making money so what you see on tv is geared to make you watch. Like the Loma Prieta earthquake - initial coverage was centered mainly on the marina on fire (4 or 5 apartment buildings along with lots of other buildings which had collapsed). All of San Francisco was not on fire or had fallen into rubble collapsed but because of the media portrayal, many people believed it to be so. We are ok at this point but leaving our cell phones fully charged and open for emergency incoming phone calls from other points around us,assuming that the towers around us are not damaged, not to mention work. Internet usage is very slow and sporadic but that just might be traffic.

Currently we have electricity and have had no interuption. Again not to say that we won't but it looks like it's been a non event for us.

Pass the word on, and thank you.

Kate