The hurricane... little did I know what we were getting into moving to the Gulf coast.  Hurricane watches, Hurricane warnings, casual conversations about the areas of low pressure brewing in the gulf... I call them the Hurricane hotline.  It is all consuming for about three months - then Ike.  Now there is a whole new appreciation for those that call this place home.  People remember Andrew, Alison, Katrina, and all the others that have done damage to their homes and lives.  When Rita was coming tons of people fled - just to be stuck on interstates for hours and then nothing happened at home... a lot of people said "I am not evacuating for Ike - look what happened during Rita."  I guess that was good for me; less people on the roads.  Now I am back in Houston all I hear is "Next time I am going to evacuate - instead of living without power."

Everyone you run into asks, "Do you have power?"  Many people still do not. 

I came back to power and never had to spend the night in a hot stuffy apartment taking cold showers, but that doesn't mean that I am not feeling the effects of a hurricane. So that gets to my question; how much has to be restored before things seem normal again?  I don't think Galveston will seem normal for many years to come; but what about Houston?  Obviously it is not just getting power back... grocery stores reopening... fallen trees  being cleared ... gas stations opening back up... shorter and shorter lines... traffic lights working... people going back to work... having food in the freezer... still there is disarray - an eerie feeling.  Yesterday my 7 minute commute to school took 40 minutes!  Every light I hit was working, but there are still some out north of me and there were so many people on the roads all day.  They could be evacuees from Galveston or LA, but is it really the number of people that could effect the roads that bad?  Every building or home that I pass I look for damage - mostly broken windows, downed fences, or holes in the roof - one had a brach sticking straight out of the roof.  That stuff will take longer to repair.

My school seem to act like there was no hurricane - opening for classes just 3 days after it hit - they had power and internet the whole time.  I can picture the students watching the storm pass on the screen while feeling the building shake and hearing wind whistle.  My husband was in the middle of the storm with no power and didn't know where the eye of the storm was... it was hard trying to tell him what was going on around him. 

I guess the best thing is to go about making my life seem as normal as possible and then some day I will just realize that things are just "normal" again.

A friend of mine took pictures of our apartment complex right after the storm -

1. the road

2. my old courtyard

3. my favorite bar

4. my favorite park