Prospector

Update 1 - Rita on the way

I don't know if I will be able to keep posting.... situation desperate here...

Just kidding! It is really very quiet. I guess some people left my neighborhood already. The weather will be clear and hot today. Possibly a record high temperature.
Robert and I will be moving to a friend's apartment in Houston. Where I live on the bank of Galveston Bay - along with all of Galveston County - is to be evacuated.

There were some signs of panic beginning. Last night I stopped in at a local pub, the Duck. There were all kinds of interesting rumors. I had considered leaving Robert with SPCA or someone like that. They had announcements on TV telling you where you could leave an animal if they could not evacuate. One lady told me though not to even consider that. She said that one town here had given instructions to euthanize all the animals in their care if this was greater than a category 3 hurricane. That was shocking to me. I don't know if it true, it doesn't really make much sense to me. I don't think I would have left him in one of those places anyway. This lady, an obvious friend of animals, reasoned, "You saw what they let happen to those people in the old folks homes in Louisiana. Do you think anyone would rescue any of those animals if the storm surge comes in?" A tear in her eye, "It's horrible. All those innocent..."
I assured here that I would never leave my cat to die.

There was a line at my regular gas station next to the Duck so I went to another near my house. It is at a convinience store that usually convieniently charges ten cents more per gallon but last night they were the same as everyone else, $2.65/gal (oh sorry, 2.65 and 9/100). They were really missing out on a gold mine.
I drove right to the pump and filled up but when I left there were about ten cars waiting. I was a little concerned as I drove away with a full tank that I had densed out and cut to the head of the line by accident.
While I pumped gas, a lady got out of here car and spoke to another guy filling cans in the back of his pickup.
"How's it flowing?"
"Um, no problem. Uh. Looks okay..." He looked at the pump and looked at his gas.
"Most of'em have run dry down in Texas City. Pumps are closed."
"No not here, s'okay"
"I heard someone got shot over gas."
"I don't know, ma'am. We're fine here." He concentrated on the level of fuel in his can and the trigger on his pump. He didn't want to have anything to do with her.

Texas City is only ten miles down the road from here. It is a fairly respectable city (except for the occasional refinery exploding) so I doubt that they were having any serious problem. It was nice of that lady to tell everyone pumping gas about the desperate situation there though. What good is a hurricane without exciting rumors to wind you up?

posted by Prospector @ 7:48 AM