Hurricane Ike / 911 / "Security Check Points"

um...so i got in today infuriated at what i witnessed this morning driving out of my community. i was going to blog about it, but have not had time, and in all actuality i don't have time for this even. long story short, there were roughly 30 constable cars in a 100 ft radius doing a security check point. it literally looked like there was a mass murder that had just taken place. i was a little concerned as i pulled out onto the street, i rolled down my passenger window and inquired to one of the 8 constables that were standing in this one area if everything was ok. they all just stared at me wordless, and shoo'd me on. wtf?! then once i crossed another intersection, i saw what was going on. there were 10 tow trucks lined up from 1 tow trucking company. bastards were setting up a trap. i will write more about it later. anyway....

just a quick word about the 7th anniversary of 9/11. regardless of what any of us believe was the cause of this, it is a fact that massive amounts of people died that day. keep them in your thoughts today and maybe throw out a little prayer here or there if you go that route.

i'm actually getting a little nervous about hurricane ike. i just read this on bloomberg :

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Ike tripled in size in the central Gulf of Mexico as it churned on a weekend collision course with the 5.6 million residents of the Houston area, where coastal communities prepared to evacuate.
The system's strongest winds extend as far as 115 miles (185 kilometers) from the eye, up from 35 miles yesterday, the Miami- based National Hurricane Center said today. Ike's wind field is now larger than that of Katrina, the storm that devastated New Orleans in 2005, said Jeff Masters, the director of meteorology at private forecaster Weather Underground Inc.
``The total amount of energy is more powerful than Katrina, so we could be seeing a storm surge that could rival Katrina,'' Masters said. The storm is so large ``the location doesn't matter much; it is going to inundate a huge part of the Texas coast.''
Galveston, parts of southern Houston and areas south of the city and near the Texas coast were under a mandatory evacuation order starting at noon today, local officials said at a press conference. The coast may see a storm surge of as much as 20 feet (6 meters). Ike is following a track similar to the 1900 Galveston hurricane that killed 8,000 people.

um....folks...this isn't good. i've been to galveston many many times in my life and when you go and see the photos and read the stories or even HEAR the stories of the 1900 hurricane, devastation takes over your entire being. granted, we are much more technologically advanced in this day and age, but we certainly still can't stand up to mother nature. i've also been hearing talk that even as far north as we are, dallas is still going to be hit hard - predicting worst storms here in 20 years...and possibly still considered a "tropical storm" by the time it reaches us. um.

depending on the outcome of this, me and several of my friends are already talking about making a slumber party out of the situation. hopefully it won't be as bad as they are predicting, but i gotta say, i'm a little worried.

keep texas in your thoughts over the weekend and send us good vibes. we're gonna need it!

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