Meet you on the other side!

So first things first -- we're okay! Second, OMG hippies out back, you really DO rock harder than Bon Jovi! ;) Thanks ever so much for the wireless hookup, my friends. We are still without power so being online feels like magic.

Here's a little bit of a chronology (bold choice of words for a time-challenged girl!), then I'll try to add pictures if my laptop battery holds out.

Around 1:30-2:00am we lost power. Almost immediately, it blinked back on and off three times but then stayed out. The rain wasn't super heavy, not even steady. The wind was really strong, but less than we expected. Once we decided nobody was going to panic, we all went to bed. I think every one of us was fast asleep by 2:30. Oh, the excitement! HAHAHA but remember, there was Malibu involved... and the boys were drinking Jack. I had set an alarm so we could maybe catch the eye, and okay because I slept through the worst 6 hours of Rita in a lakehouse and I didn't want to miss this one. Busted.

4:30am I realize my alarm is going off for the second time so I must have snoozed in my sleep. Tim rolled over and made some noise. I sent out some "we're okay" text messages and listened to the wind rattle the carport and hum through the front (latched) screen door. I THINK that's what kept making the crazy humming noise. The weirdest part of going through the storm was the unidentifiable, completely unfamiliar noises. For most of the night I thought that was the attic vent thing but then it did it while I was peeking out the window this morning and I could tell it came from the back door but I'm still not sure exactly how.

4:45am I get a call from August & David, our friends in CO who lived here in the house before we moved here, and I think by then I was fairly coherent...maybe. I do remember talking about water in the lounge, which we had no idea about at that point, and I know I mentioned the Malibu (again!). It was fun to hear from them and swap storm stories. Literal ones, for once. Tim woke up for a bit and we sat in bed with the shutters open looking out the window and watched the storm for a while, listening to the freaky noises and thinking we'd been really lucky so far.

5:45am we're still in bed and I'm cranking the QVC flashlight that came with the lantern and the power blinks back on, off, on, off, and ON! It stayed on long enough for Tim and I to hop out of bed for a celebratory dance, and then boom...it was back out for the duration. Back to bed we went, he passed out again. I think I drifted in and out, slept an hour or so, then it started getting light so I got up again and roamed through the house peeking out the non-boarded windows. I was the only one awake several times during the night, texting updates and prowling around with a candle lantern taking pictures and checking on people and kitties. I did turn out to be brave. Who knew?

8:00ish I finally got myself settled down and asleep, then Tim's mom called to check on us and woke us up about 8:45. More texting and pictures, a granola bar, and a nap and then I woke up around 10:30 to find Tim awake (finally!) and sneaking outside without me! Wasn't having it, made him wait for me to sort of put clothes on and we went out to survey the damage out back.

About that: Almost all of the tall trees left above/behind the lounge/clubhouse lost their tops. Miraculously nothing fell on the apartments. April & Kirk had a whole tree go down right behind them but it fell parallell to and pretty much slid down their back wall but didn't break any windows at all. The deck in front of the lounge is totally blocked and covered with giant branches... thank goodness for the hippie door, it's the only way in right now! I climbed around in the tops of those trees in the rain and it was very surreal -- felt like being in a rainforest canopy but without the fear of heights thing. Bizarrely cool. Apparently the lounge took about 2 inches of water; no broken windows, no roof damage despite the giant branches that crashed around and even the one that is still on top. We're going to need some serious chainsaw action to get that stuff cleaned up! But the inside is fine and the show(s) will go on at Club DubDub! Viva la Jellyphish Lounge! Whew.

It's totally daylight now of course, but still completely cloudy out, with steady spattery rain, and windy with strong gusts. Nothing like during the night -- Ike is leaving now. There are leaves and branches down everywhere. We still don't have power but our water never went out. The park across the street from the Little Buddy (3 houses down from us where White Oak curves toward downtown) is a lake, and the bayou under the clubhouse is still full and almost touching the floor and deck. The banana trees all broke in half. Lots of the bamboo is down, and the very top of the giant magnolia next to the neighbors' pool is in the middle of the driveway. Jordan and Neyana are both passed out in the front room, I think they both slept through almost the entire storm. KC is back on her perch on J's bass amp, Fleck is crashed out in bed, and Jack, our most sensitive cat, is sleeping peacefully beside me now. The worst has passed and we weathered it well. Tim's bored with me blogging and is outside eating granola bars with April & Kirk. I'm expecting the banjo to start up any minute. ;)

Now about that power... I'm ready to rock!