cottonmather0

As soon as it starts raining and I lose my Directv signal, I am going to bed for a while.

My wife won't let me turn down the AC and I am PISSED.

My inlaws and my wife were making that case this morning for us to come stay with them. It probably does make a difference locally, but as I tried to explain to them earlier today, it doesn't really matter in something as widespread as this. Power outages tonight are going to be more of a function of grid stability and major distribution lines.

That's what the Brazoria County sheriff told the last three holdouts in Surfside this morning. Unless you are one of the three, you will be fine.

Lights are flickering here, too. I am a little bit surprised by this already so early in the evening.

TSARP says that we are at 52 ft just south of 18th and TC Jester.

Anyone else see this? Edit: Avatar check

Mrs Cottonmather0 has been in a good mood all day long and then when she saw the people playing on the seawall about an hour ago, her eyes narrowed and she got all serious... "They have CHILDREN with them. What the HELL is wrong with those people? It's one thing to be stupid with your own life, it's another to risk the life of someone you're entrusted to protect! Throw those people in jail right now." She has a point.

KHOU is currently showing footage of some absolute MORONS walking along Seawall Boulevard and tiptoeing past debris and the waves. Perhaps their relatives should be recording this newscast for posterity's sake and one last glimpse of their loved ones. GET OUT NOW!

Very few people have boarded up in our neighborhood, either. It might not be a bad idea if you have the flimsy single-pane aluminum windows that are pretty common in the 40-50 yr old houses that are plentiful through here, but most modern replacement windows - double paned and wind rated and impact resistant - should be ok this far inland. The might crack and need to be repaired later on if something flies into them during the storm, but they shouldn't fail for the most part. We paid up for new windows a couple of years ago and I am very pleased with that decision right about now.

1.) We are not below sea level 2.) We have competent local authorities here who are acting and not waiting on someone else to bail them out We will be fine.

For most of the Houston area, Centerpoint is the responsible party that owns all the wires and they will do a good job fixing things. They will also have line crews pitching in from utilities up and down the gulf coast, just as their own crews have traveled to other states recently to help with other storms. Power is very likely going to go out just about everywhere in the area, but I suspect it will be restored rather quickly for most areas.

ONLY THE BLOOD OF A YOUNG RAM WILL SPARE US FROM GAIA'S WRATH. THIS IS GOING TO BE MUCH WORSE THAN THE TIME STEVE BACKED INTO THE ELECTRIC POLE BEHIND THE GARAGE AND POWER WAS OUT ALL AFTERNOON AND YOU MISSED THE ROCKETS GAME ON TV. HAVE YOU EVER DRUNK WARM BEER? NOT FUN. LIKE WE SAID, HUMAN SUFFERING. I need me one of those signs!

Here in 77008 the prediction has gone from 87 to 98 to 81 to 70 mph since around 11am this morning.

Watching the 10:00 press conference and Queen Sheila is clearly worried about getting caught in the storm surge. That bright green top can be spotted floating in the water from miles away.

I agree, they should take away Dr Neil's access pass and be done with it. Gene is actually very good and it's quite unfair to him that the big game's here and they've figuratively dug out Jeff Bagwell in place of Lance Berkman.

I have heard anecdotally that HCAD is in a big crisis mode right now because of the sheer volume of protests this year. Property owners know from the news that the real estate market slowed down last year, they know what properties sold for recently in their neighborhoods, and they know that if they don't protest every year now that they essentially are conceding ground on next year's appraisal (due to the way the cap is calculated). Yet in spite of all of this, HCAD has been very firm in trying to raise values and thus has spurred a lot of protests that have to be dealt with. Haven't heard of your particular problem, though, but given how Keystone Kops they seems to be over there, I'm not surprised to hear your story. Maybe they've just decided to do away with the informals and throw everyone into the formal process? I don't the the informal is a legal requirement, I think it is just a policy for HCAD to try and reduce the extra work that comes from the formals, and if everyone is just rejecting their "offer" now perhaps they're just skipping it altogether? Total SWAG, but who knows? Then again, I could be completely off base...

Yeah, I started getting that feeling earlier this afternoon. I'm about to get out again and make a grocery run before it gets too much further out of hand. We are likely ok for food, but I'm out of diet Dr Pepper and almost out of beer. The horror! Still have my lucky can of Spam, though, and a big bottle of scotch. Provided that my roof doesn't blow off, Friday is going to be fun.

We live in Timbergrove three doors down from TC Jester and White Oak Bayou on the west side just south of 18th street. Our house didn't flood during Allison, but the one next door did, so I'm slightly worried should the "worst case" scenario occur and the storm surge back up the bay and not allow the bayous to drain. If I lived just 2-3 houses further west I wouldn't be worried at all. The neighbors across the street have three very tall pine trees in their front yard and I've always wondered if they're tall enough to fall across the street and hit our house. Maybe I'll find out this weekend.

The track this evening seems to have shifted east again. This is starting to feel like Rita all over again - Beaumont and Lake Charles had better get ready. BTW - I just filled up both our cars and the gas stations are starting to get crowded. If you are reading this right now, you might want to go ahead and get out tonight and do it yourself if you need gas - tomorrow it might be too late (or maybe not based on my first paragraph ).

I thought this was rather tone-deaf by the DNC and/or the Obama campaign (and not surprising, frankly): Republican Recycling Even if you take one's opinion of the parties involved out of the question, it really seems like a stupid thing to do politically, to leave yourself so open to obvious attacks from your opponents like that.

I've been thinking of this post lately every time I see the up-tempo news promo on Channel 2 these days ("Local 2 News Right Here Right Now!" yadda yadda). Notice how all the anchors smile when they get their closeup: Owen, Lauren, Wendy, Dominique, Bill. Who's not smiling? This guy who strangely has almost the same nose in the air sneer in the commercial as he does in the picture, only even more haughty and self-important. What the hell is so special about him? He looks like a first class A-1 dip___, no?

He's done a great job and I think you are correct that (and I paraphrase) most of the criticism of him is unwarranted and unrealistic and not bounded in fact, not to mention unfair. Similarly, I think Clinton did a very good job as well leading the country - and would have made many of the same decisions as Bush has made had he been forced to - the difference of my opinion (and most other Americans' opinions) of the two (in both directions) being grounded in what you would call "philosophical differences" and thus I won't go there.

I too have driven by there a million times and thought it looked cool.... and it sounds like I thought right. I need to stop by there some time for real now.

I bet they would, too, but I think someone has already had that idea and got shot down due to WUP's local ordinance against national chains within it's city limits. I think. Maybe I am misremembering, but I think it all went down 6-8 years ago when I was living in Bellaire.