Cleaning up after a Rita

Thank you for your posts and e-mails! We made it home safely.

We left Fort Worth about 9:30 p.m. Sunday and got here about 5:30 a.m. Monday. Traffic on 45 was going normal speed until we got near Houston. Then the dreaded break lights began to stretch for miles a la the evacuation Wednesday. I was all over the map looking for back roads, which saved my sanity on the trip up. A few little jogs and 59 took us home.

Somehow I never got sleepy on either drive. My legs and derriere, however, were constantly asleep, as the pugs refused to park their curly behinds anywhere else but my lap. Toward the very end of the drive Moe decided he was king of the mountain and found a perch atop the pile of our prized possessions. It's odd what becomes a prized possession when you think you're about to lose everything.

We pulled slowly into our neighborhood, which didn't have power yet, dodging alarmingly large piles of branches and debris. Eerie calm gave way to frustrated shoving and digging as we searched for a screwdriver with which to pry away the storm door we had hastily fastened before leaving. I later found it in my purse - don't tell Alan!

My arch nemesis, the mosquitoes, had apparently enjoyed the taller grass and rain. They attacked and swarmed like seagulls for a stray bread crumb. I am not a buffet you hellish imps! We shouldn't have bothered to break in. Once inside we were all burning up, so we went looking for a hotel that was open. Motel 6 had the light on. Had the woman at the counter not been behind bulletproof glass, I might have kissed her.

Just about the only damage we have it to our trees and yard. Our huge pecan tree lost mega-huge limbs. Guess who got to use the electric saw?! Alan had the convenient (and very true) excuse that he had to study for his first test of med school, which had been scheduled for the Friday the hurricane hit, then postponed to the next week. So I was the man of the house for the moment, which means I get to use the saw. Considering how I did with the little garden shears, (see "knife fight" post) me with an electric saw could be somewhat of a cause for concern. I think I did quite well. My pile of branches was the biggest on the block until a neighbor who never maintains his lawn went on a chain saw frenzy. Cheater.

For those of you who know about Alan's fish tanks (or should I say his obsession) they came through fine. Despite the power loss and crash diet, we only lost one fish. And even he may show up yet, as there are plenty of places to hid.

The paper asked people to submit their Rita stories for publication, and I got first crack at editing them. Let's just say people put some interesting details in their Rita stories!!! They also drone on and on forever. So on that note...