No one likes IKE

Well, it's almost 5pm on Friday, September 12th. Houston is pretty much shut down waiting for hurricane Ike to arrive. Galveston looks very ugly at the moment - apparently the storm surge is category 4 sized even though the wind speed is 'only' category 2.

The track continues to head right towards downtown Houston, which is me. :-o I don't think I have to worry about any flooding, so the wind is the bigger concern. Hopefully the roof will hold - debris is the biggest variable. I've taped up the windows I'm most concerned about - south facing (although there's another 3-story townhome very close there and west facing.

Lots of load of laundry done - not that I need all the clothes, but I don't expect to have power on Saturday - folding and reading may be the only thing to do tomorrow. Soon I'll disconnect most of the computer stuff and put away. The largest tree in the backyard (a tall cyprus) now has some cables connecting it to the wooden fence.

This is going to be very interesting. I always thought I'd stay for a 1-2, leave for a 4-5, and a 3 was questionable. The fiasco that was the 'evacuation' for hurricane Rita shook that up. Now I'm wondering if Houston was too conservative and didn't evauate enough for Ike. Either way, I'm not in an evacuation zone, and the hurricane is a 2, so my brain still says stay. Having little to do today other than watch the TV coverage on every channel, though, introduces doubt. I'll know in 24 hours whether this was a good idea or not.

If the house is okay, then I'll be glad that I stayed. I'm sure the power will be out for most of the weekend and a drive to Dallas is still possible if the temperature gets unbearable.

Time to cook a little dinner - hot food might be rare for a while!

Electile Dysfunction

A coworker forwarded a joke email (with appropriate cautiousness) the other that I adopted as the new tagline on one of my email accounts:

"Currently suffering from Electile Dysfunction - the inability to
become excited by either of the 2008 presidential candidates."

A simple joke that almost perfectly summarizes my feelings at this point in the campaign. I don't consider myself a moderate (that's cop-out on so many fronts). Being fiscally conservative and socially liberal doesn't average out to moderate. Democracy often means picking the less offensive from among several options - this year even more so.

But the last several days have really taken things down a new road. Having trumpeted Obama's lack of experience (which is true), McCain picks a VP who's even less experienced? Odd. First reaction is that he's pandering to female Hillary supporters and hoping that he gets some gender votes. Whatever.

Then we learn that Palin is being investigated for possible abuse of power related to some state trooper brother-in-law. Odd that this didn't come up in vetting, but again whatever. Then we (I) learn that Palin has a new child with Down's Syndrome. Sad. And I wonder why she would accept a VP position knowing how much it will take her away from a child that will need so much help. Her keeping the baby despite knowing it would be disabled seemed to resonate with the right-to-life crowd. I respect both sides of that debate, and have no issue there either.

Then came today's revelation of her daughter's pregnancy. This sort of thing affects many families, and should be a private issue. Except in this case. Ms. Palin supports a ban on gay marriage. Ms Palin opposes giving benefits to same-sex couples. The Republican platform opposes gays being able to adopt children. All to "protect" "traditional marriage". One must assume that Ms. Palin will define the marriage of her 17 year-old, pregant, high-school-attending daughter as traditional and valid. All while preventing other tax-paying, loving, gay couples in America from being able to do the same.

Hypocrisy on her part, and hypocrisy on the part of fundamentalist/ultra-conservatives who may support her. Ironic that McCain's VP selection cemented my decision to vote for Obama (despite my misgivings about him), and it had nothing to do with Palin's lack of experience.