Happy belated birthday Houston!

I just wanted to give a shout-out to my city. Houston, Texas turned 172 on August 30th. Happy Birthday!! Sorry it’s so late. We’ve been a little busy with Mother Nature. 😉

Anyone who knows me knows of the great love I have for Houston and Texas in general.  I love it! Even when I move away, Houston will always be home and my favorite place on Earth. I wanted to share a few neat facts and tidbits about Houston so you can get an idea of why I think it’s so great. Enjoy!

Houston has a Theater District second only to New York City in terms of a concentration of seats in a single geographic area. Located downtown, the 17-block Theater District is home to eight performing arts organizations with more than 12,000 seats.

Houston has a unique museum district offering a range of museums, galleries, art and cultural institutions, including the Houston’s major museums.

Houston has more than 500 cultural, visual and performing arts organizations, 90 of which are devoted to multicultural and minority arts.

More than 90 languages are spoken throughout the Houston area.

Houston is home to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The largest rodeo in the world, it attracts more than 1.8 million visitors each year.

Houston has a young population; 37 percent of Houstonians are 24 years old or younger and 34 percent are between the ages of 25 and 44.

Houston boasts more than 40 colleges, university and institutions – offering higher education options to suit all interests.

Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world, with a local economic impact of $10 billion. More than 52,000 people work within its facilities, which encompass 21 million square feet. Altogether 4.8 million patients visit them each year.

Home to 18 Fortune 500 companies and more than 5,000 energy related firms, Houston is considered by many as the Energy Capital of the world. Companies headquartered in Houston include Halliburton, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp and Dynegy.

The Port of Houston ranks as the nation’s largest port in international tonnage and second in total tonnage.

Houston has the most affordable housing of 10 most populated metropolitan areas; Houston housing costs are 39 percent below the average of 26 U.S. urban populations of more than 1.5 million.

Houston has the second lowest cost of living among major American cities.

Houston is the fourth most populous city in the nation (trailing only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago), and is the largest in the southern U.S. and Texas.

Houston has more than 11,000 restaurants.

Houston has professional teams representing every major sport.

More than 38 million people each year fly in and out of Houston’s two major airports: Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby.

This is just a small taste of the great things about Houston. For more interesting facts check out Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_events_of_Houston

Recovering from Ike

Well we just got power back after we lost it Friday night. We have a tree on our roof still and that will be there for a while and our fence is gone. We are very, very lucky. we are all alive and so is everyone I know. We all have our homes. Now that I’m finally able to see the devastation Ike caused all I can do it sit in disbelief.

I’ve seen some amazing things these past few days. Strangers helping each other, people still being polite and showing kindness. I would also like to mention the wonderful people I spoke with from Allstate. Not only are they doing everything they can to get to us but there was a wonderful woman that stayed on the phone with me when I unexpectedly just broke and started bawling. Even though she didn’t need to, she stayed on the phone with me until I was calm enough to face my girls.

I would also like to send a special thank you to Vanessa  and Dane. Without them I don’t know what we would have done. They were a rock for my family and showed the true and definite meaning of love and friendship. They gave us priceless information and support these last few days. Even in the days before the storm. Thank God for them. I love you both and I would be a shivering ball of broken nerves without you.

And last but so not least. I would like to thank all the men and women from here and around the country that have done an amazing job getting power back to Texas. We would be lost without you. Also the police and fire departments who put their live on the line to make sure we were safe. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Lots of love for everyone,

Raga

IKE IKE IKE

Well today’s the day. The sun is shining and the birds are leaving. The wind is picking up. Is it a sign? I think so. We’ve got some windows boarded up and water and batteries and all the other odds and ends we need. Ike seems to be turning into a massive storm.  I wouldn’t be scared if I didn’t have kids. Where I live is going to be getting the dirty side of the storm. That’s the bad side. Yippie.

My parents had to evacuate and thank God they did. Based on some reports the coast is going to possibly be hit with 20 to 50 foot storm surges.

I’m going to clean my house so when it blows away it’ll at least be clean. LOL   Just kidding! 🙂

Everything will be okay, I’m sure.  For those 3 people that read my blog don’t worry if I’m not around for a day or two. It just means we have no power.

Well the shit is about to hit the fan. Ike is coming.

IKE is on his way. It’s bigger than Katrina and Rita were and it’s headed here. We’re looking at roughly 85 to 100 mph winds inland and big ass storm surge on the coast. My parents live about 5 minuets from the coast and they are having to evacuate. They have 2 dogs and 7 cats so it should be interesting for them. Hopefully their house will be okay.

I live a relatively safe distance from the coast so I’m not worried about storm surge or anything like that. I am very concerned about losing power and high winds and tornadoes. I’ve gotten most of our supplies but I might go buy more water and pop tarts. I’m also going to be preparing everyone’s bug-out bag in case we do have flee.  Anyone got room for a family of 4 with 2 dogs and a cat? Just kidding. sort of. 🙂

 

Anyway I’m sure we’ll be fine but please take some time out of your day and pray to whatever God or Gods you have that the damage to the people in Texas will be minimal and that we have no deaths.
Thanks!