Hurricane on TV

Well of course it was raining this morning, thanks to Hurricane Ike's approach a few hundred miles to the southwest. It was quiet at work, and as we got into afternoon it got even more quiet. There has been serious flooding way over here in southeast Louisiana, and I'd say that at this moment about half of the Giro Ride route is well-submerged. The parking lot where we start was underwater by noon, and Venetian Isles, where we turn around, is completely flooded and cut off. Fortunately, all of those houses are raised pretty high since they are outside of the levee system, but at any rate I can guarantee there will be no Giro tomorrow. It's still windy as hell around here, but the rain hasn't been too bad lately. Fortunately, I'll be driving with Tim up to Birmingham for the Pepper Place Criterium where I fully expect to get my socks blown off. It seems like forever since the last time I raced. Like last year, we'll be making the 5-hour drive, racing, and then making another 5-hour drive back, so we probably won't be back home until something like 4 or 5 am on Sunday. Although my Masters race will be around 4 p.m., Tim's Pro/1/2/3 race will be quite late - something like 8:30 pm. I'm thinking I'll probably skip that one this time because I've never quite felt like I was back in shape since The Crash. Speaking of which, word is that Mark D. broke his collarbone in that fall he took on Thursday -- a "clean break" as they say. I guess that must be better than a dirty one, but it'll probably mean the end of his season for this year.

So I'm sitting here at home watching The Weather Channel's coverage of the hurricane and I have to say that it really feels strange to be watching a hurricane heading for "somewhere else" on TV. It still makes me kind of nervous, especially this one. If we're getting flooding here in NOLA, I think that Galveston is going to be pretty much fully submerged and the low areas of Houston aren't likely to fare so well either. At least the winds aren't quite as strong as they might be, and we can still hold out a little hope for a last-minute jog to the east. Hurricanes like to do that when the get close to the gulf coast for some reason.