Back Roads

Reporting from Sugar Land, we have returned to our house following Hurricane Rita and all is well.

The Dumb One said, “I’d like to experience a hurricane. How cool would that be?”

The Wise One said, “I’d rather avoid the whole thing, have it be a non-event and return as a family rather than as a family minus one.”

The Dumb One listened to the Wise One, well, that’s why we have Wise Ones to begin with, and all’s well that ends well.

The return trip from Austin took us five hours over the back roads of Texas. Now, one might think that back roads are full of slow-moving vehicles, obstructions, farm equipment and stuff like that, but here in Texas a “back road” is like a main highway except with no speed limit. I think it’s a secret.

There we were hauling down the road a 70 miles per hour when a gi-normous pick-up truck, pulling a trailer carrying 8 horses, passed us like we were standing still. The tails of the horses were sticking straight out the back of the trailer, flapping in the backdraft.

Man, I got to get me one of those!

The Wise One says “No.”

The cats were more than happy to be home and I was more than happy for the cats to be home. Last night, because we had to keep the cats inside the condo, it was up on the bed, down off the bed, meow-I-want-to-go-out and MEOW-I-WANT-TO-GO-OUT followed by “there, there, Kitty, you’re fine, just lie down” to “THERE, THERE, KITTY, LIE DOWN OR I’LL SNAP YOUR SPINE!”

By 4 a.m. the cats had settled down and the drunks next door had passed out following a riveting bout of puking. Fortunately, the cats did not follow suit.

By mid-morning we had decided to return home in spite of the States recommendations to wait until Tuesday. Tuesday! Either I or the cats would be mad! There’d be no need to return, just lock me up in the local loony bin, without the cats.

We set off around 1 p.m. and found the traffic light. We avoided the main roads, nevertheless, and got a chance to see Texas ranch land close up. Green and expansive are the two words I’d use. Also, no indication that disaster was impending all around. Quiet and peaceful, cows grazing, cowboys singing, birds chirping. Man, I need to get out of here!

We pulled into the driveway around 6 and unloaded all the stuff, essential papers, pictures and computer back-up hardware we had hauled to Austin. The cats leapt out of the truck and immediately set off to dig up the flower bed with expressions of great relief on their faces. We spent the next few hours unloading and rearranging the house, moving stuff out of closets, putting pictures back on walls and getting things back in order.

Finally, I collapsed into the blogorium with a wine in hand when I heard the siren call:

“Hey, what’s for dinner?”

Slowly, I turned…