I was STOOD UP!

But I'm not complaining, oh no. I was stood up by Hurricane Rita. (By the way, CMHL, thanks for caring.) Seriously, we got some wind, but as far as rain, it barely sprinkled. No, really. I've seen garden hoses with more force. We only lost power for about an hour on my block. Mom's block lost electricity for a couple of days. We didn't have any damage to the house, though a branch from the neighbor's tree fell into our back yard. My other neighbor's garage was shredded, but it was already partially destroyed from Tropical Storm Allison four years ago, so it was no big loss.

We did have some action around here, though. See, we may have stayed, but many of our neighbors evacuated. Some thieves tried to steal our neighbor's car. Friends of the neighbors saw the theft in progress, and started shooting at the thieves. Thieves shot back, blowing out the window of a very nice Cadillac. Here in the house, we heard nothing at all. Mom, Grandpa, and Uncle A, who were all across the street, saw the whole thing and called the cops.

I got the scoop from Mom, and relayed the info to my own household. My dad went all Jed Clampett, and pulled out this ancient shotgun (which I mistook for a rifle, it was so long) and started asking for extra shells. Fortunately Dad's shotgun takes the same rounds as our shiny Mossberg. Personally, I felt that he'd be better off just using his .380, rather than trying to use that old gun that hadn't been fired in over a decade. NRA bonanza notwithstanding, we didn't actually have to use any of our firepower. The revenge shootings occurred a few blocks away. We didn't here those either. Our air conditioners are really loud. Plus, we're all going deaf.

Now that I'm thinking about it, Bizarro Dad (my husband) said that when he went to the sporting goods store to buy ammo right before the storm, there were a whole lot of people doing the same thing. Nothing like a hurricane to bring out the Commando in all of us. But really, this IS Texas.

If you've ever seen that movie Miss Congeniality, recall that part wherein Sandra Bullock tackles a dude with a holstered gun right in the middle of Market Square in San Antonio. Candace Bergen reprimands her for taking this action for such a trivial reason. "This is Texas!" she says. "Everybody has a gun. My florist has a gun!" Well, that's really how it is sometimes. We all have guns, at least in this neighborhood. We don't all carry them around, but I suspect that's because not enough people want to spend the $90 to get the concealed handgun license. Well, that and criminal records.

Seriously, this state is just the wrong place for looting. If the citizens weren't shooting at you, the cops were arresting you. There were some punks who broke into a middle school to steal electronics. There was a middle school teacher who broke into fifteen houses to take heaven knows what. I mean, I know our state education funding is a mess, but dayum. The hospitals were not letting a lot of people in unless they were critical. That's how many people were getting stabbed and shot.

Well, we're all okay. The city is getting back to normal, although I wish I could say the same for the folk over in Beaumont. They took a severe beating. Please, if you haven't done so already, donate to https://give.redcross.org/ to continue helping those nice people.