The sun has been out for 2 day’s now. But I can tell you first hand, there is something ominous hanging in the air. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I think for me, it’s the thought that things where I live, are seemingly normal, except for limited stock at groceries, limited hours at businesses and restaurants, very limited gas, and so on. The things you kind of expect after a major hurricane. I’m still trying to process, how, Mother Nature spared my neighborhood and home. We literally are surrounded by major bodies of water, Clear Lake a block away, Galveston Bay 2 miles away, and a water access bayou about 500 ft in front of my house. We should be under water. The fact that Mother Nature spared us, I am eternally grateful.

It is surreal to me, that less than 10 miles away, there are still people being pulled out of their homes by boat, as bayous continue to rise, government offices and services are still offline, there is a chemical plant in Crosby, Tx who’s product is exploding uncontrolled because the power went out, and the storage temperature can’t be maintained, so it just continues to randomly explode. Now the refineries being offline is beginning to be felt in Dallas, as a gas shortage is underway. People are fighting in the streets and the police are having to patrol gas stations. This my friends is only the beginning. It is going to continue to snowball.

Mother Nature has sent us a warning. A wake up call if you will. We are unprepared. We are a dependent society. She has sent us a warning to let us know, we can’t afford to be divided, we couldn’t handle the civil war on the horizon, as the media continue to fuel the fire to divide us. Our infrastructure couldn’t handle it. Our lives as we know it would be over. We’re struggling to overcome the aftermath of 1 storm. I can’t imagine why as a society we continue down the path we’re on and self inflict this way of living as a near future permanently on ourselves. She’s screaming loud and clear, “just stop!”

We need to walk out into the streets and love thy neighbor, hug thy brother, irregardless of your politics. We’re all just fragile humans dependent on this infrastructure we’ve created. We need to take care of each other. Those are human beings being pulled out of that water, and off those rooftops. Not whites, blacks, Asians, Indians, Hispanics, gays, lesbians, transgenders, just human beings.

Put down your politics people. The temper tantrums need to stop. We won’t survive the breakdown of our modern society. We need to remember Harvey.

Stay safe.

M

Hello from Houston. (Kemah to be exact) Here we are in day 5 of the history making #Harvey. My husband and I have chosen to ride out the storm in our home. No worries, we didn’t take a direct hit, and our house is raised 15 feet off the ground. Our neighborhood is relatively high, and we have been fortunate with minimal water. I have friends however, who have not been as fortunate. This has been a storm of biblical proportions to say the least. This, however, is not our first rodeo. We have both grown up on the Gulf Coast and weathered our share of hurricanes over the years. I am actually a Katrina transplant. Having said that, my husband and I know a thing or two about hurricane preparedness. In fact, we are both of the school that says, “if you’re going to live on the Gulf Coast, you live prepared 365!” Now I think our kids understand why we live in Sam’s and Costco!

This brings me to the moral of today’s blog. If you want a firsthand look at the breakdown of society in any catastrophic situation, ride out a hurricane…It all starts with food.

Just about all grocery stores, fast food restaurants, gas stations, (even Walmart) have been closed for the past 2 day’s. That’s right, 2 WHOLE DAYS. Today is the first day Grocers have reopened, most everything else is still closed. Let me describe the mayhem of people not being prepared.

I ventured out because I needed some bananas and yogurt, and I’m freaking stir crazy! My local Randall’s parking lot was packed. I walk in to people rolling out with baskets full of bottled water and other items (really you’re buying water now? It’s day 5) Then I see the line, wrapped through to the back of the store through produce all the way to the seafood counter to checkout! OH HELL NO! But now my curiosity has the best of me, so I continue through the store, surprisingly the produce section doesn’t look touched (shocker) The meat section, completely wiped out, junk food aisle, wiped…milk, gone, water and soda, gone, toilet paper, gone, beer, yep you guessed it! This was the theme at 3 stores, one of them had a line just to get in! Total infrastructure breakdown. I hope all of these people now realize, the food they scrambled to get, and the ones grabbing crumbs off the shelves of what’s left, know how to ration, cause guess what? There aren’t any trucks getting through anytime soon to restock! Yes the breakdown of society starts with food!

So the moral of the story is prepare, over prepare, and grow your own if you can! Or just get the Hell out of Dodge.

The end.