Something to be thankful for...

...it's raining outside this morning, and has been on and off since yesterday...but not nearly as hard as it was a year ago today, and we don't have 100-plus-mph winds to contend with this morning either. I was far inland by this time on this day -- I'd evacuated a couple of days before, some 200 miles from Hurricane Ike and his 20-ft. surge -- but once again I found myself sitting far from home, with nary a clue of what I'd be coming back to. I'd done it before, with Rita in '05, but Rita wiped me out almost. In a way THAT was a blessing in disguise, as I ended up better off than I was before, but I really didn't want to do that again. For 11 days during Ike I was gone, but fortunately when I came back the only thing I had to contend with was the power being off...and if I'd figured out there was an extra switch I had to flip, I'd have had that a day or two sooner. ;-) Hard to believe it's been a year. Here's hoping we don't have another one for a good long while.