Waiting out a Hurricane

Hopefully, this posting will go through. This is my third attempt and each time i lose my connection. I'll keep trying though...darn ol' hurricane.

Gabby's skating. Hmm... she is doing well. The saturday morning sessions with Val and Elina are helping. She is picking up speed which should help quite a bit. She has not been doing well the past few competitions - not as good as she SHOULD be doing. We had a meeting with Dorothy and we talked through the issues. Gabby is doing VERY well during her training and club ice and everything...but when she gets to competitions - she seems to tense up and over think her routines. Dorothy says it's a mental thing that she needs to work through. I think she's right - she just needs to get feel her music instead of thinking of each move and worrying about each element. Dorothy plans on pulling her out of the November competition and letting her focus on the Nutcracker. She will also have her do more exhibitions. She will get to dress up, do her programs -- all the same things, but just not with judges. I'll let you know how she does.

Hurricane news. Well, we've bunker down here in merry ol' Sugar Land. The storm earlier was coming our way but at the last minute it seems to have veered towards Louisiana. This is great news for us - not so good for those folks. The winds and rain were forecasted to be hitting us at 105 mph. Now, they are going to be about 60-70 mph. Whoopie. It's going to be a bumpy night.

Earlier today, Gabby and I played xbox for a few hours. We then ran around outside like crazy people and looked at the clouds and the wind. We noticed the level of the water in the lake had gone down about 1-2 feet. THAT was weird to see. We also noticed a big rainbow right before the sun went down. I took as many pictures as I could. I'll try to paste one - right here - when I can. So far so good...the power is one and the A/C (thank God) is going. We have water in the tubs, water in the bottles, water, water, water... I'm kind of sick of water. We should start getting the rain and wind kicked up in about an hour. Right now, lots of wind...not much rain... I know it's coming. Gabby is fast asleep on the bed next to me. She had a lot of fun today and is kind of worn out. Thank goodness - hopefully she will be able to sleep through everything.

The Blooms and the Guptons stayed behind. Traci and Mike Gupton and the kids tried to drive to San Antonio yesterday but after 6 hours on the road and only getting about 20 miles...they decided to turn back and ride out the storm. There are SO many people out on the roadways without gas and water etc. I hope they make it through okay. There was already a tragedy earlier today with a bus of elderly getting killed in a bus fire. It was so sad. At least 24 people died. On a positive note, about 1/2 go out and all kinds of people in passing cars helped get the survivors out. There have been all kinds of "random" acts of kindness. going on. I've never been prouder to be a Texan. People are helping each other with gas, or water, or even to just stop and use the bathroom. We can't always wait for the government to take care of everything; sometimes people just have to "cowboy up" as we say around here. Help your neighbor kind of thing.

Well, thanks everyone for checking in on us. We're riding out Rita and so far it is going okay. Thank you God.

Until next time.

Joe.