and then there is no Water

So after leaving Leslie's parents' house, we went to my parents' apartment. We got very excited as the electricity came back on while we were there. This was quickly squashed when it went out again about 5 minutes later. We decided to head home and face the night at our own home and just hope that maybe the power would be back on when we arrived.

We got excited because we saw an IHOP that was open. We stopped in only to be told that they weren't allowing anyone else in, and those that were already in were expecting to wait up to 2 hours to be seated.

So we headed home and found that we still had no electricity. We opened the house again. I pulled Henry's basketball hoop out of the garage and he went out to the backyard to play for a bit, while there was still daylight. Since we have a gas stove, I was able to cook dinner...I made mac-n-cheese and hot dogs, which worked out well since we are under orders to boil the water before we use it. (We have plenty of water to drink and other put up to use to cook with, if needed...more on this further down.)

After dinner, we played a game of War. It went on and on. Eventually, Leslie was eliminated, and Henry and I played on, and on, and on. Finally, I declared Henry the winner.

We moved to the living room. At this point, it was dark. We listened to the radio for a while for updates. Then we moved upstairs and put Henry to bed. Leslie and I listened to the radio for a while longer, and then she headed off to bed. Eventually, I turned the radio off, too.

Lo and behold, at some point it started to rain. No, it started to pour. Now we had to close the windows to keep the rain out. By morning, the house was hot, but more, it was humid and stuffy. We decided to head to Leslie's sister's (Courtney) house. They have power and we just needed to feel normal for a while. Henry was looking forward to playing with Jack.

As we prepared to leave the house, we determined we now had no water. Now I understood why we had a bathtub full of water. I had to scoop water from the tub into the toilet tank to get it to flush (sorry if that is TMI).

So now we are hanging at Courtney's and trying to come up with a strategy for the day. The phone line that was working is no longer working. My cell is still sporadic. It's still raining on and off. The roads throughout the Houston area are flooding.

And the saga continues....