Things I Love About Houston (first in a series)

Yesterday morning, I was at the house (still no power, thank God for this cool front) waiting on some people sent by the insurance company. I was out front, cleaning the yard of debris and talking with my neighbor two doors down who lived in New Orleans until Katrina. We were chatting when a family of three came down the street. Dad was pushing baby in a jogging stroller and Mom was pulling a red wagon. The wagon contained a thermos of hot coffee, sugar, creamer and an array of wrapped donuts and mini-muffins. They introduced themselves and asked us if we needed coffee or something to eat.
We all talked for a little while, compared notes and they continued on their mission of good-neighborliness.

Camp Ike

So, Sharon and I had talked and talked about starting a blog....first we thought it would be fun to track the evolution of our yard from wild space to verdant retreat; then we pondered cataloging culinary adventures to the many taco trucks and taquarias in the neighborhood; then, well, whatever, we thought some of our everyday adventures would be worth sharing.  After talking and talking at various times about this, we never got further than grabing the name : "SLopp in the Heights"....a combination of our two last names and the area in which we live, combined in a way that evokes food and mess.

Then came Hurricane Ike.

If you've never been through a hurricane, my simple words will never do it justice.  I will just say that it is an experience....the winds became strong around sunset, the power died around 10:30, the trees started to fall on the house at almost 3am and all we could do was wait.  Was the roof ok?Would windows hold?  The winds wouldn't settle down for seven hours.

So, that was two days ago.  Like a few million other people, we are without power.  The house is structurally sound, but we have a few things that need to be fixed before the next thunderstorm.  All things considered, we are fairly lucky (in the "could have been far worse" sense) on that front.  We are incredibly lucky on other fronts....

We have escaped our powerless, AC-less house to "Camp Ike".  Just twenty blocks south, lies an island of The Heights which never lost power.  Inside that island, live friends who have opened their home to us and two other couples of dear friends, plus one.  Ten people, two toddlers, several freezers of defrosting food.   I will speak more about the hurricane, Houston and such later....for now I will focus on my good fortune.