We had gusty winds in the mid morning, then rain for about an hour, then nothing for a couple of hours. Around 2:30 it started raining again and blowing hard, and this lasted 3-4-5 hours. No big damage that I'm aware of-- maybe a few trees down in town, lots of leaves and small branches down in/on our lane, but nothing serious. So, two big joys: No serious damages or injuries, and WE GOT RAIN!!!!! The weather map on one of the TV stations claimed our area probably only got an inch & a half to 2 inches, but that's SO much more than we've had in ages, that it is indeed welcome! Glad you're okay Rita, and that Houston/Galveston didn't suffer much. Poor Port Arthur looks just like New Orleans. I was realizing today that this is one of the first times I've ever been "this close" to a hurricane before. It seems like most of the others, if they send rain our direction, the rain comes several days after the hurricane makes landfall. WE got to see the storm's progress all morning, huge deep gray clouds building & billowing all morning, then the winds and rain in the afternoon. WAY cool--from this safe perch at least. The "funny" of the day: some woman was being interviewed in one of the more Southern East TX towns, and she said, "The wind came by us -at us- just like, well, a hurricane!" LOL! Both she and the reporter realized her unintentional pun! Susi Oh yes, our power went out for most of the afternoon-early evening. We had ice in the ice chests, and even went to Lowe's to get another propane tank for our grill, but didn't need either. The power came on not long after we got home. I don't think our food was damaged. For a while as the power was trying to decide if it was going to be on or off, it was funny! The power went off, so I went in search of candles. Found one, found the matches, lit the candle, the lights came on. So I blew out the candle, and the lights went off. Lit it again, and the power came back on! This happened SEVERAL times in a five minute span, so I finally just left a few candles burning and then the power was out for good!

I hope she gets the care she needs. It's very scary as a parent to hear these stories. Even if your kid isn't on the social media, the other kids are and "talking" behind her back and she knows something is going on. Schools need to stiffen the penalties for cyber-bullying as much as physical bullying - I don't know, maybe the state has to get involved, if it takes charging kids with a misdemeanor, or issuing restraining orders to prevent driving another kid to suicide then that's what it takes! DS is 15, has always been a thoughtful, sensitive, private kid with a few close friends, not into the "popular" activities but seems to be happy, is definitely busy with Scouts, track, and church. I don't know what other kids may be saying about him, but at least he doesn't know either - or doesn't care. He is going to camp counselor training in a few weeks, and then to National Youth Leadership training for Scouts, hopefully next summer he will get a job at the Scout camp. OK, I'm bragging I guess but I think he's a good role model, and I *think* he's not at risk for depression. DD is 5 years younger and starting puberty - she has 2 very close friends, and watching others coming up to her after school concert she seems to be "popular" but again doesn't have the same interests as many her age (she's also almost a year older than everyone else in her grade, both kids are Nov birthdays and we decided to start DD later than DS since he had been in daycare/preschool and was an early reader, she was a late talker/potty trainer). She's more sensitive to peer pressure - I suppose girls usually are? I wouldn't pull her out to HS unless I thought there was a serious problem, I want to wait to see if she keeps/makes friends in middle school. I hope that keeping her in Scouts will help - if the leaders can keep a group of girls aware of the problems that bullying can cause, and keep them believing in their own value in spite of other people (peers, even some siblings and parents I know of) telling them otherwise. Girl Scouts just doesn't seem to be as organized as Boy Scouts though, and not too many girls seem to keep up with it through middle and high school, from what I can tell by the size of the troops in our town. But "mean girls" start early - DD ran into one her first day of kindergarten. Add a mean teacher, and in 1st grade she was begging me to HS her! At least 2nd - 4th she has regained her love of school, is actually disappointed to have only a few days left this year.

I have read that they both got infected from another worker. If another worker at the field hospital was not noticeably sick, they may not have been wearing protective gear around them. The CDC is apparently investigating. But for those concerned about this, keep in mind the vast differences between America and rural Africa. The CDC and WHO have said that a big problem is that the people there don't trust these medical workers and want to hide their family members who are sick and take them to traditional healers. All the while, they're caring for them and exposing themselves. We also don't wash and prepare the bodies of dead family members ourselves. There is a big difference in sanitation as well, since many areas there don't even have running water and certainly no hand sanitizer. The flu has killed many more people than Ebola. A lot of us have probably had or know someone who has had the flu, and most people just don't think about how deadly it can be because it's something we're used to. I think that even if a traveler were to bring Ebola to the US, we could contain it a lot more rapidly than they have in Africa. That is because of the cultural differences I mentioned above in addition to the fact that we have modern hospitals readily available, not field hospitals without running water. It is just not possible to have the same level of sanitation in a situation like that. We also have plenty of trained medical professionals who are used to treating deadly things like Hepatitis C and HIV.

It was a non-event here, but we're still expecting some outer bands later this afternoon, but largely - nada. Glenn - glad it all turned out well for you. My friend in Orlando said he got some winds and rain, but no damage. Silvia - My courtyard looks like a sea of plants, and I have more than I planned in the LR, because I figured some couldn't handle the deluge of rain we were supposed to get. I threw my back out slightly moving all those plants, so I put a few back out and will work on the rest tomorrow. Bea should be getting hit right about now. Hope she's o.k. Sultry was evacuated, so can't wait to hear from her. The Bahamas took the hit for us, and we need to repay them by donating to some legitimate charities. United Way is guaranteeing that anything earmarked for the Bahamas will go directly to aid, not to administrative costs. They got slammed with how they handled Haiti and Puerto Rico, as did the Red Cross, so they're trying to do right this time. When I saw the Bahamas I couldn't help but think of our own precious Mexico Beach, which STILL hasn't gotten the aid it was promised from Washington, and the aid that was supposed to go to repair the AFB has been diverted to build the GD wall. I won't say more. Don't get me started.