Random things I remember from Hurricane Alicia

• Tracking the storm for a very long time before it hit. I did this a lot, and had been disappointed that we made it to August before our first named storm.
  
• Quietly rooting for it to target us in the Houston area, because I figured, in my 8th grade mind, that would be cool.
• Filling the bathtub with water, just in case our water went out or became contaminated.
  
• Mom waking us up shortly before dawn, so we could take cover in an interior hallway, just like we were supposed to.
• Sitting there, bored, in that hallway for HOURS.
• Listening to a little Rubik's Cube-sized weather radio play the same messages over and over and over...
  
• Looking out the window and noticing, at about 10:00 AM, that our Houston Post had arrived.
• Going out into the storm to get our Houston Post. (Later found out the winds were still whipping around 60 mph at the time. What crazy person is delivering papers in such weather?)
• Cleaning up sticks and things in the very nice weather that followed.
• The power being out for, gosh, two weeks. (Probably less, but memory is a funny thing.)
• Getting used to being without power, even in southeast Texas in August. Such a thing is inconceivable to me now.
• Grilling hot dogs for dinner pretty much every night.
  
• Boiling water on the grill for spaghetti when we got tired of hot dogs. That was special.
• Being told "They call them hurricane lamps because you can use them after the hurricane hits."
  
• Watching a little battery-operated 5 inch black and white TV. One moment, in particular, stands out very clearly. My sister had some friends over, and we were trying to watch Friday Night Videos. A catchy tune came on, and my sister's friend Gina asked me, as the person sitting closest to the TV, who the group was. I did my best to read the very small text, and murmured something along the lines of "Every Thing and a Miss". That, friends, was our first exposure to "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics*.
  
• Being astonished when, a few minutes later, the power suddenly, finally came back on.
• Being annoyed to find out that, even though power was on, cable was still not working.
• Going to school a few days later and trading hurricane stories. Turned out everyone was pretty bored. Which is probably the best-case outcome, if you're going to ride out a hurricane.
  

* - That's Eurythmics, not THE Eurythmics.

Thoughts and prayers out to our family and friends hunkering down, fleeing "certain death" from Hurricane Ike.