Slept through Ike.

It turned out the storm passed by us, far enough to our east that all we got out of it was cloudy skies and drizzle. Some cousins of mine who live in Houston rode the storm out in a nice house on the northwest side. They're without power now, and they've lost trees and fences, but everyone is OK. We've told them if they want to they've always got rooms up here. We'll see.

Friday turned out to be better than I thought it would be. My sister called me and told me she'd decided to have only one cat put down. She's gonna change the diabetic cats diet and see if it gets better. I'd like to see her put that one down too, but I can understand the desire to try anything before going there.

She called me while I was in line at the bank, getting the money to pay for everything. So it was a relief to find out that our mom had decided to put up the money. $230 to give one cat the jab, cremate it and provide the box for the ashes. I know. I can hear you thinkin'... .22 double tap and a shallow grave in the back yard... But it's my sisters cat and I couldn't do that. Hell, I couldn't do that to my own babies. Now, if one of you get's to feelin' a little puny, we'll talk.

We ended up goin' over and takin' mom to Green's sausage house in Zabcikville for dinner. They make wonderful burgers and onion rings, and have a few decent brands of beer on tap. It's a little down home type place, so we have to wait a while for service, but we get to experience the local flavor while we do it. Old friends, farmers and such, bumpin' into one another and everyone in the little place gets to hear their conversation. It was a lot of fun. Gives me a little taste of what it's like to live in a place all your life and know everyone. I always thought that would be cool.

On the way out there we drove through downtown Temple. On the way we found a new Irish pub, O'Briens. We stopped there on the way back from Green's and found out that it's a pretty cool place. The bar, with about a dozen brands of good beer on tap (more in bottles) and a stage for live music on the first floor, pool tables on the second, and a still unfinished third floor that will eventually serve food after it's remodeled. I hope the place makes it. It'd be cool to have a place like that to hang out in. In fact, I wish it were in Killeen. Next time we go I'll get pictures.

Like I said, we slept in today, through the storm, and got up in the afternoon to click on the TV and see the damage done to Galveston and Houston. Just as we were telling ourselves how lucky we were to miss it all the power went out. Shit! It flicked on and off a few times and then went out for about an hour. Probably just a transformer blowing. That kind of thing happens with tedious regularity around here.

Anyway, while the power was off we sat around on the couch and I phoned around to see if it was a wide spread thing or if maybe I'd just forgot to pay the light bill. While I was fiddlin' with the phone I realized I still had about a dozen shots stored in there from Graceland. I sent them all to the hard drive and once the power came on again I got them all fixed, to the extent you can with the photo shop. Here's a taste.



The flag that was draped over his coffin, I'm assuming, because of his military service...



The hand ball court, turned into a display of gold records, awards and such...



A shot of the pool, showing you that is was still pissing down rain...



And the lounge just before you went into the hand ball court. The tape said that Elvis spent his last morning here, playing this piano and singin' for friends.

Well, that's enough for now. I'll finish the road trip later. You guys enjoy your Sunday, and lets all say a prayer for the folks that weren't so lucky, down by the coast. Cheers.