Irene and Katrina and Ike

It's 3am, and I'm still awake.  Normally that means I've been having a great night out on the town, but I haven't been out socializing.

I had a lovely night.  We had dinner at Papalino's, then cupcakes at Jamie's 14k Cupcakes on Baxter.  Then Roommate and I went down to Waterfront Park and watched the post-Bats game fireworks (so much fun... and free!).  Came home and watched the brand-new Doctor Who and then watched a couple of episodes of Dexter on a Netflix DVD.

A great night by all measures.

But it's 3am, and I'm glued to Irene coverage on the interwebs.  All hail modern technology, I can watch the NBC news feed from Connecticut and see what Mama Lou would be seeing.

Six years ago, almost to the hour, Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans held a press conference and said that if people didn't evacuate New Orleans, they should be prepared to suffer and maybe even die.  It was an unprecedented expression of hyperbole, but it was enough to get us to leave.

Six years ago minus 24 hrs, Roommate and I were just arriving in Panama City Beach, FL after dodging tornadoes and road closures for hours.  The usual 5-6 hr drive from NOLA had taken us 13 hours.

Tonight, six years ago, minus 24hrs, I stayed up all night and watched on TV as Katrina rolled into my city and prepared to drown it.

Tonight... last I heard, at least, Mama Lou is asleep.  But still I am sitting vigil.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I survived Katrina superficially unscathed.  But when Ike hit Louisville, the winds toppled a 40' tree onto my house, and I lived in a hotel for 8+ months while it was being rebuilt.

Irony? And probably why this hurricane has me so stressed out.

Happy One Year Ikeversary!

One year and a few hours ago, this is what happened to Casa Lou:

Snow My Goodness: It's Worse Out There Then You Thought

Or maybe I'm just speaking for myself...

This morning Honorable Contractor for the Humble Abode called and said "Show me the money." Problem was, my check book (I thought) was at the Humble Abode. So Honorable Contractor picked me up in his 4-wheel drive for what ended up being a three hour tour of our fair city (checkbook= not at Humble Abode). And wow. It was way worse than I thought.

Louisvillagers without power, I salute you. Thankfully the ResInn has remained blissfully powered up and warm. My heart goes out to those of you shivering in the dark. I can't imagine. Truly.

Hotels downtown are doing a booming business. I spent around 2 hours in the lobby of the ResInn reading and listening to the desk clerk answer the phone on average once a minute to say, "No, sorry, we're all booked up." That was around 2pm, and at that point the only place with rooms was the Galt House. Roommate and his woman and I went to the Galt House for drinks a few hours ago, and it was jammed.

I went to go see "Wicked" tonight at the Kentucky Center. It was a sold out crowd, and suprisingly it seemed like just about everyone showed up. I fear I may be losing my teen-chick cred: I hated "Twilight" (you can read my review of the book about "sparkly bear-sucking vampires" here) and I was thuddingly unimpressed by "Wicked." Really. I don't get it. It's precisely the kind of musical I can't stand: the "let's sing about even the totally trivial stuff" kind of musical. No thank you.

Hotel bars and restaurants downtown are packed. Bearnos by the Bridge was open. So was Prime Lounge. Stevie Rays is closed. Bank Shot Billiards is open. I'm pretty sure Connections was open.

My monkey on the ground (ie Roommate) says that between the Back Door (which has no power) and Highland Avenue only our street has power-- I'm so happy for my neighbors. He was taking his woman to the Irish Pubs of Little Dublin and the Outlook. Says everything around the Highland/Baxter split is packed.

The good news is this: If Hurricane Ike hadn't brought that tree down on my house, it probably would have come down last night. When it was freezing. And wet. Instead of sunny and warm and lovely like it was in September. I feel very lucky.

Stay warm, Loueyvillagers. You're in my thoughts.