As we know too well, Hurricane Rita is barrelling down on Texas and/or Louisiana. Today, as I went about errands in Los Angeles, I kept hearing snatches of conversation about it…"category four"…"turning to the right"…"highways jammed." It seemed to be all anyone was talking about.
As I was waiting in a restaurant for a "to go" order, the lady behind the counter asked me if I'd heard anything. I told her what little had just been on the radio and she said, "Well, at least this time, the government won't screw up. Bush knows how much trouble he got in last time…plus, this time, it's Texas." As she handed me the food, I tossed a buck in the tip jar and she took it out and put in a little bucket for the Red Cross.
A few minutes later, I was in a dentist's waiting room. A man seated in the chair next to me suddenly announced, "I have family in Houston."
I said, "Let's hope they're not in Houston. Or that they'll be out by nightfall."
"I don't know," he said. "I couldn't reach anyone. I'd like to think that's because they got out. But my brother-in-law, I don't know about him. He's the kind of guy who might think, 'If I stay, maybe I can save the house.'"
"Well," I shrugged. "There's nothing you can do about it now. And they're saying on the news that the main brunt of it probably won't hit Houston."
We both nodded and made hopeful grunts…and just then, the nurse called him in. As he passed me, he said, "You know, I worried about this last night. And then I thought, 'My God, compared to those people in the Gulf Coast, I've got it easy. I just have to go in and have a root canal.'"
Good luck to everyone in the path of Rita. We're thinking of you.