I hate mowing grass. I don't like talking about it, I don't like doing it. For some reason a Louisiana tradition is to talk about cutting grass. To leave home early to cut grass. To ask people if they cut their grass. Today I found myself trying to finish work and personal items so I would have time to "cut the grass" before Gustav hit.
We were up early this morning doing the final preparations. Lots of people going to church early, much earlier than normal. Airline Highway had the lights set to yellow flashing to flow with traffic and red flashing to cross. Not much traffic at 7:15am. By 8:45 however, there was moderate traffic for a Sunday. You could tell some was just people running errands, and some was people leaving New Orleans. There were State Troopers and sometimes Sheriff vehicles at many intersection. I-12 was empty as it isn't a key route to evacuate Baton Rouge. Not sure about I-10 as I didn't make it over there.
Lots of people getting gas and groceries but everyone seemed to be civilized. I did see one moron filling six 5-gallon gas cans wrapped in cellophane in the bed of his truck. I guess he doesn't watch youtube. Static electricity and gas fumes don't mix. I left quickly figuring I would hear about him on the news.
When we managed to get back into the neighborhood, I found what looked like a massive party. Trucks with boats and trailers and people everywhere. The Katrina look and feel was there as most driveways had multiple cars from evacuees.
We managed to straighten out the garage to begin putting all of the patio furniture, grill, smoker, etc into the garage. This time, I organized the garage into areas where I could get to things I might need. We noticed that my neighbor left with his garbage can out and a back patio full of potted plants and a landscape wagon. Now, I have that to worry about blowing into my house. It's going to be a shame when someone steals it later tonight. He won't find any of it. I'll tell him it blew away, which technically will be true.
Late in the afternoon, I kept looking at the clouds and noticing a wind increasing. Back to the mowing of the lawn... As much as mowing was the last thing on my mind, I knew that if I didn't I would regret it. This time of year, Louisiana has the climate of a modest jungle and grass grows by the foot each week. I began to mow and the weather looked like it wasn't going to cooperate. I couldn't believe bands of the storm were already here but they were. Thankfully I finished and put the lawn mower up last.
I managed to finish and took a look at the latest coordinates and realized that we had plenty of time to prep. One thing about Louisiana is that we love our food and our alcohol. It was Sunday and I was hoping it wasn't too late to get some daiquiris for the storm. I called two of our favorite stops and they were closed. I mean, Home Depot and Walmart were open, what were they thinking? Missed business opportunity if you ask me. Finally I found one, the closest one to the house ironically, and set out to get a gallon. When I got there, the parking lot was packed. Clearly the regular clientele had no intentions of preparing for the storm and was having a typical night. After making the purchase, I drove home figuring that it might be the last daiquiri for more than a week.
It was at the point that I realized the steaks would be tough to grill with the grill in the garage behind 10 feet of other items. Fortunately, I'm a camper and managed to dig out a small grill and propane tank and setup an emergency grilling station. The daiquiri definately was the ticket to cool off while cooking some nice steaks for what I dubbed "the last supper".
Tornado watch tonight. It missed us but the outer bands are starting to cause some havoc. Combine it with the normal late afternoon thunder storms this time of year and it is a bad combination. It looks like we'll have rain tonight but no heavy winds until about 10:00am. Noon until 5:00pm is where the really bad stuff will happen. Of course everything is subject to change.
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