Hi everybody and thanks for the prayers and advice. We lost power very early on, at 8:00 PM. The first brisk winds had just started and it was about eight hours later, before we got the eye wall of the leading edge. At about 6:00 AM this morning I was laying on the floor in the den and noticed the wind noise and the pounding rain had stopped rather abruptly. I stepped outside my front door and realized I was in the eye. I never thought I would experience being in the eye of a hurricane in my life. It is not quite the "dead stillness" that some describe. There is still some light movement of air and a lite misting drizzle, but it's such a contrast to what you've been experiencing, it seems like dead calm. The eye passing over lasted a little over an hour and then the trailing edge came from the opposite direction and according to the local news was actually stronger than the leading edge, which is unusual. It took until mid-afternoon before the heavy winds and rains ended.

Jamie, I received your text message and from family and friends got a number of notifications that I had voicemails waiting, but I couldn't call out or text message.

We are really, really lucky. At about 9:30 this evening we were listening to the projected dates to have power re-connected. Most estimates are two to three weeks. My wife and I and our little pug, who is not used to the heat, were preparing for a hot muggy night and maybe a week or more of no power or hitting the road and living with relatives. At about 9:40 PM we re-entered the 21st century and are one of only about three hundred thousand out of over two million "Center Point Energy" customers who have had our power restored. Joy (my wife) and I both said "Thank you, Lord!" from separate rooms when the lights and the air conditioner came back on. She was fretting about losing all our frozen and refrigerated foods and had we gone a few more hours without ice, we would have to re-stock everything. The power came on just in the nick of time to save our vittles.

I'll tell you more about my "excellent adventure" over the next few days. For now, I'm going to go take a shower. Thanks again to everyone for your prayers and your concern. I feel like I've joined some sort of club.

I need to check on E. D. Wilson to see how he came through the storm. Will forward his response if he has power.

Thanks,

Jim