...And I hate the new tv.com.

So where are all the changes we were promised. We still have this hideously colored layout and I can only see four friend's blog updates at a time. I Miss the old days when we could quickly glance and see ten of our friend's updates, at a time.

Sad to say, I don't navigate as much here anymore. Too much effort I guess. Just wanted to let you all know that I miss you and hope you are all well.

PIKE

Hey Friends:

This blog is specifically designed for my on line friends here who support Obama on Tuesday. This blog will be your chance to make your case for your guy in a reasoned argument.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the parameters.

1. I am a single issue voter. The only thing I care about in any national election, post 9/11, is what candidate is going keep this country safe from murderous, Islamist, pyschopaths who would destroy anyone or any nation who doesn't agree with their twisted world view. I feel strongly that this is the only issue that matters, because the rest of it (education, welfare, abortion, gay right, guns etc. etc.) doesn't matter if they win! In other words, how does your candidate propose to keep this country safe and defeat (notice I said defeat, not placate not compromise with, not negotiate with) the most dangerous enemy this country has ever faced. That's it.

2. You must cite specific policies, and avoid vague, meaningless terms like hope, change, future, charm, charisma. I don't want to hear about what a great speaker he is or how somehow this country "owes this to Black people" (Don't laugh, I have actually had very intelligent people make this argument.

3. You cannot mention George Bush!

There you go. Please PM them to me and I will post them as updates or use the comments section (although I think the format for cutting and pasting from PM would be easier with the stupid new tv.com format. Did I mention I hate the new tv.com format )

This is for you my Obama supporting friends only. To my McCain supporting bretheren here, please don't comment on the blog or turn the comments section into a debate or a flame war. Feel free to PM your responses to me.

I seriously want to hear what you have to say.

PIKE

Awhile back I made few observations about the pizza biz and some of the sociological and political angles one sees when one rushes a customer's order to their doorstep. I mentioned that come the fall, we drivers were going to take an informal survey of cutomer attitudes and generosity and cross-reference them to the political signs in their yard and see if any conclusions could be drawn.

Well that plan has not really worked out. Perhaps it is because TExas is a solid color state and fewer people wear their political affiliations on their sleeve, or in this case, stuck into their front yard. We have not had enough "active political houses" to make any kind of conclusive statement or even gather enough good data. A few incidents have stood out to me though.

Last week: upper middle class house, not one, but TWO Obama signs in the front yard. Total bill is 11.98. Woman has teenage daughter give me a check for $12. Wow, two whole cents! Thanks Lady!

Two nights ago: Obama house, upper middle class household, very nice tip. But, this appeared to be a lesbian couple, and a lifetime in service industries has given me the impression that most gays are good to very good tippers.

Today: McCain/Palin sign, upper middle class neighborhood, very generous. $14.36 bill, lady gives me a twenty and tells me to keep the rest.

Not a political sign observation, but a general comment on society in general. Delivered the other night to a lower middle class/working class neighborhood. Used to be nice, but parts have gone "ghetto" in the past decade or so. Hmmmmm. sub prime mortages perhaps???? Anyway delivered to basic 1,600 s. ft. or so house, two car garage. Driveway had a Ford F-150 pickup, that did not appear to be a work truck and a four door Corrola type car. Thirtiesh Hispanic Mom came to the door, couple of children in the background, wedding ring. Friendly, polite, but I could not help but notice behind her a sixty inch or so televsion. The thing pretty much dominated the small living room.

And I began to think. Hmmm, two cars and a sixty inch tv. I work two jobs and can't afford a sixty inch tv.

Yeah, bet they can't afford to buy their kids health care though huh?

Hello all:

(For those who missed my last blog, please check here to see what I am talking about. http://www.tv.com/users/PikeBishop/profile.php?action=show_blog&entry=m-100-25555963)

I am back from Los Angeles and the first ever meeting with my long time internet and phone friend "Layla."

My flight arrived about 7:30 and we had a funny moment as I called her cell as I was walking towards baggage claim. I spotter her opening her cell as she spotted me talking into mine. We had alrady agreed to a "greeting hug" in order to defuse any awkwardness. We both smiled and agreed that we pretty much looked like our pictures, so there were no surprises. She is about 5' 6" and has a nice figure, not just for a woman of 42, but a nice figure in general, (including a really nice butt ). She has a pretty Asian face and that long black hair, of course.

We went back to her place in Huntington Beach. We had no real problems with conversation lag as we talked about our plans for the weekend. We were both pretty tired and turned in early. She has a very comfortable couch that had me in dreamland shortly. She did give me a little kiss good night, which I pointed out was our first ever kiss.

The next day's agenda had us taking a three hour trip to the Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez wine country and a charming little town called Solvang. Solvang is nestled just over the coastal mountains in a little valley. It was founded by Danish immigrants and the town has captialized on that for their tourist industry. The architecture is very nordic looking, including a replica of the Mermaid statue and various tourist sites devoted to Hans Christian Andersen and other Danish things. The town is also chock full of wineries and wine tasting places so I was in heaven.

We had lunch and began to take the wine tour. The first place we went we met another couple who were intrigued by our declaration that we "had known each other for eight years, but only met last night." They had met on match.com and had been married for three years. That was nice to hear.

We strolled the streets, had ice cream, sampled wine, met interesting people and got to know one another. BTW our story got us free drinks in two of the places . We even had some fun in a fairly upscale clothing store that had fallen on hard times due to the current economy (or due to the fact that their stuff is over-priced to begin with as I think), according to the owner, Maria, a sixtyish white haired lady, who had a quick wit. Prices were slashed in half at least, and I found a luxury item I have always wanted, a genine silk shirt, salmon colored. Layla tried on a few tops, and even a pair of really nice fancy pumps, with lots of sparkle. Her feet looked great in those shoes, as even Maria agreed saying, "Wow, you have beautiful feet." This made her blush. Maria also had evening dresses on sale and we convinced her to try one on, I really liked this red number, spaghetti straps, fairly low cut, flowing to the floor. She walked out of that dressing room a vision. Her long hair draped over her shoulders, that firey crimson fabric glowing against her olive skin, and the dress cut just right to emphasize her medium sized breasts.

Both Maria and I thought her a vision, but she only chose the two tops and left the dress and shoes be. Layla later told me that she was a little shy about the dress as she was still that "good little Asian girl" who was not used to such a low cut neckline.

We returned to Huntington Beach and slept soundly after a long shower. The next day was San Diego, only about eighty miles down the road. I did the driving today as a thanks for her doing it yesterday. We stopped just north of San Diego and had lunch with a friend of her's, her husband, mother in law and their adorable one year old son, who is Layla's god son. They are Philippino emigres as well. I got a good look at California real estate prices, as their simple tract home is valued at about $500K. (YIKES) We had a nice lunch at an Asian buffett and headed on to San Diego. We crossed the Coronado bridge and strolled the beach. We then took a harbor cruise, past the sea lions, the naval base and lots of sail boats. (One of my goals in life is to own my own sailboat. I am getting my basic sailing certification this fall) I took some great photos of the boats. It was great basking in the sun, taking photos, feeling the wind and smelling the salt air.

We drove back and decided to go out for a nice dinner. She lives only three miles or so from Huntington Beach, which I found was the original "Surf City" from the Jan and Dean song. AS surf city, it was an interesting place, full of young surfer dude types, and a plethora of young girls of various looks and attitudes. Wed ressed nice and found a good wood fire restaurant with a view of the darkened beach. I had steak and she had salmon and a bottle of my favorite merlot. We strolled around after dinner, people watching, as neither of us was interested in the musical selections offerred in the bars and clubs, music geared to a much younger crowd than us. We strolled out onto the pier, arm in arm. We sat on a bench on the pier and talked a bit about the future .

My flight was the next day at 5, so we decided to go and check out the beach during the daylight. Even in October, there were still surfers out there in their wetsuits, including whole families, little tykes on their little boogie boards, pre teens on their mini boards and Mom and Dad on their long boards. The sun was shining bright around noon. We checked out the surfer gear in the clothing shops and I felt like a real old dude. WE made a stop at the famous Mission de San Juan Capistrano, site of the annual swallow pilgrimage. It is a well-maintained historical site, with a lot of beautiful gardens and quiet serenity. We sat under the shade of a grape arbor and talked about the future a bit more.

She drove me back to the airport; we embraced and kissed goodbye.

She told me she couldn't wait to visit me in Texas.

It was a good weekend.

Hello Friends:

About eight years ago, this month probably but I cannot recall specifically, an interesting thing happened to me. I had had my computer for about a year, and while working my first teaching job and a weekend job at a steakhouse, then, just like now, I didn't have much time for a social life. I had joined Yahoo Personals (back when it was free) in order to meet some friends and find romance. That worked out pretty well for me, as I made lots of friends and had two long term relationships come from this.

Well, one day I checked my in box at Yahoo and found a message from a woman in the Philippines, who had answered my ad. While still being new at this cyber dating thing, I was hip enough raise an eyebrow or two at this. Red flags weren't going up, but let's just say they were a nice shade of orange. I already knew about all those "Asian penpals" and "Meet Russian Ladies" ads in the back of magazines and already beginning to prolliferate in the early days of the internet. In fact a friend of mine had been taken to the cleaners by a "mail order fiancee" years ago, so I answered this ad with my guard up.

Turned out my fears were unfounded. "Layla" was just looking for friends and penpals in the US, not romance, a finacee visa or a green card wedding. She was a year younger than me, single and had a good job in Manila. WE exchanged information and began a long pen pal correspondence, and chatted for hours on IM. We shared similar tates, views and attitudes. We were both single and never married, but we wanted marriage and children. We were both Roman Catholics and we both had lost our Mothers to cancer. We had similar political views, and liked the same kinds of music and movies.

Our friendship blossomed over the winter, through chats and emails. We exchanged photos and both liked what we saw. She IMed me on July 4, 2001 (appropriately enough) and I told her that I had just bought a house and she told me that she was emirgrating to America. She had some relatives in Los Angeles and she had applied for a work visa through them and the company they worked for. I looked forward to being able to call and talk to my new friend when she reached the continental US.

Most of you have figured by now, that yeah, we talked about romance. We discussed the possibilites of the two of us meeting and clicking, marriage and children. I mean, hey, we are both human, and as I said, we had really clicked. Both of us entertained the possibilites of a relationship developing, and our being closer than half a world away, was very exciting. I can recall the exhileration I felt the first time we talked on the phone and I heard her voice, sweet and chraming, made more so somehow by her competant, but still halting, English.

Well things changed a month or so later when I met Alyssa. We began dating and became serious. She moved in with me the next year, 2002 in the summer, and we were engaged in the winter of 2003. I was honest with Layla about this, as the relationship progressed, at least I think I was. I honestly can't remember a lot of what happened beyond my pair bond with Alyssa during those times. We stayed friends and shared the occasional IM, which I did hide from Alyssa for obvious reasons. I could see her asking why I was still even talking to a potential rival female and , who knows, perhaps, subconciously I was seeking it out (Paging Dr. Freud, Paging Dr. Freud, Dr. Freud call your service ). I honestly don't know, but I stayed in touch with her.

Well as you know Alyssa and I did not make it and we parted. This was in December of '03. Layla was well established in California and was doing well. She shared a nice apartment with another Philippina girl, and had a good job with her company. We started talking again, and the idea of my flying out to LA to visit her finally came up. For whatever reason or reasons, we never were able to make the arrangements work out.

Sometime in 04 she met a guy and began dating him. Our correspondence was pretty rare in those days, but part of me died, when she revealed this to me. I had always held out this hope that she would be "the one." Considering the way in which we had first met, and how she moved to the US and....well you get the picture. I was even more taken aback when she told me she was moving in wiht him in 05. This shocked me, because she had always given me the impression she did not approve of this. Without revealing too much detail, let's just say she was a good Catholic girl, even into her 30s.

Her IMs became even more rare as she was in this relationship with this divorced guy, who had a ten year old son. Our conversations resumed soon after and I asked her about her relationship. She was not really happy with him. She wanted marriage and children and he wanted neither. She revealed to me that he pretty much told her up front, that he was not going to marry her. And she had to talk to me on IM in secret because he was the jealous type and would check her computer to see who she had talked to.

I was kicking myself, for all those times I just "could not get out to see her," all the mis steps and false starts to see her and meet her finally. I kept asking her why she was with this guy, and she could not give me a good answer, although she was pretty cold when she told me, that I had pretty much blown my chance with her, (and I hated to admit that she was right).

I dated no one seriously or long term for those years, and she often ended up Iming and talking to various dates of mine, in addition to me. HEre I was playing the field and here she was, in a nowhere relationship.

I hate to say it got pretty emotional at times. I kept asking her why she stayed in this relationship, even if it was not fulfilling her needs, and she kept saying that she got tired of waiting for me, and why it seemed like I was playing the field so much, if I wanted to settle down and marry. Both of us exchanged pointed jabs like two top-notch middle weight fighters.

At one point I even told her, "Congratulations Layla! You've always wanted to be an American girl and you have finally succeded. You are now officially the typical American girl. You're stuck in a relationship that is going nowhere with a loser who doesn't fulfil your needs and won't be a part of your long term goals and you are going to waste all of your energy "trying to make this work" and "someday he will CHANGE."

Hey, I told you it got contentious. As Bree once remarked to her son, when she threw him out of the house and abandoned him during Desperate Housewives's second season, "The opposite of love isn't hate, its indifference." Hate still involves feeling. Layla and I did not hate one another, but we still felt and we still hurt because of that.

I could tell she was hurting. The fact that she was sneaking around and trying to IM and talk to me, her friend, was a good indicator of that fact. She was unhappy.

Well sometime in 2007, she finally reached the end. She finally realized that this relationship was not fulfilling her needs. She broke up with him and moved out. Her Yahoo icon started popping up a lot more on my screen. She could not wait to talk to me and tell me of the changes in her life.

She moved to Orange County and got her own aprartment. She got a promotion at her work. She is now no longer on her work visa, which pretty much limited her to her employer and living in Califronia. And finally, she now has her green card.

We talked more and more as we rebuilt the bridges we had not just burned, but in some cases had dynamited, in the past five years. We rekindled our friendship and reignited our mutual, long distance, and somewhat unspoken romance.

Which brings us to today.

My flight to LA leaves at 6PM tomorrow night. Wish me luck gang!

PIKE

Hello All:

Starting with Hoeech you were all close, but no cigar. The correct answer is I met her "triplet" sister who set us up. Yeah, I know that's cheap, but hey. Our date has been postponed until tomorrow, hopefully as she is down with the bug that is going around her office. I feel for her, I hate summer-fall colds. I caught one when I came back from Itlay and it was a pain in the nether regions.

Has anyone else had this problem? I can't read further than the first page of comments on anything, since the redesign. I click on the > and the "next" or "previous" and nothing happens. Is this a glitch anyone else has seen?

Here is a little logical noggin scratcher for you.

On Saturday night Pike Bishop is going out on a blind date, with a woman he has never seen. He has not seen a picture, video, or artistic rendering of her, yet he knows exactly what she looks like.

How is this possible?

1. Get rid of this blue iceberg, butting against the coast of Antarctica page layout.

2. Bring back the ten "new blogs by my friends" list, which was so much better than the three I can see nowl.

3. Can't submit credits for my shows.

4. Can't check more than one page of comments on a blog.

5. What happeend to all my emblems, like editor for a show and editor for a person?

I hate the new tv.com!

I gotta give the man credit. McCain rolled the dice politically today in announcing that he was suspending his campaign temporarily to return to Washington to deal with the financial crisis. With the White House, the Fed and both houses of Congress trying desperatly to stave off financial disaster McCain felt his place was in the Senate. He has asked that Friday's debate be postponed, in order to deal with the crisis and get legislation passed. So far Obama's camp has refused to reschedule and says that it must go on.

That is a very brave and very statesmanlike move on McCain's part. Some will accuse him of political grandstanding, as Obama has caught him and leads in most polls, mostly due to the economic uncertainty. And I believe that some of that was in his mind as a way to try and take the wind out of Obama's sails, being the political realist that he his.

But I think this move will be seen as a positive by most, and Obama's refusal to return to Washington and his insistence on debating McCain Friday night will be seen as petulant.

It took Obama's camp a long time to come up with a statement after McCain's gambit today. A long time. Hmmm, maybe those Hilary "Its 3AM" ads had a point about his descisiveness?

I think the most important point is that both McCain and Obama, while running for president, are still BEING PAID AS UNITED STATES SENATORS for crying out loud! They need to be there to do their elected duty. A foreign policy debate can be rescheduled for anytime. OUr elected officials need to do their jobs and work for the people.

C'mon Barak get back to the Senate and do some work.

Update: It appears as if Senator Obama has decided to come back to Washington tomorrow. If that is true then I say Bravo. Thank you Senator Obama.

Was just reading a comparison of a biography of Sarah Palin and Obama's autobiographical works and this neat fact jumped out.

Two of the major players in this election, for the first time, were NOT products of the "lower 48." Obama's life in Hawaii and Palin's in Alaska. I think that is pretty cool.

Presidential election trivia: No matter who wins the election, this country's electorate will do something that it has only done THREE times in our entire history. What is that?

Well doesn't this just take the cake.

Hackers have broken into Sarah Palin's email account and have posted cell phone numbers, emails, personal photos and various other items all over the web.

This is utterly disgraceful, the depths to which some people will go. This has been just the latest example of the sleazy behavior of some members of the left wing blogosphere, in their ruthless desire, not just to win an election, but to utterly destroy anyone who disagrees with them.

I kept quiet as every baseless smear, rumor and inuendo was thrown at her, by the blogosphere (and their compicit allies in the MSM) over the past two weeks. Don't forget the "Trig is not Palin's baby" meme was started by an anonymous post on Dailykos, and was picked up by the MSM. Funny how they weren't really interested in investigating Obama's association with known terrorists, a Federally convicted Chicago political fixer, who sold the Obama's their home in a deal which has some major red flags in it, the racist pastor, in whose church he sat for twenty years, etc., but one baseless allegation on a web site and they were all over that one. And let's not even get into their sloth in covering the John Edwards story, which the National Enquirer first started working on, last fall.

All that??? Naaaaaaah, not newsworthy.

And this is just unbelievable. Funny people told me that if Bush were re-elected we would see a total erosion of privacy and individual freedoms in this country.

Yeah, I guess they were right!

The big story today as we try to clear away the fallen tree branches and begin repairs on our homes and lives is a wonderful story of bureacracy at work.

Briefly FEMA has sent hundreds of trailer trucks to the affected area, loaded with MREs, ice and water to various PODs (point of distribution) all over the area. However neither FEMA, the State of TExas or local government was aware of just who was to take reposnbility to actually distribute the stuff!!!! Somehwere along the line that little, miniscule, tiny point of detail got overlooked. FEMA swears its a local responsibility and the State and locals say FEMA was supposed to do it.

So while they all play the blame game, only about six PODs have been delivered to as of10PM Sunday night, so a bunch of hungry, hot, sweaty, thirsty people have to go another night without relief.

WTG Government idiots! Nice communication there! Just makes me think how much I can't wait for the government to be in charge of my health care.

My friend MIke and his Dad are staying with me. They have no power so they came out yesterday, and stayed over. They brought some food and beer. We threw together a nice feast and they got to relax in the air conditioning. Mike's Dad is in his 70s and does not need to be suffering the heat like that.

As I said, I am very lucky. Many towns around us have no power. Stopped by the pizza shop today and they had no electricty apparently. There were hardly any lights on. I don't know how they were cooking pizza though.

The school district cancelled school for tomorrow while our schools get inspected and examined for damage.

Mike and George are staying tonight as well.

Will keep you abreast.

PIKE

Well early Friday morning it was Trying to reason with the hurricane season by Jimmy Buffett; last night/early morning was REO Speedwagon's Ridin' the Storm Out and today is obviously Maureen McGovern's (There's got to be a) Morning After.

Well its obvious that I still have power. I also have water pressure and the satellite works.

I slept pretty well last night, only jolted awake a few times. Woke up around 8:30 and surveyed the area. I have one section of fence knocked down, but actually I am ok with that. It was a section, where I have periodically had to replace individual planks, and I was worried those would break off individually and become flying missiles (I kept thinking about the Desperate Housewives scenario ). Better the entire section fell. I also have one section of fence that is leaning over. That should not be too hard to fix. And a big dead tree limb hit the corner of my house, but the corner with no windows thank God.

I looked out on the street and everything appears to be fine. Lots of broken branches and small limbs strewn about, but that seems to be it.

I feel terrible for my fellow Gulf Coasters and will do what I can in terms of charity and donating time to help the whole region get back on its feet.

This will be the final live blog as Ike is well inland north of Houston. Thanks for sharing this with me and all your thoughts and prayers for my safety.

PIKE

Scroll down for updates

Hello All:

Well I have prepared as well as I think I can. I taped up my windows, removed everything from my yard that could conceivably become a missle, and even climbed on the roof to remove any more low lying branches that could strike the house.

You can tell this was an emergecy. Wal-Mart closed by noon. Most businesses were shut down by mid-day, except for the gas stations/convenience stores, and they had no shortage of gas. I heard on the radio last night that tanker trucks were able to make emergency rounds at a lot of places on the evac routes, which was a good thing.

It was a pretty morning, but the winds began to swirl by noon, as it got cloudy, and there were even a few drizzles of rain.

Around six I shot some pictures and some video. I was hanging out in my house and would look out at my street and realized that many of my neighbors were stil haning out in their driveways and open garages. Tejano music blared from truck speakers and soft drinks and adult beverages were in evidence. It suddenly hit me. Eveyone was outside for as long as they could be before they were forced to go inside for God knows how long. I grabbed my camera and walked around.

I took some video on my street, facing the wind and a gust blew some dust into my eyes, ouch. I could tell the wind speed had picked up. It suddenly hit me how isolated we can be as a society.

I grew up on a street where everyone knew everyone and families lived in the same house, somtimes for generations. I really know almost none of my neighbors. True, many of the houses are rentals and those houses change occupants like I change socks, but still. My next door neighbors are a family, whose son I taught sixth grade years ago and I am pretty tight with them, well at least through their son Nick, who translates for Mom and Dadl But I know no one.

Well I walked to the end of the street and the guy at the house said, hello. We shook hands and he offered me a beer, which I accepted. We started talking and I got to know my neighbor. Mexican guy, named Junior. He introduced me to his young children and his brother and the brother's children. He works construction and his son played on the TExas Class 3 State champion football team last year (an honor that pretty much indicates "god status" here in Texas ) Wow, all these years here and I never really made any effort to know these people. We had a great time talking about hurricanes past, after I told him this was my first one, but I did tell about the snowstorms and the flash flood I survived.

The wind was gusting harder now, and the sky was actually quite pretty. The clouds were already scudding from north to south, as we are on the left side of the storm, the winds will hit us from the north. There was a lovely sunset, which I got a few pics of as well. The little ninas and ninos were having a blast leaning into the wind and pretending to be knocked over. I wondered how the little ones were going to deal with the incredible noise that was to come. Junior described it to his seven year old son, as a freight train right outside the house.

The party broke up at around 8:15 when a police truck drove up with lights flashing and told us all, "Mandatory evacuation, get off the street.!" We all wished each other well, good lucks and "buena suertas" and headed for our homes. I am making some pasta for dinner.

More updates later, as long as I have power.

BTW: If anyone knows how to post pictures to blogs here please PM me a step by step process on how to do it. I am a computer idiot and have no clue.

Keep us in your thoughts

PIKE

Update: 10:48 CDT

I am southwest of Houston, about 35 miles. I still have power and water pressure, while, according to reports, a lot of south Houston, west and northwest Houston have lost power.

We have had no rain here yet, but the winds are up. Given the appearance of the trees I would guess we are at around 50 mph.

Fox is reporting that the eyewall should be over Galveston within the hour. There are also reports of another eyewall forming as well.

"Weathernerd" (http://pajamasmedia.com/weathernerd/) is already calling this The Great Galveston Hurricane of 2008, a harkening back to the famed 1900 Storm that almost wiped that town off the face of the planet.

Its not looking good down here people.

Pray for us real hard.

PIKE

11:18 CDT

Poked my head out and felt the first drops of rain falling. Winds up and clouds are flying accross the sky, north to south. Sky is a cloudy, light grey color.

12:20 CDT

The rain has come. Nothing major yet. Not coming in horizontal or anything. Just the kind of rain you would see in a strong thunder shower. Seems like the wind has calmed a bit.

I feel sorry for my fellow Gulf Coasters on the dirty side of this storm, but am grateful it has not hit us hard yet.

1:30 CDT

Still raining, but nothing out of the ordinary. Winds are howling, but nothing really extreme yet. Am going to try and get some sleep. Hope I still have power to blog tomorrow.

Good night

PIKE

Scroll Down for updates:

Hello Gang:

I am staying put. I am not evacuating, but I am hunkering down in anticipation of the visit from Hurricane Ike, due to touch down here on the Southwest Texas coast within 24 hours.

I do not live on the coast; in fact I live 56 miles inland, so I am not worried about a storm surge. Let's be honest, if a strom surge made it this far, then we would need an ark . I live alone and I have nowhere to evacuate to, not to mention I drive a Saturn Ion, with an 11.5 gallon gas tank. HItting the road was never really an option, unless we were looking at a four or five.

I do have bottled water, canned and non-perishable food, candles, matches and a propane grill in case I am without power for a few days. And I also have "Old Bessy" in case I need her, with turkey shot rather than buck.

My friend Mike lives a bit closer to Houston than me, and we are staying in touch. We have agreed to support each other. For instance if one is without power he is welcome to stay with the other until the lights go back on.

My house is located in the middle of the street which is nice, having protection on either side. My front door faces due west, which is good as the wind will probably be coming from the southeast, and may back patio is on the leeward side of the house. I have cleared away low lying branches from my trees to avoid them damaging my roof and I have pulled inside anything that could become "airborne" in hundred plus MPH winds.

As I type this, I can't help but say that a small part of me is excited by this. Perhaps its just my adrenalaine, but I am kind of jazzed to see what this is all about. I have lived through several bad snowstoms up north and lived through a flash flood roaring through a creek valley in Western Pennsylvania, but this is something different. I have seen them on tv since I was a kid and always wondered what it would be like to feel it for real. A friend of mine who lived in Florida and rode out two Category Threes said, she could not believe how loud it was!

I worked Dominos tonight and we were pretty busy. Not surprising as everyone was busy gassing up, boarding up their windows, stockpiling supplies and they had no tiime to cook. As far as I know we are still scheduled to be open the usual hours tomorrow, even though Ike is scheduled to hit us late Friday/early Saturday. The winds could be as high as 50 knots by 6PM tomorrow and I don't think I will be driving pizza in conditions like that.

I couldn't help but think of something rather amusing in this tense moment. And that has to do with Hurricane Ike himself. Ike? I cant help but think of the image Hurricane Ike conjures up in my mind.

My mental picture consists of a "personified storm" like the old Plymouth Duster logo, a spinning dustcloud with eyes. or the Tazmanian Devil spinning.

I picture Ike coming ashore in a tight bell bottomed pants, a huge afro, dark shades and saying things like, "I really love ya Texas Gulf Coast. I really do Baby. I'm sorry I hit ya, but I really love ya. I'm sorry Baby, it won't happen again. I really love you."

Hurricane Ike?

I finished work at around 10:30. The breeze had picked up noticibly, and it was almost as if I could hear the sea starting to rage all those miles away. There were stars in the sky, not many but they were there, and the moon was visible. It was hard for me to fathom that the winds would be up by noon tomorrow, and that they may be roaring by 6PM, and then the rains will come. Such a calm and pretty night. Hard to believe its the calm before the storm.

Please spare a thought or a prayer or two for those of us on the Gulf Coast. I will be here as long as I have power.

Take Care

Pike

10:00AM CDT

A little musical interlude for today, kinda sums up the day.

Trying to Reason with the Hurricane Season

Jimmy Buffett

Squalls out on the Gulfstream,
Big storms coming soon.
I passed out in my hammock,
God, I slept way past noon.
Stood up and tried to focus,
I hoped I wouldn't have to look far.
I knew I could use a Bloody Mary,
So I stumbled next door to the bar.

Chorus
And now I must confess,
I could use some rest.
I can't run at this pace very long.
Yes, it's quite insane,
I think it hurts my brain.
But it cleans me out and then I can go on.

There's something about this Sunday
It's a most peculiar gray
Strolling down the avenue
That's known as A1A
I was feeling tired, then I got inspired.
And I knew that it wouldn't last long
So all alone I walked back home, sat on my beach
And then I made up this song.

Chorus

Well, the wind is blowin' harder now
Fifty knots of there abouts,
There's white caps on the ocean.
And I'm watching for water spouts
It's time to close the shutters
It's time to go inside.
In a week I'll be in gay Paris;
That's a mighty long airplane ride.

Chorus
Yes, It cleans me out and then I can go on.

Just saw this analysis in the Wall Stree Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122100742173517529.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks

A few highlights and thoughts:

1. The Iraq and Afganistan Wars are not breaking the budget as some have suggested. Total Defense spending is $605 billion, but that is only about 4.5% of total GDP. In the 90s it was at its lowest at about 3% as we breathed a sigh of relief at the Berlin Wall coming down and the Soviet Union disintergrating in '91.

2. Despite the defecit inching up close to 450 billion again, mostly due to the stimulus checks we all got last spring, but that is only about 5% of GDP. I have to remind my eco students not to think in terms of "nominal dollars" when speaking of the largest defecits in history, but to look at A) inflation adjusted dollars, and B) (more important in considering the effect on the economy) percentage of GDP. Go back and look at our defecit during the height of World War II, when it was 18% of GDP!

3. Domestic Federal agencies sure aren't tightening their belts. Spending is up over 8% this year and is expected to grow at 7% next year. That 09 figure of course is irrelevent to who wins the presidency this year, as the new president takes over during the middle of the fiscal year and cannot do anything about the Bush/Pelosi/Reid budget, until later in his first year.

4. Pork and earmarks don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, although earmarks are down from their height in '06, which helped the Republicans lose their majorities, they are still clocking it an eyepopping 11,000 items.

Read the whole thing:

Most of my recent blogs have been pretty heavy: cancer survivor sister, death of a beloved relative, working my butt off at pizza shop, reflections on moving to Texas etc. so let's have a little blog about social interaction, and the rules of dating. I want opinons from my friends of both genders, so here goes.

Two weeks ago I had an interesting experience. I just turned 43, have never been married and work two jobs. Its kind of tough for me to have a social life. Also my network of friends and aquantances has changed drastically. MY frind RAchel and her husband moved back to Ohio; my best friend Jeff and his wife....uh......let's just say "became different people" when they joined a mega church here in Houston recently , and as a single male teacher in his forties, most of the single women where I teach are too young, or if they are in my age group and not married, there is usually a good reason, and most of the people in my age group are married couples. I am the odd single guy, in that demographic.

I do have one very good friend, Mike, but he is not really much of a social animal, and he can be a bit on the cheap side. (Although to be fair, he is getting better in both areas. I even have him shopping at Jospeh A Bank now. ) He does not really enjoy going out to fine restaurants or wine bars like I do, so often I put on my Joseph A. Bank clothes, head out to a nice place and dine alone. I never liked pick-up bars or ear-splitting dance clubs or the people that go there.

Well, I usually work pizza on Friday nights. And I always bring a change of clothes, deodorant and cologne in case I get out early enough to go somewhere. I usually try to meet up with Mike, but more often than not he does not feel like going out. (To be fair to him, he had to take in his father, after his mom died a few years ago, and he does like to spend time with his dad, watching their favorite Friday shows, like Monk, together).

I got out from pizza around ten and almost decided to go home. It was late and I was tired, but I said, "No" I was not going to just go to my house and be alone. I decided to go to Sugar Land to this new up-scale martini bar that just opened. I put on a nice pair of khakis and my favorite dressy sport shirt, slapped on some cologne and headed to the bar.

It was crowded. I could not find a seat, so I bellyd up to the bar, and found to my wonderful surprise that the bartender was a student from my very first year of teaching high school. We shook hands and renewed old aquantiances. I found out that "Mark" is not just the bartender, but the bar manager at this new up-scale establishment. I ordered a Manhattan and he comped it for me.

At that point I noteced that I was standing next to a couple, sitting on bar stools to my left. Somehow we started talking when the lady, (who was right next to me) heard that I was a teacher, and we began exchaning talk about our careers, kids, schools, the new year etc.

They were an intesting couple. He was probably about 25 and she was in her 30s ( I found out later 32). He was a good looking guy, who only drank water, while she was sipping on dirty martinis.

Ok, she was stunning! She fit many of the categories that just "push my buttons." She had gorgeous red hair. I love redheads! She was freckled. I love freckled redheads! Her short-sleeved, very low cut blouse revealed that she was freckled all over. I love redheads with freckles all over! She had those slate grey eyes that a lot of redheads have. I love.......ok, you get the picture.

As the three of us talked, I tried to ascertain the status of her relationship with this guy. IT was obvious they were not married, and I began to wonder if they were even dating. Well my hopes took a step back when they engaged in some very light, very innocent-looking hand holding and arms around the shoulder. I was thinking, Hmmmm. still not sure she is totally into this guy, and I really was digging her.

After what seemed like forever, her companion finally got up and went to the restroom. Left alone with her, we continued to talk. I looked into her beautiful eyes, glanced down at her amazing body (she was wearing tight jeans), took one last glance at the exposed half-moons of her perfectly rounded breasts, and decided to act.

Now you have to undersand something. As I have grown older, I have gotten comfortable with the rituals and rites and the dance of dating and social interaction. The things that bother you when you are twenty, don't seem to matter much when you reach this age. In an odd way this makes dating easier, as people are more clear about what they like and what they want. We have all been through the dance before and we can cut to the chase, faster.

In the last few years I have developed a new confidence, not a cockiness, but a confidence. It has become easier for me to just be me, let my guard down, and be direct. I don't fret about flirting or asking a woman out. If she recjects me? Hey, that's okay, no problem, she just was not interested. I move on. Wheras most of the time, until a few years before, my self esteem would have taken a huge hit.

BTW, there is one other thing that has helped my confidence. I have a good head of hair on the sides, but it is thin on top. I have a very pronounced widow's peak. Well every year at the start of the school year, I get my hair buzz cut! All the way down as far as you can go with clippers. I usually just walk into the barber and say, "Vin Diesel me! I tell you that has been one of the most liberating things I could have done. Now, when I am talking to a woman, I am not worried about my hair line, or thinness, or if she is even checking it out. It is so relaxing to sit there, while siliently saying, "Hey, this is what I look like, Babe. Do you like it or not?"

Well I looked at "Linda, " directly into those grey eyes, and said, "I just have to say this, you are a very lovely woman. I just love your freckles." She smiled and her cheeks got a little redder at the compliment. I continued, "So are you two seriously dating?"

She said no and that it was just kind of a casual thing, they had met through friends, and this was only thier third date or so. She also mentined that she didnt' see much of a future, but he was a nice guy to go out with. I then asked if she would be interested in going out with me, and she said, that she would, since we had established that we had so much in common, during our coversations, other than being teachers.

I asked her for her phone number, and, looking over her shoulder to see if he was coming back from the restroom, she gave it to me, which I immediately put into my phone.

We met for steaks and wine the next night.

Ok, I can't help but thinking about this. Did I violate "the code," "the rules," "the way we do things?" Did I cross a line in complimenting a woman, who was on a date with another man, no matter how casual their relationship? I mean if she had told me they were seriously dating I would never have pursued it any further, honest, but there is still this nagging part of my that I did some kind of sleazy move here.

So I am asking for your opinions. Gentlemen, did I violate the male code here? I want to know what you think? Ladies, what is your take? What would you have thought of me in that situation and how would you have responded?

Let me know!

Pike

Looks like Gustav is going to hit the Gulf Coast with a pretty strong impact and could be worse than Katrina. God help us all.

It is great to see that most officials learned a lot from Katrina, a few years ago.

Mayor Ray Nagin has ordered a mandatory evacuation, and busses are picking people up who don't have cars, the LA Guard is airlifting patients from hospitals and the evacuation seems to ve very orderly. He told people to get out and get out now, and there will be no "shelter of last resort" like the Superdome. Good work Mayor.

Also the state is up and running, thanks to the new governor Bobby Jindal, who replaced that complete idiot Kathleen Blanco, who was about 70% responsible for the Katrina disaster a few years ago. National Guard has been mobilized and state emergency aid is being prepared.

And the Feds are even getting involved early, HOmeland Security and FEMA are being mobilized and are on top of the situation.

Some lessons were learned, BUT I have a question.

Reading through a lot of the news bulletins, I keep seeing a common thread in regard to talks about the potential for a storm surge and a levee break again. It keeps mentioning the "uncompleted work" or the levees "that still have not been completely rebuilt three years after Katrina."

My sister Ruth flew down to visit me on Saturday and she stayed until Tuesday. Her visit was one of the reasons I could not attend Dave's funeral (for my new friends please read my previous post) which was held on Friday.

A little background here. Ruth and I were born fourteen years apart, in fact I was a real "late in life baby" as Mom had me at 42, back when women barely had kids at 35, let alone 40. She left for college when I was only three and so I don't have a lot of memories of her from my early youth. Truth to say, she seemed more of an Aunt than a sister at times. We took a few family vacations together, but Ruth got a teaching job locally and moved out of the house when I was about 11. We were never close.

Ruth married when she was 32 and I was graduating high school. She had my nieces in quick succession a few years later (their current ages 23, 22 and 20) and yet we were still far apart in terms of age, marital status and various other things. I do recall getting a birthday card from her when I was 22 or so, in which she mentioned that she really appreciated me and never realized what a loyal brother I had been, as she thanked me for playing such an active role in her childrens' and her her life. That felt nice.

A year later our Mother was diagnosed with her brain tumor and that really brought our family together. One year following that Ruth was diagnosed with breast cancer. What a crushing blow to our entire family. Mom has cancer and now Sister brings out the same tragic news. From 1990 - 1993 Ruth had a mastectomy and a few years later, the cancer spread to other parts of her chest as well. She had to have more surgery and a stem cell transplant as treatment. Here she was with three daughters all less than ten years old, a devoted husband, a loyal brother and a father who was dealing with cancer in the two most important women in his life.

I remember finding out about the reappearance of the cancer in '93, and was so shaken I could not even go home to my apartment that I shared with my cousin. Ruth did not want any family members to know about this just yet, but I knew if I went home, Cousin John would figure out something was wrong with me, just from the way I looked. I called my then girlfriend, LuAnn, and asked if I could come over. Luann soothed me and comforted me, while I cried and raged against God and the unfairness of all these health problems that had suddenly descended on my family like an avalanche.

Well Ruth fought through that one, surving the stem cell transplant, which at one point she told me made her the sickest out of all the treatments she had been forced to undergo during those hellish years. She recoverd and eventually had some reconstructive surgery, but at one point told me, she "could not face lying on another operating table."

And this weekend she came down to visit me and We played golf together! I know, what your are thinking, "Pike, why did you just bold face golf?" Well because after her upper body was ravaged by radiation, chemo and mastectomy, Ruth told me sometime in the '90s she would probably never play golf again. Well, she was able to build her strength back up and took up the game again a few years ago. My brother in law also took up the game as well. You have no idea how proud I was to share a golf cart with my sister and watch her swing a club again. There we were just like when I was a teen, sharing a cart, complimenting each other's shots and proving once again that neither one of us take "constructive criticism" of our golf games very well.

I loved having her visit me here in Texas. There had been some tense times in our adult relationship over the years, espeically when she was the one with the stable career, the nice home, the spouse and the children while I drifted through my twenties. It was like we were on different planets at times. But as her girls were born and she saw how much I loved my nieces and was able to help her out when she could not perform all of her parental duties, due to her physical weakness things seemed to get better. A couple of times I went over to their house just to help bathe and get the girls ready for bed while she was too weak to even move. (Understand that when she was first diagnosed her daughters were aged 5, 4 and 2). We got even closer.

She was a big supporter of my earning my teaching degree and my subsequent move to Texas. I was so proud to have her visit MY house. Ruth always loved entertaining and her sense of style, manners and class always impressed me. She never missed a birthday or anniversary and was always there with a card to commemerate the occasion. She was an awesome gift giver. She always knew the perfect gift for Christmas or birthdays. I like to joke that "Martha Stewart calls her for advice." I was so proud to have my Sister visit me, her bachelor brother and check out my home.

Yes, I am a bachelor male, but I take pride in my house. I have bought nice furniture, dark woods-warm cherry and oak and I have tried to develop some sense of "style." THere are no beer signs or girly posters on my walls. I have framed art and have tried to create a home that is masculine, but not in the arrested adolescent, "never grew up" male we seem to read about so much.

Ruth complimented me on the house. She thought my furniture, art and decorations went well together. I was so proud. "Martha" even helped me pick out a rug to go in my living room. There I was, shopping for a rug with my sister, (Ruth dutifuly carrying one of my sofa pillows into the stores to match) whom I have had an up and down relationship with over forty odd years.

I was very proud!

Ruth had gone to the funeral in Ohio for Dave on Friday. She drove the two hours or so with my Dad and my Aunt and Uncle who are all in their 80s and were not fit to drive that distance. She said it was a fitting tribute to the life that Dave had lived, and she observed something that would not be unusual for those of us who had known that family. She simply stated that theirs was such a "loving family."

She told me that both Dave's youngest son, my cousin Phillip, and their parish priest spoke lovingly at the funeral mass of Dave's great qualities and warmth and innate generosity and humanity. I was utterly shocked when Ruth told me that she learned that Dave was a convert and not the "cradle Catholic" we all assumed he was.

She said that Jerry and Phillip's wives (both named Linda BTW) attended to, and cared for Janet as if she was their own Mother, not just mother in law.

Gary shared my tribute (that I had posted here) with Janet and said that it perked her up and brought her much joy in this tragic time.

Ruth had not seen their family in years, but they all recognized her and could not wait to talk to her and catch up and they were so appreciative for bringing Dad and my Aunt and Uncle down.

All Ruth could talk about was the love, the deep and undying love of Dave and Janet's family. And we are already talking about getting together next year and not "putting it off" like we have been.

Oh yes, and the "surprising revelation" I promised?

During the course of one of our meals together during the weekend, Ruth told me an amazing fact. She is the "longest living survivor of a stem cell transplant in this entire country. Fifteen years and counting. I asked her if she was in medical textbooks yet. She demurred, saying, no but she was brought up in consultatons and conferences all the time.

My Sister, my beloved sister is the longest living survivor of that treatment. Her oncologist refers to her as "His Miracle."

Well to tie all the loose ends of the story together, yesterday I dropped Ruth off at the airport, which is quite a drive for me, so I decided to avoid rush hour traffic and hang out in Houston for a bit, have dinner, maybe check some things out.

Back in Pittsburgh I had a a group of friends who used to play NTN trivia regularly. We used to play at Damon's and various other locations. You played the game and then could see how your scores compared to other locations and individuals throughout the US and Canada. I have not played NTN in quite some time, but decided to stop off and see my old friends for a game. They were glad to see me.

Well when the final scores came up, one of the top fifty scores for that game was a familiar name. It was the trivia handle of Luann, who had cradled me in her arms and wiped away my tears on that horrible night fifteen years ago, when I learned that Ruth was going under the knife again.

Wow, Ruth visits and Luann wins trivia that week. I emailed Luann and told her about Ruth and golf and I thanked her again for her compassion for me all those years ago. She replied that God is great and has given me all these years with my sister, years that are a miracle that we have had.

My Sister Ruth, the miracle, the longest-living survivor of that treatment, even is she still won't take any advice about her golf game.

Hug your loved ones for me my friends. Hug them good.