So, you might recall that, just under a year ago, we were so proud of ourselves for surviving out first hurricane. Hurricanes, we naively thought, weren’t as bad as a those Midwestern storms where the sky turns green. Boy, we were stupid. Sure enough, along came Ida a couple of weeks ago to show us just how dumb we Northerners were.

As the newscasters started predicting a category 3 storm, Ida didn’t seem like the type of storm we wanted to ride out in our 100+ year old house with no interior rooms (unless you count a couple of closets too small for one person or a toilet room). We hemmed and we hawed about what to do for a couple of days, but we both knew we were going to evacuate. And, evacuate we did. To Texas. The land where covid apparently doesn’t exist. (Yeah, masks were most definitely not an essential accessory in Dallas for most people. But, I’m guessing the same would have been true of anywhere we would have evacuated to in Mississippi and Alabama and Florida too.)

We quickly learned that an evacuation to Dallas is good for two things and two things only — eating way too much Mexican food and (for Robert) trying new beers. Oh, and the art was pretty good too. But, we are in absolutely no rush to go back to Dallas. Ever. Next evacuation (and, yes, we know there will be one), we are going to find some place other than Dallas.

We also learned that an evacuation is good for one other thing — obsessively checking every source of information possible. As the storm rolled into New Orleans, we obsessively checked our security cameras. Initially, it didn’t look too bad. And, then, before the storm had even really reached New Orleans, our power was out. Oh oh. There went the security cameras. After that, we obsessively checked the local news and Twitter and Nextdoor and Facebook for any and all information as to how the city had fared.

Oh, and an evacuation is good for thinking of all the things you should have done differently. Guess who left food in the fridge? We did. Guess who didn’t take photos of their house and possessions? We didn’t (although we have very few possessions in the house right now anyway). Guess who packed all the wrong stuff? We did. Guess who didn’t unplug major appliances? Yep, once again. Us.

Thankfully, other than losing power for a week, our house appears to have been spared. Some of our neighbors weren’t so lucky — there are damaged roofs and damaged siding all around our neighborhood. And, other nearby communities were absolutely hammered. We count ourselves fortunate. Fingers crossed we will be able to say the same after the next one. Remind us again why we bought a house in a hurricane zone????