Well, while watching ABC World News Tonight last night, they had an interview with a man getting take-out at my favorite Friendswood Chinese restaurant, and the surrounding area looked just fine. Couple that with calls from a couple of my neighbors, one of whom who never left, saying that the 'hood looks good, and I'm gonna breathe a sigh of relief.

We're still out in West Texas and are planning on heading back home sometime Monday, loaded down with extra gas and plenty of food and water, just in case it's a 30-hour trip going back like it was for so many heading out. Tried to buy a couple more gas cans in Abilene this afternoon, but the whole city is sold out... and we're 400 miles from Houston!

I've been unable to get in touch with friends in the Beaumont and Lake Charles areas, but hopefully they evacuated in time and will get to come home to minimal damage. Time to turn our positive energies towards them. Save and except the tragedy of the bus fire south of Dallas, the fact that there were hardly any other reported fatalities from the evacuation or the storm is truly a miracle. As long as Texas Governor Rick Perry doesn't parlay all this national camera time into some higher office, we'll be just fine.

Thanks to all of you who posted messages, e-mailed and called to check in on us. All that good karma certainly had plenty to do with our rolling the Yahtzee it took to survive this storm in one piece.

"I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and then I thought: What the hell good would that do?" -- Ronnie Shakes