Hurricane Rita

I think Paul misses his family... please pass the big wussie a tissue, will someone? He does, however, have his poker cap on... so he's ready for this afternoon's championship Texas No-Hold'em Tournament!! The buy-in for the tournament? Three sticks of Beef Jerky. Why? Because money is meaningless to us... we've resorted to using jerky as our new money system.

Here is a picture of Shane's mom's Army boots.

Paul is such a slob... leaves his dirties laying all about for Shane to pick up after. What a rotten guest.

Okay... so Paul and I weren't so lucky in the No-Hold'em poker tournament... time for us to go on the lookout for more jerky!!! I'm hopeful that we'll find some, otherwise NO MORE POKER!

Paul encourages me that we WILL FINE MORE BEEF JERKY!

The road towards the quickie-mart seems peaceful... BUT THEN......

The hurricane hits!!! And the waters come down. OH NO!!! We're stuck in the truck... with NO BEEF JERKY!

Oh wait... no need to panic... that was just me using up massive amounts of windshield washer fluid. As I look back on it now, it was silly... I mean... the windows will be washed enough after this weekend, eh?

Bummer... the Stop 'n Go quickie mart is closed. Even the local police find no comfort in the basking of a box of donuts.

On the way back we see more homes boarded up.

This is a local cop-stop, where they've towed in a number of vehicles that ran out of gas trying to get away from Houston in gridlocked traffic.

This is a house... well... that probably just needs to go away. I mean, LOOK at that awful color. GAY!

I don't have to tell you why this will probably be the first place to "go" during the hurricane.

This is me... being a smooth criminal, on the hunt for more Beef Jerky.

Please note that my windshield wiper fluid low indicator light is now ON, thanks to my retarded previous "joke."

Not sure if you can see the sign, or if it will be there when I come back by again... but now we now where to get farm-fresh eggs. It's not Jerky, so we pass on the offer.

A horses butt.

Another boarded up window, on my street.

Okay, okay... so we FINALLY got 'round to hauling in the outdoor furniture. Now we have to figure out how to position it in the garage so there's still room to play a nice game of pool.

The pugs do one final inspection of the patio outside and declair that it's almost "good to go."

A neighbor boards up his final windows. We'd do the same, but we're currently using our plywood as an oversized poker table, and I've got a good hand right now... so maybe later (if I win all the Jerky.)

Old Smokey. One of the last to go from the back patio.

OUR POWER WENT OUT!!! Luckly for us, I hooked up two of our last remaining battery backup systems to the TV and the PlayStation... so video game action can continue.

Paul enjoys the comforts of uninterrupted power supplies.

We'll turn the game off and save the batteries for later, once Paul has reached his target high score. So far he's not doing so well.

Paul prepares to take a shower. Something I think we all need about right now.

Shane prepares food. Something we also all need about right now.

I have a final "talk" with the pugs about water safety and hurricane evacuation plans, and we run through several drills.

Here you see Mr. Fuggs practicing escape plan #375, where he hides in an oversized beer cooler and pretends to be beer. Out floating on a river of flooded water past a few trailer parks and he's GUARANTEED to be one of the first rescued. Once they find out there's no beer inside then he's on his own.

Shane shows off the fruits of his poker labor. He calls it skill, but I call it luck. Looks like it's time AGAIN for yet another Beef Jerky run.