Dallas Versus Hurricane Ike
September 13th, 2008 by --KALEB NATION--
In case you live under a rock and haven’t heard, Hurricane Ike is coming through Texas right now, and it looks as if it might actually hit as high as my apartment in Dallas. Observe the reasons for citywide concern:
In this image, you can see Ike (the ginormous whirling demonic thing in the corner) and me (the tiny red trembling dot). Ike appears to be nearly the size of Texas, which for all of you geographically challenged people is the second largest state in the US.
Yesterday, it was very sunny, which was very sneaky of the hurricane because nobody would have believed it was coming. We were told to chain down all of our bikes and porch furniture. I got to work on that, and then looked in the mirror, and saw something like this:
My hair had become horrifyingly long, as I haven’t had it cut since three weeks before I went to Austin. And as the Robert Pattinson, just-slithered-out-of-bed-and-I’m-ready look doesn’t exactly look good on me, I decided it would be a wonderfully prudent idea to get it done now. My reasoning behind this:
- If Ike obliterates the place I get my haircut, my hair will grow to abysmal lengths while I search for someone nearly as Fantastic as Sam’s, and
- If Ike obliterates me, at least I’ll die clean cut.
This had the negative effect of my hair being a little lopsidedly short, as it usually is the day of it getting cut (added benefit: during hurricanes, you can’t leave the house, and nobody sees). Unfortunately, I had to pick that day to go test out my new BlogTV channel, on which me and someone famous are going to be doing a live show. After we got it working, we thought we needed some people to test it with us, so we went to my chatroom and invited everyone over for a sneak peek. This turned into a broadcasting-until-2-am party, which was riotously fun until my eyelids began to droop. So, whoever happened to be in there: you got a look how monstrous I can appear after 2 AM 
I’m looking out the window right now and it’s slowly getting darker, and the pre-40-mph winds are starting to brush the trees about. Coincidentally, it is hitting on a weekend (no doubt some diabolical plan from the college so that we don’t get a bad weather day from class). We have been told to stockpile water and food. If we get flooded in, I’ll be living off water and lasagnas for quite a while longer.
September 13th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
good luck with the storm!!!
i have an uncle who lives in Houston….
September 13th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Water and lasagnas….not bad.
Love the picture of “your hair”.
Good luck with Ike, and the college work that comes with it.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Hurricane? No biggy! I went through Charley, Ivan, Frances, and Jeanne back in 2004. Which was, what? A couple category 4’s and a five?
And, of course, when we evacuated for one of them, the hurricane turned and came to where we had evacuated to.
Typical.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
take care K..
September 13th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
wo-ow i cant believe u sound so relaxed..if it was me…yeh..u dont wanna be there i have a high-pitched scream :P….wow…
September 13th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Haha, I loved the hair picture
The rain and wind were horrible!! I live about 2 hours away from Dallas, and two trees in my yard got knocked down
I hope you made it out ok :]
September 14th, 2008 at 8:37 am
“…If we get flooded in, I’ll be living off water and lasagnas for quite a while longer.”
And what if the lasagna thief decides to come by at your appartment and steal your life supply of lasagna? HA! I’M THE LASAGNA THIEF!
He he, just kiddin.
Well, I wish the best of luck and hope you won’t get flooded out.
September 14th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Ick, I live a little outside of Dallas and we got pummeled, but other than a few stray branches we got out unscathed :]
Hope you didn’t die, or get pummeled XD
September 14th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Take Care! I live in Houston (around Downtown) and it hit us really bad. Windows were blown out of buildings, trees and branches are still scattered everywhere and the flooding is bad plus it’s still raining today. We decided not to evacuate but I will never stay for another hurricane, it was HORRIBLE. I hope I never have to go through that again. Most of the city has no power, my neighborhood was one of the lucky ones to get power back soon (it was out for about 20 hours). I go to the University of Houston but their plan to not have a bad weather day from class failed ;] , I don’t even know when we’re going back.
September 14th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Wow, that is one enormously large hurricane… I hope you dont have to survive off of lasagna and water, i hate lasagna! If you get whipped up by the hurricane and blown away to some distant land, will you still be able to get your book published?
September 14th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I feel your pain - we’re still suffering from Gustav aftermath, though Ike is HUGE. Good luck!
September 14th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
hmm… good luck with the storm… but the picture of Robert Pattinson was GREAT!!!
September 14th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Well good luck! I remember when I delt with WILMA! That had me out of school for a week, and I had no power! So I was basically living off of water and canned fruit until the one china resturant opened its doors to us.
you might want a portable fan too..it can get very stuffy.
September 14th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
lol They told you to take cover?! I live about fifteen minutes south of you, and I was OUTSIDE. I was enjoying the weather. My mini dauchshund didn’t fly away, but I think that’s because he’s chunky.
If you had gone down to Ellis county and taken the back roads, the wind could have pushed your car.
Anyway, in the North Texas area, nothing happened. haha
September 14th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I live in Dallas too. It’s funny that we were getting told to chain everything down and to keep from going outside, because all we got was a little rain and wind. It didn’t even look very hurrican-ish. Rita was worse, and all we got from her was some very ominous dark clouds and lots of wind.
September 14th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
It’s a good thing you like lasagna. And water.
Good job. I don’t know if I would’ve lasted until 2, though I know some friends who could go forty hours without showing many signs of sleep deprivation.
(I get to meet a famous author this week and I’m so excited and he hasn’t been in my area for a long time and I think his books are amazing and YAAYYY)
September 15th, 2008 at 12:05 am
[...] hiding from Hurricane Ike, I spent most of my weekend catching up on enormous amounts of homework. Close to the end, right [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 1:57 am
[...] hiding from Hurricane Ike, I spent most of my weekend catching up on enormous amounts of homework. Close to the end, right [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 6:25 am
A storm! o_o
Looks scary!
I just can’t imagine how this thing works… are you texsas people going to shut yourselves indide your houses waiting for it to stop?
How long could a storm last?
Makes me appreciate Italian climate much more…
September 15th, 2008 at 9:40 am
As I am one of those people who lives under a rock and is geographically challenged…thanks for the update!! Good luck!
September 15th, 2008 at 11:05 am
My family was watching the hurricane coverage, and my mom has family all over Texas but, strangely, not in Dallas. So when I asked (somewhat frightenedly) “It’s going to Dallas?” I had to make up an excuse for why I cared. It wouldn’t go over well if I told my parents I was worried about a guy I’ve never met :). Glad you didn’t get all the destruction Galveston did! I’m watching that right now…I feel so bad for those people.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
… fun. Hope you didn’t get hit too hard.
Happy Day-before-your-Birthday!
September 15th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I hope your lasagnas didn’t get stolen. Then you would have had to live on water.
September 15th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
oh man ike is crazy! i hope everything turned out alright. I live in Katy (a little outside of Houston) and just got my power back today! no ac=horrible! luckily we only lost a fence.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
hahha lasagna
September 15th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Whoa that looks bad man ): I hope you guys made it out ok. And if no one got hurt.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
This is why I could never ever ever live somewhere in the Gulf Coast area. My uncle lives in Houston and they still have no power or anything right now. The rest of my familia lives in Dallas, but I don’t think they got much damage. I hate storms. Of course, I live in Tornado Alley. Like Friday, I was at rehearsal and then drove home when I realized TORNADO SIRENS had been going off the entire time and a GIANT SWIRLING CLOUD OF DEATH was far off in the distance. Luckily it went away. Storms suck. A lot. Best of luck to you!
September 16th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Oh god, if I had to deal with a hurricane, I’d leave the entire state XD
Anyways, I saw that you’re reading looking for alaska! That’s great! I’m reading it right now too!
John (and Hank) Green are just so great
September 16th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Happy Birthday!
September 16th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Hope you fared well! I live in Houston and the city is a madhouse. I finally got power back today, but I’m one of the lucky ones.
On the bright side, I’m a teacher, and school is canceled until next Monday.
September 16th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Happy Birthday!
September 16th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Funny thing. Kentucky got the ba backlash from Ike. Apparently, the winds were so bad, they are classifying it as as a cat 1 hurricane.. In Kentucky… where I live.
So, yeah.. looks like school computers for a week for me. =D
September 16th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Happy Birthday!
September 16th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Happy 20th Birthday!
September 16th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY KALEB!
*Brings out Cake*
Blow out the candles!
One more year to go until you get to have your first drink.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
It was pretty bad. I live in Houston and left to Fort Worth on Friday at like 3 am, even 6 to 7 hours away, I could still feel the winds and the rain hit pretty hard, and when I came home, there was a giant tree in my back yard, and no power. Hope not much damage was done to your place
September 17th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I lived through Ike!!! I live Houston and just got our power back this afternoon!
September 19th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Some of Ike hit up here in Indiana and it was BAD.(i just got my electricity back on it took a whole week!)
i can only imagine how bad it was for you guys in Texas…
September 25th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
HURRICANE IKE SURVIVOR :\
hey Kaleb i’m having to read through you previous posts like back issues of a magazine to catch up on the past two weeks. i live in the western part of houston and i just got power back last night, just one day short of a full two weeks without it in the heat and humidity
September 27th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
i survived ike, but unfortunately… my house didn’t. hope everyone else did better
September 27th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
oh. and i got power yesterday