Hurricanes piss me off

Rita, I sincerely hope you take a turn and head back out to sea. You are making me frightened, and I don't like feeling frightened. Plus, you're turning my normally nice community into a panicking mob, and I don't appreciate that, either. Why don't you just take your toys and go home?

I went to the grocery store this morning to buy batteries and water, and was met by a large poster at Kroger's front door proclaiming that they were out of the following:

Batteries
Water
and a bunch of other stuff that I didn't realize I needed until I saw that sign.

But I grabbed a cart and headed inside anyway. I stocked up on raviolis and canned soup, since we have a gas range and will be able to cook even if we lose power. Then I bought some pina coladas and beer, since ... eh, who needs a reason? Picked up a few things here and there, then I happened upon the Dasani guy, who was pushing a large cart of bottled water down an aisle. So I - and about 53 other people - followed him.

Now, the poor guy didn't have a prayer of any of that water actually hitting the shelf. The 54 people on that row were going to make sure of that. I lined up and waited my turn. Then this lady says to me, all snotty, "the line is back here." I agreed with her, saying "thanks, I know." She said, "no, the line goes this way." Now I realize that she thinks I cut in front of her. Uh, no, honey, I was here first. But in the spirit of community, I said "okay, thanks, you go ahead." She then proceeds to take eight cases of water off the cart! Several choice words sprang to my lips, but I corralled them before they took flight. I picked up one case of water and left the aisle.

Karma, bless her heart, made an appearance today. (And yes, she is a bitch.) I ended up in a checkout lane right behind grouchy lady, who was told by the checker that there is a two case limit on water purchases. (HA! HA HA! That announcement made my inner child gleeful.) So the checker took six cases away from grouchy lady.

Before grouch left, though, the checker pulled my cart up to the lane. I asked the checker if I could have one of those "extra" cases from the grouchy lady's cart, since I'd only gotten one to start with. She said "of course!" and put one in my cart. Oh, how I fought shooting a smug look at grouchy lady, who I am sure was even crabbier by now. HA!

Anyway, I'm home and have unpacked all the groceries now. I just heard on the news that my kids will be out of school for at least the rest of the week. That pleases me, although I don't really know why they need Thursday off. But hey, having the kids home during inclement weather is always a good thing.

Now I'm going to ask that anyone reading this please pray for us, or send good thoughts our way. We live on the north side of Houston, but are still being warned about high winds (we've got LOTS of BIG windows here) and flooding (we've got no flood insurance, as we're not in a flood plain - but hurricanes aren't discriminating when it comes to flood plains). Hubby and I lost nearly everything in Andrew in 1992, and we do not want to go through that again.

Hurricanes suck. Rita, begone!