Other than the countless hours spent following the weather forecast this past week, Hurricane Ike shut down the city of Houston on Thursday afternoon. The city braced itself for a direct hit; shops boarded their windows, Mira’s school and Rice both closed early, and there were fewer cars on the street than Christmas Eve.
We lost power early Friday night, but we were all together and safe. Saturday morning greeted us with these sights on our block, but relatively other damage. 
We ventured outside to survey the neighborhood once the wind calmed down. Neighbors joined together in clearing branches and passing the time, as there was relatively little else to do without power and water.Mira remained her happy little self, despite a few frustrations with her parents. She couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t turn the stereo on when she asked to dance (or consider the alternative
that we could have purchased batteries before we lost power). She was also disappointed when she saw the fun water spray (rain thrown sideways by the hurricane force winds) and we refused to take her outside to play in it.