9 p.m. Friday
Wind is high now and roaring. Some debris has landed in the pool outside. All of our interior doors are closed and we’ve locked/sandbagged the exterior doors. No power outage yet, thank goodness. Unplugged pretty much everything but still have this laptop and my cell phone in (since it’s not really raining yet/no sign of lightning).
6 p.m. Friday
Wind is picking up a bit. Not too bad yet – dogs are still racing around outside and so was Pumpkinhead until I told him to cut it out (worried about flying debris). Speaking of debris, the local paper’s weather blogger took his trampoline down, but my neighbors did not. Um, if the hurricane is expected to destroy mobile homes, why wouldn’t you think it would lift your trampoline and send it into my yard? Geez.
3 p.m. Friday
Here’s the latest picture from my front driveway gate:
Galveston just had a news conference and said that FORTY PERCENT of the residents are estimated to NOT have evacuated. OMG. 
Thank God my two Great Aunts got out on Thursday. Only one family member left on the island.
1 p.m. Friday
Took a shower ahead of losing water. Emptied ice bucket into Ziploc bags so it can refill again (and have two huge bags of ice/many water bottles in freezer). Have emergency bags all set. Sharing our Skinny Cow ice cream bars with the neighborhood kids. NOT looking forward to the power outage, but charging all laptops, cells, etc. Kind of wishing I’d trimmed the trees at the house we have on the market, darn it. Neighbor has a boat ready to go.
In the meantime, it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood and my neighbors are strolling/cars are moving at the most-inland edge of the mandatory evacuation zone.
(Neighbor’s House)
(Looking down the street)
(View from the door of my bedroom)
Have a lifelong Galveston islander family member riding it out ON THE ISLAND. There are also apparently 1,000 inmates still in jail in Galveston. WTF?!?! The Coast Guard is flying people from low-lying areas to the Air Force Base next to my house.
