My little piece of history.

I chose not to vote early, participating instead in the great ritual of democracy on the appointed day — Tuesday, November 4. I rode my bike to the polling place, just a few blocks from home in Houston’s historic Third Ward, a center of strength for Barack Obama.

The lines were non-existent. A little worrisome, I thought, but not unexpected in the middle of the workday.

I stepped into the booth, with a sense of the profound and historic moment buzzing through me… and after triple-checking that I indeed marked it correctly, I cast my ballot.

For change. For transformation. With hope.

A few hours later, Karina and I were whooping, weeping and breaking open the champagne!

At home, aka Election Central, following CNN, MSNBC, NYTimes.com and Twitter.

As Obama surpassed 270 electoral votes, we broke out the champagne!

Where were you when Obama and America made history?

Karina and I met Andres in the spring, when he came home to Houston from L.A. to help campaign for Obama in the Houston primary election. He had recorded a beautiful Spanish-language video called Sí, Se Puede Cambiar as part of his efforts on Obama’s behalf.

He has just released an English-language version, incorporating footage from Houston… (and be sure to check out the split-second cameo that Karina and I make at the 2:12 mark!)…

ps: During that week with Andres, we met the guys from United for Obama, Eric Byler (pictured, left), Annabel Park, and Quan Phung. They were all visiting from Virginia and California.

Karina’s mama came to visit with us over the past week, partly for a high-tech videoconference with folks back home in the Philippines, partly to experience a few days-in-the-wacky-life with us. During her brief stay, she got to see our nocturnal ways, complete with a ride in the local electric taxi and a long session working online at the cafe. As you can see from the photo, Mama turned out to be quite well suited to the life of the urban tech nomad…

A woman fights high winds and rain in Midtown Houston.

As Hurricane Ike’s storms began to subside, a few hardy and curious people in the neighborhood began wandering out of their sheltering homes to survey the area. We found streets submerged by the downpours, mature trees snapped or uprooted (along with their smaller brethren), and debris ranging from roof shingles to mangled billboards strewn about where they were flung by Ike’s 100mph winds.

Some checked their homes for damage, others began the cleanup by clearing clogged storm drains. Many picked up their routines where they left off, walking their dogs to the park despite the chaos and floods. One experience was shared in common — every one of us looked with some wonder at the artifacts of Ike’s devastating power, whether with awestruck eyes or the voracious lenses of digital cameras (or in my case, both).

See more photos from the neighborhood in the immediate aftermath here.

Neighbors work to clear storm drains on the flooded streets of Midtown Houston immediately after Ike’s passage.

[Posting these photos three days after the storm, now that I have Internet access at the office — still no power or Internet at home]

This photo was taken at first light, as Hurricane Ike moved north past Houston.

Contemporaneous Tweets:

After so many hours of nonstop violence, Ike is finally calming down in Midtown. Rain still steady but rafter-shaking howl is down noticeably … 07:12 AM September 13, 2008

Dawn brings a view of Ike-blasted Midtown. Chenevert near Elgin submerged under several inches of water. 07:29 AM September 13, 2008

Sheets of Ike rain still pouring down on Midtown but the house no longer sounds like it’s about to implode. 07:59 AM September 13, 2008

Ike’s flood waters starting to lap at foundations of neighboring townhomes in Midtown. 08:32 AM September 13, 2008

Chenevert in Midtown still flooded but water is receding. Tap h2o pressure very low. City urges boiling for now. 10:12 AM September 13, 2008

[Posting these photos three days after the storm, now that I have Internet access at the office — still no power or Internet at home]

This photo was taken at almost 4 a.m., as Hurricane Ike’s eye was going past downtown Houston.

Contemporaneous Tweets:

Going to try to override my Ike-fed hyperalertness with sleep. Guessing from other tweets that the eye is near us now in midtown. 03:03 AM September 13, 2008

Ike’s howling & banging in midtown woke me. No use tho - can no longer see much out the windows due to driving rain & condensation. 04:30 AM September 13, 2008

Upstairs window pried open by wind - caught it just in time. Courtyard oak thrashing wildly above shelter of roofline. Hope he can hang on. 04:51 AM September 13, 2008

Highway lights over 59/288 interchange and downtown buildings were the last to go. Total darkness reigns. 05:00 AM September 13, 2008

#Ike has knocked out T-Mobile EDGE service in midtown. Down to tweeting via SMS. 05:47 AM September 13, 2008

Reading others’ #Ike tweets was both useful & comforting. Sorry to lose that now that I can only send, not receive. 05:51 AM September 13, 2008

[Posting these photos three days after the storm, now that I have Internet access at the office — still no power or Internet at home]

This photo was taken at almost 2 a.m., as Hurricane Ike was making landfall near Galveston. Rain was intensifying, and downtown buildings are nearly all dark (or no longer visible due to the weather).

Contemporaneous Tweets:

Heavy rain & wind in midtown. Eerie sky glow seems less now. Getting some leakage from bath vent but otherwise ok. 02:55 AM September 13, 2008

The house is creaking and groaning under the strain but holding up nicely against Ike here in midtown. 02:57 AM September 13, 2008 from twitterrific

[Posting these photos three days after the storm, now that I have Internet access at the office — still no power or Internet at home]

This photo was taken just before midnight, as Hurricane Ike’s eye was still off the coast of Galveston Island. Electricity was out in our neighborhood by this time (note the lack of street lights), though some illumination is still available from the US 59 freeway lights a couple of blocks away. A few lights are still visible in the distance downtown.

Contemporaneous Tweets:

Power is out, probably for a while. Down to tweeting via EDGE. 09:39 PM September 12, 2008

Getting ready for a candlelight dinner as K cooks up some chicken saved out of powerless freezer. 09:40 PM September 12, 2008

Just uncorked wine for dinner w/ supercool wedding gift corkscrew. Thx H & D! 10:01 PM September 12, 2008

Heavy rain and some lightning in midtown. Police car just passed by on patrol with spotlight on. 11:34 PM September 12, 2008

Happy birthday, @timeless! The stormiest birthday you’ll ever have, I hope! 12:15 AM September 13, 2008

The sun is going down, and the tv reports talk about violent storm action on the coast, along with high winds and power outages here in the city. In our neighborhood, the wind is still just starting to pick up and (knock on wood) we still have power, cable and net access.

Since we’re running out of light, this will probably be the last photo tonight. I’ll try to post here for as long as we still have access. If we lose the connection, I’ll try to send updates via mobile to Twitter. (Whoops, as I write this, we experienced a quick brown out and the first real house-shaking wind gusts… fortunately, power and net access have since been restored)

See you soon! And if there’s anyone from Houston reading this, take good care and see you on the other side!

The world is turning gray. The wind is picking up. The neighbor’s flag has been taken down. People are watching the clouds with anxious eyes.

The view from our kitchen window.

The tv and net are crackling with Ike news and warnings, with local networks running wall-to-wall news coverage. With about 11 hours to go before Hurricane Ike makes its expected landfall over Galveston about 45 miles south of here, the atmosphere in our neighborhood is calm and expectant.

Yesterday, we worked with our neighbors to clear the common courtyard of potential missiles, and we made a final run to Spec’s (the local liquor and gourmet food superstore) to pick up fun snacks and drinks to supplement our more serious supplies from the previous day’s grocery trip. Since we’re well away from the mandatory evacuation zones closer to the coast, most of our neighbors are riding out the storm at home, with varying reactions along the continuum of fluttery nervousness to light-hearted laughter layered over a sober realization that something very serious is coming our way.

I was up at dawn this morning to check the latest reports. The sky is hazy but the sun is bright and clear. A brisk breeze is snapping the flag at our neighbors’ door. The dog folks are strolling past on their morning walks. Lawns guys are buzzing across the way, mowing and edging even as the rest of the city is hunkering down or fleeing.

The storm is coming.

Time has flown since my last entry here, but with Hurricane Ike bearing down on the Houston area (see the ominous projected path for the Category 2 — or is it 3 or 4? — storm above), it seemed like as good a time as any for an update!

People from the coast are streaming through the city after mandatory evacuations were called on Galveston Island and the areas around NASA and elsewhere along the shore (including my old place in Clear Lake), and the stores are being mobbed (in an orderly way) by people stocking up on storm supplies.

We filled up the pantry with canned food and water yesterday, and I already double-checked our useful gear — lanterns, crank radio, camping water filter and the like — for the last hurricane near-miss a few weeks back. DSLR and video camera batteries are charging up now, so we can document it all, too. Now we just have to decide whether to stay home to ride out the storm or enjoy the hurricane party up at Karina’s sister’s place (not really a party, more like an informal gathering to huddle in fright as the high winds and lashing rains shake the world’s foundations).

Ike’s unfortunate timing also puts the kabosh on our plan to have a weekend barbecue for our two birthdays (Karina’s this Saturday and mine a couple of weeks back), so that would be another reason to head up north so we can still celebrate in the midst of the storm. We’ll make that call early tomorrow morning.

In other news from the past month or two… let’s see now, so much has happened…

Karina started a couple of new roles to go along with her full-time gig reviewing for the USMLE. She’s now volunteering at the San Jose Community Clinic, not too far from the house (that’s her on the left in her new scrubs) and she started her fall semester as an adjunct professor at Lone Star College in Cy-Fair (that’s her leaving campus after a late night at the biology lab with students).

The company I work for was bought up by an entertainment company based out of L.A., so now I can bandy around names like Steven Spielberg and Robert Downey Jr. when I talk about projects we’re working on. Karina just wants to be sure that we go to the Hollywood premiere if we can!

Things are finally settling down here in Houston, as we readjust to routines of work, study and normal life. An unscheduled episode of gout is hobbling me a bit, but otherwise we’re really back now as the wedding recedes into the distance — a happy and dream-like blur.

Samuel, our wedding photographer, has sent us the previews from the day, and we’re awed and thrilled by his work. We’ve only just begun the process of sorting through the photos, but I thought I’d throw in a few teasers now…