Alternative Afternoon Entertainment

I took a Tuesday night off from blogging to watch the NBA Playoffs. I watched the Boston Celtics stage a furious comeback and defeat the Orlando Magic. I also watched the Los Angelas Lakers stop the Houston Rockets. While watching basketball and doing a little Facebooking was my chief activities for last night, it's obvious other people in Texas were enjoying another type of, let's say, "entertainment".

Several obstetrical practices associated with one of Texas' biggest hospitals for births, said that they're expecting a "mini baby boom" which is apparently connected to the storm that slammed into Southeast Texas on September 13, 2008 leaving thousands of people at home with no electricity for days and, in some cases, even weeks. Of course, this meant no cable, no internet, no computer games, no radio, no nothing! Imagine that for a few weeks. "You can only do so much when there's no television, nothing's open, and there's nowhere to go," said Dr. Rakhi Dimino, an obstetrician/gynecologist with Houston Women's Care Associates, whose first baby is due on June 10th.

Dr. John Irwin, the Chief of Surgery Service at Woman's Hospital of Texas, said he usually delivers 15 to 20 babies a month but, expects 26 deliveries in June. Woman's Hospital, which had more than 9,000 births in 2008 and expects to break that record this year, is expecting to have at least 100 more births over that this summer.

Other Houston birthing centers, including the Methodist Hospital and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, aren't ready to predict an "Ike" baby boom just yet. Well, they might not but, it's quite obvious to me that these people have found alternative afternoon entertainment that trumped watching tv, blogging, and Facebooking. I, for one, am not mad at 'em!