Man, what a day...

OK, I enjoy time off from work as much as the next guy, but enough is enough. We still don't have power at our office, but the boss managed to get the phones forwarded to his house. Good, right? Well, as I do a good amount of the underwriting for our company, many of the calls are customers looking for quotes on stuff I'm working on. I can't tell you how many calls I got from the boss yesterday wanting me to call somebody back and handle something. If I have to keep answering the phone, I'd rather be at the office.

So, I sent the boss a text message this morning offering to go over to his house and man the phones if he had something else he needed to do. As it turns out, he located a generator that we expected would operate the necessities at our office. He wanted me to meet him up there to get things going. We spent all day trying to get things going with half of the stuff running from a generator, and the other half running from the generator in his father's big diesel RV. I think we just about have it whooped. Hopefully we'll be up and running first thing in the morning.

Also, I nearly witnessed a beat down at the gas station this morning. With power out all over town, people are either staying with friends or family, or they are surviving with generator power. This increases the need for gasoline. Couple that with only about 25% or less of the gas stations being operational, and you have a mess. It generally takes about 30 minutes of waiting in line to get gas. This is the primary reason why I stockpile gasoline at the beginning of each hurricane season. I keep 30+ gallons handy, and next year I might keep double that amount.

Anyway, after filling the generator at the office this morning, I took the empties up to the station to fill the jugs again while we were waiting for the electrician to show up. The stations generally set things up where all of the entrances but one are blocked and everyone lines up to get in. When you pull up, everyone pulls up in the same direction, and which side of the pumps you pull up to depends on which side of the car your gas cap is. I was just thinking that everything was running really smoothly, and everyone was cooperating patiently, when a car with 3 LARGE women of another race drove up in a car with 4 kids. They whipped in through a closed driveway and pulled the wrong direction to a pump, blocking one of the lines from going anywhere. They then proceeded to belligerently cuss at everyone that they were cutting in front of. They kept yelling that they were "fidden" to run out of gas and they had kids in the car. Boo, hoo. Everyone in line was there because they needed gas.

Of course, most of the people in line that just got hosed were either white or Asian. I was just waiting for another large black woman to emerge from somewhere back in the line that had been waiting patiently. Unfortunately, none came forward. Whites and Asians will generally yell back at the offending parties, but won't get in a physical altercation. A person of the same race as these women probably would have administered an ass whoopin. That would have made my day.

Let me be clear, the vast majority of the people from this race are decent people, but how come every time I've witnessed this same type of deal (jumping lines, whipping into a parking space you are pulling into, etc, etc, it's always LARGE female members of the race with generally twice the number of butts in the car as there are seatbelts?

Back home with a funny story to tell...



Today was one of those days. After the crap yesterday with the power being back on, loading up to head home, and then figuring out the power was still out, and having to return back to the parents house, I was ready for a few things to go my way. We got up this morning and after breakfast, I helped my Dad with a few things around his house. When we got that all squared away, Shelly and I loaded Jonathan up and headed to town to her parents house to borrow their generator to keep our freezer going another day. Pretty much everything in the refrigerator was junk, but the freezers were fine with a couple of hours of generator usage each day.



SO, we got there, loaded the generator up, and headed home to run it. I unlocked the front door, and as I was walking through the kitchen, I noticed the fan in the kitchen was running. Woo HOO!!!, the power was on at our house. The phone service also came on a couple of hours later. It looks like we're back in business. I'm thankful for that, although there are a few grocery items like milk, eggs, and butter that we had to throw out and won't be able to get replaced for a few days. Oh, well, I'm not going to complain too loudly over that when there are lots of people in much worse shape.

Ok, now for the funny story...

As it happens, living in the 4th largest city in the USA, you take things for granted. I can now tell you that Houston this week is like living in a third world country. You pretty much live in a hut with no electricity or other services and no availability of any supplies. The only real difference is that our huts are a little more plush, but they are not set up to operate without electricity.

Part of the deal is that employers need to get things up and running, but the schools have basically shut down for the week. Our daycare has closed through Wednesday. What to do? The in-laws own a veterinary clinic, and they are doing what they can to get that business up and running again. My Grandfather has had 2 carotid artery surgeries in the last month, and he rotator cuff surgery last week, so my mother is keeping him this week.

I mentioned to my parents this morning that they might need to be our daycare if Shelly and I both have to go back to work this week before the daycare opens. My Dad reminded me that my Mom sort of has her plate full with Grandaddy. I told him she was pretty tough and efficient, and I was sure she could handle all of them. He told me to think again, that Grandaddy can't even pull up his pants by himself. I answered that surely he could take care of that duty on his own.

Just as I finished saying that, Grandaddy walked into the living room, completely oblivious to our conversation. His right arm was in his sling, and he was holding up his pants with his left hand. He walked towards where I was sitting and told me I needed to get up and help him buckle his pants. Nothing but laughter from the kitchen (My Dad, Shelly, and Staci). Point proven... (Grandaddy is hard of hearing and had no way of knowing what we had just been talking about)

Luckily, Shelly called into her office and was told to take care of the family first and come back when she can. The company I work for is sort of a small company, and consequently, everyone there is pretty much considered a "key employee". I'm supposed to call in first thing in the morning to see if our office is up and running. I could use a little more time around the house to get things squared away, but at the same time, If my office isn't running, we're not making money. We HAVE to get running in the next day or so, from my kitchen if we have to, to keep things going. I guess we'll see if the power is back on at the office tomorrow morning.

Damn. Just Damn... Damn...

The in-laws decided to stay at our house tonight since our power was back on. We were loading up to leave my parents house to head home, so the in-laws decided to head over and wait in the driveway until we got home. Well, we loaded all of our crap, the kids, and Sweetie the Chihuahua up and were on the way home when Doc (father-in-law) called me to say the power was out at my house. Damn.

Shelly was in her truck ahead of me, so I called her and had her take the next exit while I called the neighbor to get the scoop. Apparently the power was on from about 4:30 until 8:30, then out again. To top it all off, while we were sitting in the edge of the Home Depot parking lot, the rent-a-cop came up and reminded me that the area is under curfew and we would have to move along. Damn.

So, we're back here at my parents house. Luckily, my sister let us have the bedroom back that we had been staying in. Normally we would each have a room, but my grandfather is here and he outranks us all in the bedroom pecking order.

Oh, and to top it all off, Shelly had to take Jonathan to the walk-in-clinic today. Pink-eye. Damn. A 4 month old crammed in a house with a total of 7 adults and 5 kids and he has pink-eye on top of the cold he already had.

I can't wait for the fun to be over so we can get back to normal.

One of my neighbors just sent me a text message that the power came back on. What a relief...

My Dad and I had gone up to my house for a couple of hours with his generator to keep the freezer cold. After running a little while, it was obvious that the generator had a problem and would not get the job done. Time to drop back and punt. Not knowing how long it would be out, I was about to get in the truck and head to the ranch. We have a 6000 watt and a 10500 watt generator, along with several large containers for gasoline storage. I was dreading making a trip there and back tonight.

I'll post more once we're back home and running there.

Just a quick update for now.

The power went out just after my 5am post. The wind was incredible. It was actually blowing rain in between the seams where the glass in one of our windows is adhered to the metal framework of the window, While I was standing on a ladder in the stairwell at 5:30 AM with a tube of caulk trying to stop the water, the lights went out for good. Not long after that, I looked out the window and the back fence had given up the ghost, along with one section of the side fence.

About the blades on the ceiling fan on our patio. I went out after daylight this morning to pick them up, and could see no obvious signs of damage. Then I noticed a screw laying on the ground. I actually found 9 of the 10 screws that hold the 5 blades on the fan. How crazy is it that all of the screws would back themselves out. I KNOW they were tight because I put them on there myself.

When the wind and rain let up enough to survey the entire outside of the house and the immediate neighbors, I found out that we're the only ones on the block without roof damage. Some neighbors lost shingles and felt with nothing but plywood showing. That was some incredible powerful wind.

Power at the house is still out, so after hanging around all day, we came down to my parents house to spend the night. They are actually a little farther South than we are, but their power came back on this afternoon. My father-in-law stopped by and in exchange for the loan of my chain-saw, he brought his generator and we let it run long enough to bring the temp back down on the freezer and fridge to make it another day. I'll borrow my Dad's generator tomorrow when I head home and run it long enough to re-freeze my freezer and also let a couple of my neighbors plug up also.

I'll post some pics later tonight or in the morning after I've showered and eaten.

Damage report

4:30 am, just looked out on the back patio. All 5 blades of the ceiling fan are on the ground. As the wind is hard from the North, and that's the way the patio faces, I'm not opening the door to retrieve them yet. The power has blinked a couple more times, and all of the commercial areas surrounding us have seemingly lost power, our neighborhood is still lit up. The sounds of some of the gusts are incredible. We're safe and secure as the winds aren't high enough for structural damage, and being in a development about 10 years old, none of the trees are large enough to cause damage.

I'm tired, but as you can imagine, it's impossible to sleep (although no one else in the house is having any problems sleeping...)

5am, just lost part of the back fence. 4x4 posts cemented into the ground snapped, starting at the corner of the yard. I think about 3 of them so far and the fence is laying down. I expect the other ones will fail as that leaves alot of pressure on the remaining ones. I hope the side can hold out, but without the back tied into it at the corner, it may fail also. Winds are still getting stronger.

Here is a pic of the fence I took a couple of hours ago.

Still here...

Tried to update earlier, but power kept blinking, then couldn't get back into blogger to post.

3:45 am and we're still with power. The winds and rain are pretty impressive. I think the blue flashes in the area are transformers blowing, so I expect we're on borrowed time for electricity. Hopefully our luck will hold out. I've grown accustomed to having A/C. I'll post again in the morning if the Luck is still holding.

Still no damage that I can tell, but the poor trees are going to be a little naked. Matthew is scared, so what little sleep I've had has been with him in his bed.

Here we go...

The sun is going down, and the wind is starting to pick up. It's gusting to 40 or 45 mph now, maybe higher. We're just sort of hanging out, watching the news on TV. We went out in the front yard a little while ago and visited with some neighbors. It looks like no one on our block scrammed from the storm, so we've got plenty of company if we all get wiped out.

One neat website that the City of Houston has running is http://www.houstonhidefromthewind.org/. We're zip 77064. Looks like 81mph winds expected as of right now.

Time to get dinner wrapped up and get the kids bathed and ready for bed. I'll try to post again later if the power (and cable internet) holds out.

Took a little drive around...

After getting everything around the house squared away and eating a little lunch, Shelly wanted to take a little ride around the local area to see what was what. There were several other people doing the same thing. It was strange to see all of the stores deserted. It was funny that pretty much the only places open were the liquor stores, and they were all doing a brisk business. Surprisingly, probably 1 in 4 gas stations seemed to still have gas as there were people getting gas.

Now that we're back home, the wind has really started picking up a little bit. I'll need to clear out the chip in the camera and I'll take a couple of videos at intervals through the storm and try to show them later.

Now, we're doing pretty much all you can do when you are hunkered down. Watching TV and doing laundry. I've also been teaching Matthew how to cast with his new "Bob the Builder" fishing pole.

I'll have to download the pics in a minute. he just walked through the living room on the way to the back patio. He was wearing a t-shirt, underwear, and blue rubber boots. No pants, and he was carrying his fishing pole. Man, that kid sure does make life entertaining sometimes.

Battening down the Hatches...

It looks like Ike is going to give us a fairly good bit of wind and rain. I am happy that the storm shifted slightly and it is going to pass just to the East of us. That should give us a slightly easier hit than we could have gotten, although this is still going to be a big deal. We're fully provisioned, we have the batteries and flashlights and plenty of stuff to eat and drink. I'm hopeful that if we do lose power that it doesn't stay out very long.

In watching the news reports, they are very concerned about Galveston and the areas around Galveston Bay being swamped by the storm surge. I received an e-mail alert from CNN that said people staying in low lying surge zones faced certain death. Wow. That's pretty direct. The local news station said that the entire Galveston island could be completely covered. They are telling people that insist on staying to make sure to put some sort of identifying mark on themselves so after the storm the authorities will be able to identify their body. We're still several hours away from landfall, and parts of the island are already under water.

I'll post a little later as we start seeing the effects of the storm, but after that, I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again due to power and internet access issues.

If anyone wants a text update later, drop me a line to melackey73 at yahoo dot com and I'll give you my cell number.

Gonna get some weather...

I'm watching a press conference hosted by our mayor and a county judge. From the sounds of things, Houston is about to be wiped off the map by Hurricane Ike. Of course, the track keeps shifting, and we have about 40 hours left, so this thing could still miss us by a long distance. The current track takes this thing right over my house on the Northwest side of Houston. This should be interesting. We have the necessary supplies, and I'll be securing all loose items tonight. Hopefully this thing doesn't do any damage around here.

One thing I think the local leaders figured out is that evacuating Houston is pretty much an impossible task. At this point, they are asking everyone but those on the coast and those in the low lying areas to stay put. When Hurricane Rita was heading this way a couple of years ago, Katrina was fresh on the mind (most of those people were still in shelters here in Houston). The freeways were clogged, and there was no gas to be found anywhere. Some of our neighbors left that Thursday morning and returned home that evening, 8-10 hours later having driven only 10-12 miles.

I'll post more later, gotta go to work now.

This isn't supposed to happen, not to people I know...

Today was a rough day for me. I'm just a bystander, not even involved. I can't imagine how Chris and Cindy are feeling right now. Chris and Cindy are friends of ours. They go to our church and are in our Sunday School Class. Chris has gone on the men's retreats with us each of the last 2 years (Weekends of the HAM).

Cindy has breast cancer. I didn't really understand that at first until I heard the story. I THOUGHT she had liver cancer until Chris told the whole story. Cindy had breast cancer a few years ago and through treatment and surgery came through. About 2 years ago, they found a tumor on her liver, some on her shoulder, and a couple of spots on her spine. They have been aggressive with treatments, and things were looking better, until earlier this year. Some drugs didn't work as well, new drugs were tried, hair was lost, and things were difficult. I knew some of this, but not much.

Perhaps I should have inquired how things were going more often. I sort of feel like a not so good friend. I didn't know how bad things were getting until Chris asked us for prayer late last week because things were getting worse. I got an e-mail this afternoon telling about their visit with the oncologist today. My friend's wife is dying. Dying. That is hard to get your arms around. They are our age. Mid 30's and so much life SHOULD be ahead of them. Apparently the doctors are giving up. Let that sink in. You are 36 years old with cancer, and you are not through living yet, but the doctors in the city with the largest medical center in the world tells you to consider hospice. Follow that up with a nurse that indicates you have weeks, not months.

I just told Shelly that I hope and pray (selfishly) that I'm not in that position. Please pray for healing for Cindy. Please pray for Chris. Here is a guy just a couple of years into marriage with a beautiful woman facing the prospect of being left alone, and quickly at that. Please pray for the guys that surround Chris, that we would be able to relate to him and provide support and friendship, even in the face of something that we in no way can relate to.

I'm sorry this post isn't the usual fun post, and is sort of rambling, but loss is something that I have a hard time relating to and knowing how to handle. It's tough to know a friend is suffering and not know exactly how to relate to them. Perhaps just showing up and not doing anything other than being there for them is good enough?

Radiant Barrier...

We had a radiant barrier installed / applied in our attic last weekend. Energy costs are nuts, and we're trying to do what we can to lower utility costs at our house. While Shelly was on maternity leave, we had to cool the house all day long, and let me tell you, that wasn't cheap. We about cried when a $502 electricity bill arrived. At 2400 sq feet, our house isn't huge, and 74-75 isn't exactly arctic temperature.

Last year we started replacing light bulbs with the little curly compact fluorescent as the old ones burned out or as I thought they might make a difference. We started with the lamps by the bed, then changed the kids closet lights since those are used as night lights sometimes.

After living here for a little over 7 years, I also finally programmed the programmable thermostats. Man, I should have done that sooner. I no longer have to remember to run them up during the day and then have to go to bed sweating because I forgot to turn the upstairs unit back down in the evening.

I had been hearing about radiant barriers, and from what I understood, the theory was sound. My in-laws had it done, so we had the guy come out and measure ours and talk to us a little about it. They installed it, so I guess we'll see how well it works at helping reflect heat.

One minor complaint that we getting resolved. Those jokers got a little paint happy up in my attic. Of course, they get up in the attic with their hoses and spray guns, close the attic stairs after themselves, and commence to spraying. The paint fumes are pretty strong, so I guess it has to get to them after a while. They painted over the light bulb, and completely painted the speaker for our burglar alarm. It looks nice now, but the whole system is completely jacked-up. Security this week is provided by Smith & Wesson instead of ADT. I called to chat with them about it and you get the idea that it might be a common occurrence because they told me to get it fixed and then send them the bill. Hopefully they make good on it. I guess I can dispute the charge to the credit card if they they to hose me.

So, opinions, please... Am I a Sucker for getting the thing installed, or is it a good financial decision?

One Day, the kid is going to hate me for posting this...

Shelly went to a dinner seminar with her Dad tonight, so I was left in charge of the boys. I did some quick maneuvering, and dropped Jonathan off with her Mom, and I brought Matthew home. The thought being that when the seminar was over, Shelly would be going back to her parents house to get her truck anyway, so Jonathan might as well hand out there with Nana to wait for her. I also have trouble multi-tasking to attend to the needs of a 4 month old and a 4 yr old at the same time, especially the dinner, bath, and bedtime routine for both at once.

Anyway, after dinner, I helped Matthew with his homework. He had to trace a page of capital and lower-case "S" and trace 2 sets of the numbers 6-10. While he was working on his homework, he was recounting the day to me. He told me that at school today, he "took a dump". I said "You did what?" He repeated, "I took a dump, I tee-tee'd and poo-poo'd in the bathroom." Ok, the kid is potty trained and has been for over a year, it's just funny to hear him say he "took a dump." I had to tell him that although Daddy has joked about that, it's best that we not say that anymore. I can only imagine that the teacher will have a double length conference scheduled for us when we get to parent teacher conferences.

If that wasn't bad enough, he is a little boy and has noticed his little boy part... Bath time was one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed, and I'm trying to figure out how best to direct future similar situations...

When he got in the tub, the boy had serious wood going on. He pointed it out to me "My naked is big, Daddy" (he refers to it as his naked).. I said "Yeah, sometimes that happens", praying he wouldn't press with wanting to know "why" it happens. That's another conversations for another day, hopefully a long way off. Bath time continues, he turns his attention to his boats, and things return to normal.

Normal until bath time is over. I start draining the water, turn around to get his towel, and turn back around to see him pulling straight out on the end of his little tally whacker, like he's trying to stretch it. I said "What are you doing?" to which he replied "I'm trying to make it bigger." Oh, boy. How do you address this? I told him that you can't make it bigger, that's not how it works, now get out of the tub. Then, the kid pulls it up one more time, leans over as far as he can and blows at it. Thankfully he can't reach, or we'd have an entirely new problem. I said "C'mon, man, stop that. What are you doing?" He said, "Trying to blow it up, like a balloon ." Ok, I've decided, Shelly is in charge of bath time from now on... I told him "It doesn't work that way, and besides, it's not nice to play with your naked, now get out of the tub."

Now, clearly stalling, not wanting to get out of the tub yet, he rolled onto his side and said "I can't get out, it's drinking the water." As patiently as I could, I told him that it doesn't drink, that's not what it does. He argued that it does indeed drink and he couldn't get out until it drank ALL of the water in the tub.

Luckily the kid has a short attention span. I changed the subject and reminded him that he needed to get out of the tub right now so I could tell him the story of the 3 little piggies and the big, bad, wolf. That did the trick, and nothing more on that subject was mentioned again.

Geez, what a night. I basically ignored and re-directed my way through the events of the evening. The question is, is this a phase all little boys go through in discovering themselves?