Baby It's Cold Outside...

Brrrrr.....

I forgot how much I do not like the cold. It just makes everything hurt. I can barely use my hands when it's this cold outside.

It's 8:30 in the morning and it's all of 23 degrees outside. That's just ridiculous and insane for here. So of course everything outside is ice. It's hard to tell in this picture but it's ice.

Snow? Not so much.

This is southeast Texas. It doesn't snow here. And when it does it's the tiniest flurries that you struggle to see in the air. Not this year. Or last year.

Actually, last year it snowed and it tied for the earliest snowfall ever here. However, we were at the hospital with Peanut and completely missed it. Little Man got to play in it with Diva but doesn't remember it.

So anyways, onto 2009. It's snowing. It started snowing here shortly before 8am and nothing is sticking. By the time all is said and done some areas (about 45 min south of us) got as much as 4 inches of the white stuff and they have enough to make nice sized snowmen! We were jipped. But the boys didn't mind. They liked playing in the stuff falling from the sky and didn't know they were missing white stuff on the ground, lol. Little Man has no recollection of us living in Michigan.

Enjoy.

More Ike

I have no idea what's going on in the "real" world. I've seen nothing but Ike coverage since Thursday morning when it was apparent SE TX was going to be pummeled. I have a very dear friend who has no power at her house, so she & her son are riding it out with her mom who has had electricity restored. That being the case, it put her about 45 minutes closer to me than she usually is so we used the opportunity to hang out and get a little shopping done together today.

It was surreal. I went to Target first looking for a new phone since ours is on its last leg. They were obviously using generators for what little power they had. The doors were tied open for light, ease & to let folks know they were open for business. They had just enough power to run a handful of registers and have sporadic lighting available. I shopped in the dimmly lit Target finding what I needed along with a couple of extras. The freezer cases are empty and all things cold are in short supply around here.

The story was different at one grocery store where they at least had power, but had not cleaned out the freezer cases yet. Instead they were tied shut with big posters stating no sales of frozen foods. I got lucky with being able to top off my tank for $3.23/gal before making my way home.

Whenever something tragic or traumatic happens in your own backyard you're more inclined to pay attention and appreciate the coverage that it does get. I have to admit that I'm sad. Crystal Beach will probably never be the same. I saw the Chevron station that is standing yet empty and torn to shreds. I'll never forget the night I watched some cops hog-tie a chick since she was drunk (underage) and uncooperative. My car was stuck in the sand and awaiting help, lol.

One of mine & hubby's favorite places to go while we were dating was Galveston, Bolivar/Crystal Beach. We always rode the ferry from Galveston to Bolivar & spent HOURS at Crystal Beach. Crystal Beach will never be the same and I'm sure we won't recognize Galveston the next time we're there. Of course, I know it's going to take a lot of time but I just know they'll build it bigger & better.

As for family, they are doing well. I believe my parents are the only ones with power restored, having been without it for about 36 hours. I know the rest of you don't have power so you can't see this but know that you are all in our thoughts & prayers, we hope this gets fixed ASAP.

And for all of you that think bigger government is the answer (traditionally democrats) this is the perfect example of how it's NOT the answer. FEMA is dragging its feet and causing all kinds of trouble while things at the local & even state level are flowing very well. People are coming together to help each other, their neigbors and the like and it's working nicely.

Today as I drove into town I passed a convoy of about 30 tree mulching trucks. All I could think was man, that's not even enough to clean up one neighborhood in these parts, lol. Help is coming, we will get back to normal and hopefully it will be soon.

God Bless!

Ike's Damage

Ike was here. Ike did lots of damage around these parts. Keep in mind I'm speaking of Houston since that's where we rode out the storm. That was a long night too. Little Man has never been afraid of a thunderstorm but I fully expected there was no way he would sleep through the night once the wind really picked up. Needless to say he didn't make it quite all the way through.

But first Diva's story. We lost power around 3:30am we were one of the last in our area to lose it. Shortly before we lost power, it surged probably 8 times. At some point (time is a blur at this point) Diva began to cry, Oma heard her & went to check on her. Poor little thing tells Oma, "My mommy isn't going to be happy but my tv keeps getting angry at me." We laughed so hard and of course gave her huge hugs and took her to her mom for comfort. It took her quite a while to fall back asleep.

Little Man on the other hand didn't wake up until about 5:30 after the absolute worst had passed us and just clung to me for a short while & laid with me until daybreak.

At daybreak, as the winds slowed down some (meaning somewhere between 30-40 mph sustained) my dad, sis & myself went outside to check out the damage, find out if we still had cars in one piece & unclog the storm drain so the parking lot would quit flooding.

We really weren't very far at all from the western eye wall and I'm not going to lie, at 3:30 when the power went out, the eye was getting pretty dang close to us; it was of course pitch black and completely silent other than the winds, (which I can assume were sustained above hurricane strength by then) and it was eerie.

Of course adding insult to injury we got a ton of rain today flooding everything. I think we got nearly 3-5 inches total at our house & 12 inches at my parents.

Of course we had to drive around and check it out. I was also curious to see if I could get to the hwy to be able to go home. I knew I had to go home that day no matter what unless the power came back on thanks to Peanut's apnea monitor.

So anyhow here are the pictures we took.

Go Mayor White!!

Mayor Bill White of Houston has been a good mayor, but right now, he's GREAT!



I'm personally impressed as how smoothly things have run at the local levels and people have really been getting the job done. However, we've been waiting for a press conference all day about PODs or Points of Distribution for supplies. We only know there are 24 locations around the area. This is where people can go pick up ice, water, etc.



Mayor White comes up & says they have requested the aid from FEMA and they expect FEMA to live up to their part of the request. You could see the man standing behind the mayor, wearing his FEMA shirt & his eyes got HUGE. This was a very clear message from the mayor to FEMA to get the lead out of their asses and get things moving.



So FEMA guy comes up to speak and says the supplies that are in Texas and they are waiting to find out where they will be distributed, etc. OOOhhhh at this point you can see the Mayor, standing behind him, starting to waive his arms. FEMA guy finishes and Mayor White interupts the questions and says, I've got something to say.



He goes on to inform everyone that FEMA already has the PODs as the Mayor knows where they are going to be and has already informed them where they are. Mayor white is truly a white guy & his face even started to turn a shade of red, lol. FEMA guy made a fantastic face!



GO MAYOR WHITE!!!!!

Pictures & information to follow, I've got about half of them uploaded so far.

Ike is coming.

Not much has changed, Ike is still headed this direction, although a bit further east from our house than first projected. Unfortunately it's such a big storm it still doesn't matter. I cannot believe that Hubby & I are riding this out separately, but whatever. Ya gotta do, what ya gotta do.

As I was headed towards I-10 early this afternoon with the boys in tow, I called my sister to let her know we were on our way. I told her I was probably the only moron headed INTO Houston at this point, lol. Turns out I wasn't. But I did feel really bad for the people sitting for almost 20 miles trying to get away from the storm.

So the past few days I've seen some pretty funny stuff and heard about some too.

There were the geniuses in our town that were boarding up their aluminum trailer by hammering nails into it. I'm not sure which part was better. Boarding up the trailer or using nails in the aluminum. Did you see the person dressed as in a bear costume down on the beach in Galveston? Guy clearly has some attention seeking issues, hahahaha!!!

How about the stupid people? Yes, I said stupid which isn't a word I like but can't think of anything more appropriate. Okay, You live in a house that is on stilts in the sand which is situated on an island or peninsula. You're told the winds are going to be well over 100 mph and the storm surge alone is going to be something like 8,10,12 feet high (or higher, it's 22 feet in some places). You're told that if you stay you're on you're own because it won't be possible for them to get to you even if they wanted to. It's clear that this ENTIRE area of land is absolutely going to be underwater. So what do you do? You stay, right? Wrong. Morons. That's all I can say. Galveston and other coastal areas have been flooding for many hours, LONG before time for landfall so that's just insane! They just said there were 12 (I think that was the #) people stranded on roofs on one of those beaches. They should win IDIOT OF THE YEAR awards!

They ruined the term "hunker down" over recent times. I'm so sick of hearing it. This time, it's "shelter in place" and "Run from the water, hide from the wind." True but FUNNY.

Okay I can't think of anything anymore at them moment because there is too much going on. But we're safe and boarded in (almost). You know me, pictures will follow.

Going to go fly kites with the kids before we have to be stuck indoors for the next 24+ hours.

Hurricane Ike

It doesn't look likely that we'll escape Ike. Depending on which forecast or computer model you look at the eye will either be going over us or just to the east of us, but not far enough east to make a difference. Even as far inland as we live we've been told to expect sustained winds of 80-90 mph with gusts of 110+.

There is only one tree that I'm concerned about but I hope that with the way these storms rotate it would blow it away from our house.

We had to call the utility company today (conveniently owned by the city) and let them know that we have a medical device (Peanuts Apnea Monitor). They told us that so far in the history out here they've never been without power for more than 18 hours. That's great to hear but Hurricane Alicia was the last big storm, which was 25 years ago, and the eye went over Houston. That's still a good 50+ miles from here so where we live now would have been on the 'clean' side of the storm. I remember Alicia. The eye went over our house.

Although because it is a smaller community hopefully it won't take as long to get power restored.

So tonight we start the prep around the house, hopefully we have enough supplies because just about everyone is already sold out of just about everything. We tried last night to get more of what we would need.

So it might take even longer to get those pics up of our trip. But they will definitely be posted...too cute not to share.

Bring it on EDOUARD!!!

hehehe, I couldn't resist. I absolutely LOVE this kind of weather and I live far enough inland & high enough up that damage and/or flooding is not an issue for us. We didn't live here for hurricane Rita (which spared most of the area after all) but were around for TS Allison. That was a doozy with the flooding and lost one car in that storm. I don't think this one is going to be bad but we desperately need the rain. I guess in the morning I'll have to double check that it's even coming anywhere near here and go pick up the few items that could become flying projectiles from the yard. So if I'm not online tomorrow, I probably just don't have power, lol. As of tonight's 10pm (CST) update we're right in line for the eye. WOOHOO!

Tornado!!!!!!!!!!

Holy Crap! We still can't believe it but according to the police officer that saw them, we survived our first tornado today. We assumed it HAD to be but the police officer confirmed he saw two funnels.

First of all, thankfully they weren't big and we don't have any damage on our property.

It's a rare moment that both boys are asleep at the same time and today they were so we were both sound asleep as well. Thinking I heard rain I asked Hubby if he heard it knowing full well he was going to want to put his motorcycle in the garage if it was raining. He checked and yes it was raining. In the brief moment that it took for him to walk to the garage and open it things got bad. The wind was howling & the rain & hail were coming down extremely hard and heavy. I took a peek out the back window and what I saw concerned me enough that I shouted, "Should I be in a bathroom with the boys?!" I got no answer so I went into the garage to investigate what he was up to and what was going on.

The rain was being blown over half way into the garage and the wind was unreal. When Hubby first stepped out into the garage a tree behind our fence snapped. Hubby described the car as looking like it wanted to just fall over! It only took a couple of minutes for things to calm down and once they did we realized that about 50ish feet down the fence line about 75 feet or more of fence had been knocked over. Several things had been rearranged but everything was in tact. No damage on our property.

Some branches took out some powerlines within eye shot of our house & we were without power off & on for a short time. There are some pretty big trees down in the area and lots and lots of debris up and down the streets. Here are a few pictures. They aren't great but you get the idea.

This is standing in our driveway looking south.

Same picture, zoomed in.

Our house is to the right in this picture.

Standing in our driveway looking north, that whiteish rectangle in the middle of the picture is our resident porta potty, on its side. Yes, the poor construction guys have to go SOMEWHERE, lol.

This tree & fence are along our driveway. That's how close it was!

This poor house is just down the street from us, they had some pretty big branches fall off their trees.

Wow! What a day!