9-23-08 - Ok, so the collective IQ of the city of Houston is apparently dropping by the day. More and more people are totally ignoring the traffic laws of the great state of Texas and treating a busted traffic light (in this case, one with no power - thank you Centerpoint and TexDot) as if it was not there.
9-21-08 - If you've been under a rock for the past week, Ike was a category 2 hurricane that blew through early in the morning on the 13th of September. There's a lot of stuff still jacked up around here. We got a the fences propped up where we could, and put some temporary stuff up where we couldn't salvage it in the back yard until the insurance guy can make it out.
We almost lost my suburban to a tree in the front yard too. That was interesting. Lost a couple of shingles, had some drippage into the attic, but nothing major. We are a LOT better off than some folks. One guy my wife works with had a tree go right through his trailer. And all around there are trees into houses. Just a mile from here there is a subdivision with one way in and out that had to cut trees out of the way just to be able to get in or out. Power lines are down everywhere but the crews are whipping that stuff into shape much faster than they thought.
I really need to say at this point that the local crews and the outside crews that came to help are doing a bang up job on getting things going considering the damage done. $25 billion in damages. 60 souls gone to their rest nation wide. 14-foot average storm surge. Texas got hit hard. The folks I feel sorry for are the Katrina evacuees that set up shop here that got hammered again.
The whole family is now "powered" again. Wife says we are getting a generator for next time. I agree. We actually felt guilty since we had power the next day here at the homestead. Good thing I went to the Dr. before the thing hit so I could get my allergy meds before power went out to most of the world here. And the codeine in the cough medicine helped me sleep through the storm a bit. No, I am not addicted to codeine, but I figure why waste it ;-) Just kidding.
More on Ike later, and I'll probably rant about the stupid drivers that don't pay ANY attention to street lights with no power and just BLOW through and don't care. Next time I almost get hit, I'm chasing them and getting a picture of the license for the po-po.