Non IKE Related Freebie of the Day

This is cute! How old is your brain? The site instructions are in Japanese, so read below!

1. Touch 'start'
2. Wait for 3, 2, 1 countdown.
3. Quickly memorize the numbers as they are on the screen, then click the circles
from the smallest number to the biggest.
4. At the end of game, computer will tell you the age of your brain.

How old is your brain?

This morning, not my best time, my brain was 39, really!

Leave a comment and tell me how old is your brain.

de

Approaching Sub-Normal

Within some wide stretch of the imagination, things are slowly progressing back to sub-normal. We're back at home and we've got power, those are the pluses, big ones. Actually, the brides in Lubbock today working. She really wanted to stay here but somebody has to make money to pay for all the repairs and the deductible we'll have. Insurance guy came by yesterday for a "with power" check up. He'd come before and did most of his work but until the power comes back you can't finish. Hopefully, it'll be an adequate number.

Remember I said sub-normal. The pool is a big green mosquito pit. Not sure what that's going to cost. My upstairs AC is down and out. Insurance guy says they won't cover it. AC guy going to call back today. Sleeping in my own bed though under a fan and nights are fairly cool. I've still got the remnants of a bruise the size of Texas on my rear end from where I fell going into the garage on Ikenite. Dr says is a serious muscle bruise that'll take months to heal completely. My foot is still sore from stepping on that nail in the cleanup. First thing back on Sat we dumped the frig/freezer. It had been too much off and on for the past two weeks to really feel good about all that food. Hopefully the smell will soon pass.

Got company coming today from Spain. Young lady named Irina that translated for me several times in Romania and her husband are coming to visit the beach in Texas. Good luck with that. Gotta get a room cleaned out for them to stay in. They have no idea what they are in for. Sounds like fun. Sorry to be depressing. It's all a bit overwhelming at times. But the Lord is good. Perseverance pays dividends in the long run. That's what we're in now, a long run.

got company now, gotta go.
de

Finally, The Meter Turns

We landed at 10 or so this morning in Miami and get to spend a good bit of today awaiting our flight to H-town. As I turned on my cell phone there's a txt msg from Jared, "we have power." Ah, the meter turns. Wish I had been there to see it but at least its on now. Two full weeks since the lights went out on Burnet Bay prior to Ike. We spent some of the past three days calling Centerpoint 3 times a day trying to get some explanation as to why just two of us on our block were without power. They never were able to give us a good explanation. My neighbor tells me she conversed with them fairly early this morning and reported to them our outage and they said they were working on it. Hallelujah, Praise God, and so many more thanks its finally back on. It's a long road to electricity these days in our neighborhood. I'm sure many still don't have it.

I got a roof yesterday. The guy who did the roof on the church just showed up and started working. I had only talked to him once and he said he'd come by, measure, give me an estimate, and so forth. Never did. His crew just showed up and put on the roof. Pretty bizarre. He really didn't have an explanation for why. He apologized for doing so. Weird. But, bottom line is I'm officially dry, I have power, now all I need is for the insurance guy to come back and check everything with the power back on. No way to tell the full extent of things damaged until the powers on. The meter turns, yes it does. Never thought I'd be quite so excited about spending hard earned money that way.

Lord willing we catch our flight and get home this evening about 5. We're a bit tired from the trip. Too much staying up late visiting with our friends who joined us in St Thomas. Alarm went off at 5:30 this am. Can't wait to go through the house, flip on the light switch, and the light comes on. It'll be pretty darned exciting. Can't tell you now many times in that first week I approached the closet to find some clothes, and flipped that switch knowing it was useless.

Guess that's all for now. Still a mound of work to be done at home and the office. That'll wait for another day.

Go Sooners and thanks for those OS Beavers!
de & ke

As the Meter Turns or Doesn't

Hi folks. My moms favorite soap since I can recall was "As the World Turns." Its a daily connection that millions of folks make, just checking on their favorite characters and their makeup TV lives. We've taken up a different daily watching event. When will the power come back on? Unfortunately, there's still no power at our house in Baytown, it'll be two weeks today. Everyone else has power on our block except for two houses, ours and our next door neighbor. All the trucks seemed to have left the neighborhood for greener pastures. Don't mean to sound a downer, its just been a long ordeal, especially for Jared who remains at home, stoking the generator, plodding around in the dark, and without AC. Guess we should continue to pray for Centerpoint energy crews and others as they do the difficult work they do. It's almost impossible to actually talk to a live person with the situation the way it is, and when you finally get someone, they can't tell you anything. There's still lots of other folks without power as well and overall, we were blessed compared to many who lost much more and many who lost everything. The good news is, I've not used one volt, watt, or buzz of electricity in two weeks! At the rate I'm going my next bill may be a big goose egg, although I'm really looking forward for the first time in seeing that meter hum, just as fast as it wants to go. That's my daily soapbox on "as the meter turns," or in our case, as it doesn't turn. Tune in tomorrow, when we hear Jared say, "where the h*#* that Centerpoint truck? Thanks for reading and commenting.

de \bonusblog

How high's the water mama? Here's an interesting link from Noaa weather. You click on the link and watch the water surge into our area during IKE. Looks like the surge at my house was 19.5'. Amatuer weather person and eyewitness to it all while it happened, I guessed 20' surge by the laymens eye.

Oh yeah, St Thomas is nothing short of terrific! Truly coming to be one of our favorite places in the world. Although we did take a fishing trip yesterday and caught nada, nothing, not one fish. First time the guide said he'd ever been totally blanked in 9 years of guiding here in St Thomas.

de

Still Reeling

I have to admit we're still in somewhat of a state of shock over Ike. As of last nights report from Jared we still don't have power but we do have a "red flag" on our power pole. I guess that's some progress. Jared says there was a centerpoint truck outside right by our house so that's good. We owe Jre a big one for letting us bug out and come to St Thomas while he stayed home to watch over things. By the way we got to St Thomas and it rained pretty much for two days. There was a "low pressure distubance" just to the west of here over Puerto Rico and it just stayed and stayed. We even started off the day yesterday with another round of heavy rain but by noon or so the sun came out for a few hours. Sure was nice. Spent most of the day on the island of St John and beached for awhile on Trunk Bay beach. Where was I, must've got lost.

It's hard not to spend a good bit of time thinking about what's going on back at home, when we'll get a roof, when we can start to rebuild the living area of our house. The good news is that the insurance adjuster came yesterday. The bad news is that he can't really finish his work until the power comes back on. We have to wait and check out all the stuff that works via electricity, the AC units, the stove, the alarm system, etc. Needless to say it got wet in our house. Mostly everything that got wet is just stuff, stuff that can be replaced. The church building got power back last night sometime. Two the buildings suffered a good bit of roof damage and then much like our house, got lots of rainwater inside. It'll be awhile before we get back to a full regular schedule of classes and such. We probably didn't do as much there as quickly as we might have because everyone was so focused on their own property, their own mess, just trying to survive with the aftermath of such a storm.

That's all for now. Its early and the coffees on. I think I need some.

de

What Was It Like?

I've had a number of folks ask me since our experience with hurricani Ike, "what was it like, what did it sound like?" I guess I'm still trying to recall, just what it sounded like and I can't seem to hear just the storm itself. The early part of the storm sounded much like any storm you might go through, extra windy. Part of the sound of the storm was covered up by the sound of my generator which faithfully ran all thru the night, giving us light, a fan, and kept the radio going. We lost power pretty early on, about 5 pm, as we were all laying down to rest before the night came. Most folks didn't lose power till 11 pm or midnight or later but for some reason we were one of the first to go. That pretty much hightened our awareness to what was about to come.

The height of the storm came about the time I finally fell asleep, about 2:30 am. We had left a gap in the boards covering the sliding glass door just big enough to get out, just in case we needed to, and also so we could watch the storm as it came in. One of the sounds I recall was the shaking of the boards on the windows. From time to time, they would shake and rattle, and we all kind of wondered would the next one blow them off the windows but thankfully that never happened, neither did it loosen any of them. (I know cause I took em all off) After falling asleep then next sound I recall was my cell phone ringing at 4:30. Mike was calling from the church and his first question was, "David, you awake? its the eye, its the eye, you gotta go out and see." Sure enough I was awake now and we did go out and see.

No sound, no rain, not even a whisper of a breeze, nothing, yes it was truly the eye of the storm. It was eerie calm and quiet, of course no lights, nothing. I drove down to the south end of our street to see "how highs the water mama?" Well the water had risen up the street another entire block of houses. I couldn't get down to check on the Bonds house because the water was too high. Never seen it that high before...hope I never do again. It's still the eye, calm and quiet as I pull back in the drive way. Much of the damage had already been done but not all was finished. I went back in the house and up to the upstairs deck that looks over the bay. I set my chair out on the deck just to sit for a bit. There, during the eye of the storm, flew a couple of lightening bugs, yep its true, there they were flying around like nothings going on.

After a few more minutes of the eye, there was a whisper of a breeze, just a whisper, then...a bit stronger, and then some wind...and within mere minutes we're seeing the back side of the eyewall come thru and hurricane force winds. Back inside now to watch from the safety of the house, the wind is coming off the bay now and I notice I can't really make out the sound of the generator now...not because its not running but because the wind is drowning out the sound of it. I'm still upstairs watching...because I've been calling Mike from channel 11 since meeting him on our street earlier that afternoon. Mike wants an hourly update on the surge in the bay. By 5:30 now the wind is howling, the bay is churning, and 6-8 foots waves are crashing just down the slope in my back yard...one after another...over and over. I wonder will there be anything left of my bulkhead, my pier, and my back yard. The next sound I recall was the upstairs kind of giving this low rumble. It was literally shaking in the wind but ever so briefly. A few minutes later it shook again, then again. That's when I went back downstairs.

The next sound was a big harumph kind of sound...maybe it was a whooosh and thump. Have you ever tried to write sounds...not all that easy. It wasn't like a tree falling on the house but we weren't sure what to make of it and there's no way I'm going outside to see what it was. The wind is clearly blowing 110 mph and I'm not going out. Then Jared says, "dad, I think I hear dripping?" Yep, it was, generator humming, Ike howling, water dripping. That big sound was a big section of my downstairs roof had blown off. It's rolled roofing on the very back part and the storm coming off the bay just got under it like you putting your sheet on the bed, whoosh, and it flipped back just that easy, then the rains began to come in...for the next 4 hours or so.

Well thats another story. Maybe I'll tell about how we got on the roof and wrestled what was left back down on the roof in the middle of the hurricane. Then you'd think I really was crazy. I don't recall many sounds after that because we were busy bailing water for till we put the roof back down. Gotta go now...I'm on vacation.

de

First Airport Post

There's all kinds of firsts. I think this is the first time I've blogged from the airport. Kim and I currently in Miami, awaiting our next flight to sunny St Thomas. We began planning this vacation some 9 months ago not knowing that we would be just on the heels of hurricane Ike. It's been one incredible week at the home port of Baytown. Hard to believe its been only a week! Seven days ago the storm was just beginning to subside and we were still trying to clean up all the water that got into the house in the wee hours after part of our roof blew off. By yesterday the back room of the house had been pretty much gutted, all the ceiling sheetrock and insulation had been removed along with the laminate floor. What a stinking, nasty mess it was. We then sprayed the exposed rafters and roof deck underside with an antimildew spray, let it set, and then began the process of wiping it down with clean water. Hopefully that will kill all the mildew that was beginning to set in pretty rapidly. Now all I need is a new roof. Hopefully that will begin this week. FEMA came by and looked around. Nice enough guy but I don't know that we'll get anything from them. You have buy your generator after the fact for them to reimburse you. If you actually prepare for such an event you're out of luck. That's backwards if you ask me but the government never asked me. Our contractor is ready to start on the house once we get power and some insurance money. Haven't seen any sign of either yet. Still running on generator power for the time being. Jared's there trying to hold down the fort till be get back from a weeks vacation. I'll be blogging from St Thomas about our experience, if I can wake up from trying to catch up on my sleep. Thanks for reading and commenting and mostly for praying for us. We've got a long road to get things back to normal at the house but compared to many we're really, really, blessed.

More later, gotta fly, and catch some ZZZZZZs
de & ke

Sure Sign That Things Are Bad!

Finally found someone in town with electricity and internet! It's amazing just how spoiled and comfortable we are with our lives. Needless to say all that has changed with the coming of IKE! We are still without power and they anticipate it will be several more days if not another week or two. I had wished on a daily basis that I could sit down and blog about our experiences of the past week. In India I got used to being able to tell what was going on even if no one was reading. Blogging was a good outlet but no electricity or internet means no blogging either. I'll try to catch up on some of it over the next week while Kim and I are on vacation. I'm exhausted, so is Kim. Tomorrow we leave for a week in St Thomas that had been planned for 9 months, so we're going. We've done just about all we can do except to see the insurance person. Everything else is lined up. Roofer comes next week. Contractor to rebuild the back room is ready when I have some money. Power comes, well, we don't know when power comes back.

Gonna go now. Gotta pack. Oh yeah, its a sure sign that things are bad when the news helicopters are flying around your house and neighborhood, everyday. Yes, that's right, everyday, sometimes several times a day. The Presidents helicopter went over when he was here too. We saw it when we were all standing outside doing something, I can't recall what. My brain is in a fog, my body is exhausted, my clothes don't smell very good, my back is bruised, my foot is sore, my arms are scratched...time for a little r & r. I'll blog from sunny St Thomas. Hope I can sleep there. Thanks for your prayers.

de & ke

Update from Baytown, Via Dallas

As most of you have probably heard, after a lot of praying and hoping, the Ellis family made it through Ike's fury with no significant injuries and they are doing just fine. Somehow, throughout the storm, cell phone coverage was never lost. Kami and I were actually able to keep in close contact with them almost the entire duration of the storm. We've continued to check in with them as they work to clean things up and my dad asked me to give a little update here on the blog since the authorities are still very uncertain how long they will be without power.

While their bodies made it through the storm unscathed (aside from a little tweak in David's back), the same cannot be said for their home. At the worst part of the storm, the high winds tore off a significant portion of the roof on the rear of the first story. During the next several hours of driving rain and wind, the wood and sheetrock gave way to the water and the back half of their first story suffered a good bit of water damage. The fact that they were able to be there and move a lot of things out of the way ended up being very helpful. They surely would have lost their living room furniture, the piano, and several books among other things had they not been their to move them. The storm surge (which was my biggest concern) never reached the top of the hill in their back yard.

Their preparation prior to Ike seemed to be a huge help in making the last several days (and perhaps the coming days) much more bearable. As he wrote prior to the storm, all of their windows and doors were boarded up. They had ample amounts of gas (for the generator), food, water, and batteries. And they continue to live (relatively) comfortably, "old-school" as my dad put it, but comfortable and safe. At this point, they remain without power. Only a few areas in Baytown have restored power, however they were able to reload on gas.

My mom (probably much to her chagrin) was able to fly out on Monday and go to work. Dad and Jared continue to clean up around the house, in the yard, and help out with neighbors and members of the church when they can.

They wanted me to convey their gratitude for so many of you keeping their family, the Lakewood church, and the entire coastal community in your prayers. This storm could have been a lot worse and they thank God for his mercy through this whole process. Please continue to give thanks and ask God to continue to be with so many who were affected by the storm.

While our family is making it okay, and insurance will cover their losses, others were not so fortunate. Please continue to pray for the many people in Baytown and in Lakewood that lost everything in their homes due to flood and wind damage. Also, like I said before, it is still uncertain when power will be restored and very few people were prepared to deal with this type of situation over the course of more than a couple of days. The next couple of weeks could prove to be very difficult for some.

I will continue to update the blog as things progress. Until then, thanks again for your prayers,

Aaron Ellis

Awaiting Ike

Jared and I just finished boarding up the entire house. Boy it was way faster than doing it all myself, like I did for Rita. Wasn't going to do it but this is a really big storm. It's finally cloudy here. Been sunny most of the day. We have a light breeze and a few raindrops fell a moment ago. All pretty quiet for the time being. The waters up some in the back yard but I'm confident we'll remain dry in the house. We're as ready as we can be, gotta generator, a 110 AC window unit for after the fact, extra ice, bottled water, food, gas, can't think of much else. Kims' been busy filling up every container in sight with water for necessities later. Gonna take a shower now, go by the church to get some more ice, see how things are there, come back here, check in on the weather and then maybe a nap. Not sure I'll blog again but if you don't hear anything, its cause the phones and internet will probably be out for a few days. Pray for us, I know you will.

Take a hike Ike!
de, ke, & jre

Planning for Ike!

Greetings from the Gulf Coast! Just a word to let you know that unless Ike really ramps up to say a Cat 4 we'll be staying at home and riding it out. We've got plywood and are ready to use some of it! I boarded the entire house for Rita and learned all the new windows we put in when we bought the house are guaranteed hurricane proof. So, we may board up a few but not many. My neighbor had a couple of guys boarding her house up till after midnight last night. We have a least one couple who are already planning to stay at the church building so, if it gets really rough and the house doesn't seem like a good place, we'll bug out to our church building which has withstood every big storm since 1954. (Secretly we hope it gets blown down and we could build a new building with the insurance money) We bought a generator and gas for Gustav along with the other necessary items which we didn't use, so we're ready to stay and prepared to be without power for a few days. My cameras are charging in case we want to take pictures or video. Our home phone is internet based so it could be out. Cell phones will be charged. Pray for a hit somewhere other than metro Houston while you're down there praying.

Here's a cool website one friend sent me. It's called stormpulse.com

Here's a video for your enjoyment, while you're waiting for Ike. The sound is not very good but it is the Eagles.

Here's to Ike,
de & ke

Eagles were awesome!

The Eagles were nothing short of awesome last night. I do believe the sound quality was a bit better in the Compaq center some 5 years ago when we last saw them. Last time we took all three of our kids and thoroughly enjoyed then too. All in all, the Assisted Living Tour they called it, these old boys have still got it. Nothing short of amazing. They started the first set with 4-5 songs from the new album and started the second set the same way from Long Road. No doubt of course the rest of the time was a variety of their stuff from back to 1972 till now, Hotel California, Life in the Fast Lane, Lyin Eyes, what they called their wives credit card song, you guessed "Take it to the Limit," you're right, along with 3 or4 of Joe Walsh's classic tunes, "Life's Been Good to Me So Far", "Walk Away" and then they encored with Take it Easy, and Don Henley singing Desperado solo.

After the encore the four of them stayed out on stage, walked to each side of the stage, stood there and smiled and waved for the crowd, like they truly enjoyed it and appreciated the enthusiastic crowd response. All in all they did almost 3 hours of songs. Said they were glad to be in Houston but, they were going to do the other show on Thursday and get the heck out of town before Ike! They'll be in Big D this weekend Sat & Sun. Might be the last hurrah for them touring. Hope not but not sure the quality they've come to expect will be with them much longer, voice wise.

One other thought though, there sure were a lot old people there last night. What's with that?

Oh yeah, for now we're staying put and watching to see what happens with Ike.

Life's been good to me so far,

de

Eagles Concert Tonight!

In my teens and 20's I was a big concert goer. Just loved everything about them. My first concert was going to see Three Dog Night at the Fairgrounds arena in OKC. Some of the most memorable (well I honestly don't recall them too well) or maybe momentous is a better word, were the days of the "Cotton Bowl Jam" in Dallas. I went several times that I recall. The first one was headlined by Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. It appears it cost $13. The backup band was the Eagles. I really didn't care that much about the Stones, I went for the Eagles, not Montrose, Trapeze, Billy Preston or any of those other groups. Jam 2 headliners, on July 23, 78, were Fleetwood Mac, The Steve Miller Band, Little River Band, and Bob Welch. I got stuck online looking for that Stones concert and I swear I can't find it. Either I've got the wrong year in my head or I just dreamed it up. Those senior moments are coming far too often these days or that's how it was in those days.

I certainly won't relive too much of that time tonight as the bride and I go to see the Eagles. And not to mention tickets tonight are higher than they were in the 70's but I swear the Eagles sound just as good now as they did then. Well, that's all for now. Gotta go exercise, take the bride to eat then to sing along with my all time favorite band.

It's a long road to eden,
de

Blogs I've Found

I assume from gradual climb on the site meter that some are reading my wanderings from time to time. Do me a favor, ok? One of these times comment and say, de you're sille, or nuts, or off just a tad, or something like that! It just keeps me writing. Well, yes there's certainly some question about whether or not you could really call it writing. It's not ranting, I did that yesterday for a time when I preached.

I thought today I'd pass along a couple of blogs I found that are pretty cool. You've probably heard about how "bloggers" seem to be all the rage, especially in the area of politics. The bloggers are saying this and that. I found a site you might want to read.

It is: pajamasmedia.com Here's what they claim for themselves. Pajamas Media began in 2005 as an affiliation of 90 of the most influential weblogs on the Internet. They were linked together as an advertising network, but the intention was to provide a significant alternative to mainstream media. Now who isn't interested in an alternative to the mainstream media?

The other site is all about weather. No, its not weather.com, God help us we'll all be blown away if we don't die from panic, histeria, or worry ourselves completely to death. Headlines news in the Houston Barnicle this morning said, "hurricane fatigue" starting to set in. Mine is weather.com fatigue. Hey, I know Ike is out there. I'm watching. Yeah, I'd rather not be watching but I know who is in control. I'm ready as I can be. Who knows, the Lord could come back before Ike gets here. That would be just fine with me. Oh yeah, here's the site. It's from Nasa. For hurricanes its this one, named after my favorite grandson. NOAH

Not really, (don't forget to comment)
de

Tis The Season!

No, certainly I know its not that season. Christmas is still aways away, and yes I know its football season, (see previous post) its hurricane season. I grew up in Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin down the plain, and there we called our storm threats tornadoes. We lived right in the middle of what's called tornado alley and in the spring mostly, you better watch out, you better not cry, sorry, Christmas brain. Where was I, in the spring, a cool front matched with the warm air made for some pretty exciting storm watching. Thank the Lord for much better technology these days which makes it easier to keep track of, where Santa is and when.

But having lived on the Gulf Coast now for almost 20 years, wow that's a long time, we don't watch for tornadoes much but we have hurricane season. From somewhere in July thru November there's always the chance some storm named after some guy or gal will come our way. The good news is that with hurricanes you usually get pretty good advanced notice, sometimes days or even weeks. Unfortunately you can't send in a wish list and get what you ask for, some rain, a little wind, and nothing out of the ordinary. So, we watch and wait.

It seems now that the weather channel is following the lead of the major news channels in ramping everybody up into panic mode, a little like getting all your shopping done in time for the big day. And in fact getting ready for a storm is a bit like Christmas in the stores. Everybody's out, making their lists and checking them twice, getting the last minute items, planning their possible road trip to grandma's, except they're all at Lowe's and Home Depot or Sam's club and they're not buying dvd's or clothes or dad a tie, they're buying bottled water, generators, plywood, batteries, and gas-cans.

We went out with the shopping frenzied crowd and bought a generator this last time with Gustav. He looked pretty menacing and in fact he was, except for the fact we got little of nothing from him. At our house Gus amounted to three days of wind that wrapped around the storm, a few clouds, and exactly 10 drops of rain one day, that's it. Thank you Lord. Gratefully, La was spared the kind of storm like Katrina exactly three years ago. Unfortunately, about 3 weeks later a little known and quickly forgotten storm named Rita came our way, ripped up folks just 30 miles east of here and well into western La. In all the hype over Gus and looking back at Katrina, I saw not one picture nor one mention of Rita and her impact on lots and lots of good people, and that Houston's evacuation was much larger than Nola. At least they seemed to have learned a lesson. Keep watch, be prepared, and take care of yourself.

So, we watch every day, for Hanna, or Ike, or my grandma's namesake, Josephine, or the one behind that. Oh yeah, and we watch the political news. Fun, fun, fun. Was that hurricane Palin last night or what? Oh well, tis the season!

We wish you merry hurricane season,
We wish you merry hurricane season,
We wish you merry hurricane season,
for the rest of the year! (till Nov really)

live from de's Gulf Coast watch station,
de