Four Weeks Today

It's been four weeks today since we were busy doing the last preparations for Ike. All in all things are good here. I suspect in another four weeks or so I may be able to report our remodeling is close to being finished. In the meantime I thought I'd post some Ike pics. I honestly don't have any pics during the storm itself. The first ones are pics I took yesterday of some of the homes on S Burnet and their current condition. One of the pics is the one that made me semi-famous for just a few seconds on Channel 11. I'm telling you, everyone I know was watching Ch 11 that evening and through the night. It's a picture of a mailbox almost under water. Several are what our yard looked like afterwards and the damage on the inside of our house. a couple are from 5 in the evening as the storm waters began to rise on S Burnet St.I intentionally left off the pic Kim took of my purple backside, you're quite welcome.


Homes on South Burnet drive, Oct 9, four weeks post Ike.

Thats' not the garage either

No walls or just studs and a roof, or a pile of debris


The inside of our house the morning after. What a night it was!

Tearing down the sheetrock day. Yeah, that's Tyler Prothro in the kitchen.

On Burnet Bay, neighbors pier, then our pier reimerges from the waters, unscathed.

How bout a swim in that pool!

Debris was everywhere.




The water rises on S Burnet St about 4:30 pm prior to the real storm.

The very end of Burnet and the pic that made me famous.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Boomer Sooner tomorrow!

de

Contractor coming Monday!

Slowly it goes here on the Gulf Coast. It rained yesterday for the first time since IKE which was a good test of my new roof. We were dry and that's a blessing because most folks still have blue tarps over their roofs. The other good news is that Doug, mister "I can do pretty much everything" from carpentry, sheetrock, electrical, tile, everything is coming to start on the remodeling on Monday, yeah! Doug did our house on Caldwell and the remodeling of the Bay house and I trust him completely and he's reasonable. Now all I need is for the insurance money to come in the next couple of weeks. I hope and pray we'll be able to what we need to do for what they will reimburse us for. We'll see. Right now, I'm estimating that Ike's going to cost us in the neighborhood of $10-15,000 out of pocket. It's already going on $4-5000. I saw on the news that most homeowners could expect to get 45% of what their costs actually would be. That seems to be right on track so far. Not sure where its going to come from but, we're much better off than a lot of folks so I'm not complaining too much. One bit of advice, pull out your homeowners, find out your deductible, 1%, 2%, $2500, $10000, just make sure what's covered and not, and read the fine print. We all pay out the wazoo for the policies but when it comes time for the insurance to pay us, they don't pay it back, unless your "really covered well." Take time to read it well. You just might need it sometime. That's the latest from the Gulf Coast.

de

I Spoke Too Soon

In all my excitement after the Comcast guy came, I spoke too soon. He said all he did was send a refresh signal from my DVR, same on my modem, and everything worked like a champ. We did get to watch the OU/Baylor game, then poof, all services were gone again, just as before. I called and got an Oct 22 appointment date for another tech to come out. Oh well, life without TV really ain't all that bad. I'm kind of getting used to it. There's plenty of other stuff to do, go to bed early, work on the yard or the house. If you need me, my trusty Verizon phone works like it should, so use that one. After all, I do have internet and email at the church office. Always be leary of speaking too soon.

cya,
de

Looking For Blessings Wherever You Can Find Them

It's easy to get bogged down after something like Ike. It's been three weeks this morning since the sky brightened after our night in the hurricane. I was going to say when the "sun came up" after Ike but we never really saw the sun that day and when daylight came we were still being hit hard until noon or later. Virtually nothing has been normal for these past three weeks but you look for blessings wherever you can find them. We had running water, not much at times, but good ole natural gas gave us a hot shower and "the network" kept our cell phones service going the entire time, all night through the storm. Those were blessings.

Our friend Mike, from church, came over to hunker down with us after his power went out. He really helped during those hours we bailed water, and then joined me on the roof, while still under hurricane force winds, to wrestle the roof back down and temporarily put it back in place. We were quite wet but the torrent of rain coming into the house was stopped for the most part. Mike, Wes Zaun, and a neighbors friend worked non stop for two days to help clean up the yard, and the debris. We had a small mountain of limbs and debris to pick up. Just two days following a friend of Kims called to say they had power. They live near the hospital and it was one of the first areas to get power. I suggested we drive that way, just to see, and we arrived at a gas station that was open, and with fairly short lines, and filled my cans and my truck for $3.35 a gallon. We were good to generate for another 3/4 days and gas was scarce. Mike called from church to say he had spare 110 AC unit he could loan me so I dashed over, picked it up, and that Saturday night the three of us slept under cool, generator driven AC and got good sleep. What a blessing.

Tyler, Ben, and a friend agreed to come and help me deconstruct our room that overlooks the bay. The ceiling, insulation, and floor was soaked and had to go. It was a nasty, stinking, disgusting mess to clean up. They worked really, really hard. Our neighbor Monica had a crew with dumpster working on her mountain of debris washed up from the bay and let us get rid of most of that stuff in the dumpster. Debra, who recently came back from a month in India, came by with her friend and worked in the yard for a good half a day while we worked in the house. They also took our mountain of rainsoaked, stinking towels home, washed them for us, and brought them back the next day. (They had their power back already)

While we were gone Monica's handyman brought in dirt and sod and filled in both our slopes on the bay of all the wash out the storm did to the hillside. The man who was working on the church roof, the church is another story, came to my house within a week, removed the roof we had put back down, and got us "dry." He finished replacing the roof we lost just yesterday. Sure is pretty. For some reason, roofing contractors and materials are in short supply but we're blessed already with a new roof. I have a feeling many will live with their blue tarps for weeks/months before finding someone. What a blessing.

Kim was able to fly out the Monday after the storm and work. Not many flights were going that day but where she was going there were mostly military on that plane so it must've gotten high priority. October is one her busiest months and she's not missed a day yet, another blessing.

We've had a crew working at the church for all of this week to tear out all the water damage at the church. When I talked to their crew chief and asked him if he might come to the house to inspect my work, he brought his $1000 handheld gizmo, tested my walls, and determined there was still a fair amount of sheetrock I needed to remove. He then offered 3 of the 20 or so men who were working at the building to come over that afternoon and remove the stuff for me. They came and worked for a couple of hours, did the work, (I worked too), cleaned up what they had removed, sprayed it all with their sanitizing spray, and set up the equipment, 3 big fans, and a dehumidfier. I could let them run at home while they finished at the building. The dehumidifier pulled out about 7 gallons of moisture in two days time. Another blessing.

Needless to say that the power came back after two weeks was truly a blessing. It must be mentioned that the Lord sent us a real cool front right after the storm so we could sleep and night and not have to endure our often sultry days and nights. I had one AC unit down, but after a phone call, techs came the next day and determined the wind had just loosened the freon line and it lost it freon. Just fill er up and we cool again. Now that more summer like temps are back that is a blessing.

Wow, I guess I had not stopped to recount all those blessings and more. There are many more. The cable's been out since the storm. When I called to make an appointment and the guy says two weeks, well that's not good news, then he comes back on, says "wait a minute and let me see what I can do," then he says, "how about Sat Oct 4, but don't tell anybody I bumped you up," well that was exciting. Mum's the word. The cable guy just left the house. Now I have cable, internet, and phone back up and running.

I look back and see just how much the Lord has blessed us during what has to be one of the most difficult times we have ever experienced. Our church will officially gather for worship tomorrow for the first time since Ike. Our sister congregation welcomed us with open arms to be with them till we could get back to our building. We won't be having classes again anytime soon because those parts of the building were hit hard. But we'll gather and give thanks for all the blessings he continues to give us. There's honestly a long road ahead to get H-town back to pre Ike days. In many ways it will never be quite the same. I'm praying for a blessing from the insurance company to cover remodeling our bayroom, living room, and a good bit of the kitchen. It'll cost thousands. I'd be neglectful I didn't mention Kim and Jared and all they were able to do. I'm certainly not by myself in this mess. Having both of them here, Kim physically able to do pretty much whatever she wants is one of my greatest blessings. Jared's been a real trooper. He stayed and watched the house and kept Frazier going for an entire week with no power. All in all we've really been blessed compared to so many who lost everything. We are all blessed, much more than we deserve, and sometimes you just have to set back and look for them wherever you can find them.

Blessings to you!
de

Back to Ike

Several have asked did I take any pictures of Ike. Actually, very few if you want to know. Guess I was just doing other stuff or trying to keep the water out of the house or putting the roof back on or maybe I just have enough of those images in my head. Guess I'm not a real photographer then. Anyway, you may have seen some of these. Here's a taste of what Ike did.

de

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

Schools back, footballs back, Jareds' back

Fall marks the coming back of lots of good things. School is back in session. Doesn't really affect me much anymore cause all my kids are done with school for now. I can feel the anticipation though in those in my circle of folks mostly at church. It seems that all the children look forward to school again for the most part, parents really look forward to it, except for those making their first foray into the school system and those who have kids going off to college.

The good news is that football comes with school. Yeah. I like football. Not sure I could say I love it, but I really do enjoy it, especially High school ball. I think football season can be one of the all-time great experiences of High school, whatever part you might have the opportunity to play. I'm sure has to do with my HS years I spent in the band, watching Kami drum-major, and yelling for Jared as he played. I was a band dork/geek/nurd or however you name them. If there was anything ever I was a "natural" at it was music. Music was then and always will be a part of my soul, God-given I think. If ever I could fly or do anything close to what those Olympic athletes could do, it was in the area of music. Well, that's certainly a stretch, but I couldn't help it. I've loved music, I loved HS band, and my dad was the local newspapers "Sports Editor," so I loved football as well. If not he might have disowned me. Deep down I think dad always dreamed I'd be a football star but I drew the music card, not the athlete one. Sorry dad! I ramble....and can't wait for REL Gander football, oh yeah, the Sooners too! Speaking of which, check out this article on Bob Stoops. Pretty impressive guy and fair coach too.

What else, oh yeah, Jareds back but I already said that in a previous post. He's about settled in and working quite a bit at Best Buy. Selling appliances one day, working the floor as Customer Associate the next. He got the people gene from my dad. I used to dred going places with my dad because sometime it took forever cause he'd either see somebody he knew to talk to or he'd just meet somebody brand new and strike up a conversation as though he'd known them for like, ever. I didn't get that gene, Jared did. Jared's honestly glad to meet anybody and if you need something, he'll sell it to you. I'm proud of him and honestly just really glad to have him home for awhile.

Kim's not back yet. August has been her busiest in more than a year. Last August she hurt so much, I just didn't know how much longer she'd be able to work. She managed another month, almost two then our life changed in India but that's another story. Thank God for that life change and that she's able to do again what she loves so much. She'll be back after this week.

The Sims ladies are back from India and so are Brad & Jenny back from Germany. You can check out their blogs from links right here on my blog.

That's all for now. Hopefully, I'll be back, blogging again soon.

Till then, sing along now!

"take me out to the football games,
take me out to the crowd,
take my own peanuts enjoy halftime,
I dont care if my words never rhyme,
well its root, root, root for the Sooners, Ganders, and Texans,
(fill in your own team if it makes you feel better)
if they don't win it a shame,
and its run, pass, and kick for the goal
at the ole football game.

Cya, de

Million Miler Club

There's a lot going on around the household right now. Jared's moved back from Abilene and is awaiting his job to begin at Best Buy. Yep, they transferred him from that store to this one which is really great news. Hopefully, he'll knock em over at the interview tomorrow for a full-time CA position. That would be really ideal. Either that or part time in the appliance section. Either way it should mean higher pay than he was making.

The bride's on the road again. We're thankful for that because her work has been pretty slow, compared to what it was last year and since we went to India. August is always her busiest month and this one proves to be the same. This week its five cities in five days. Last week was four cities in five days, from Nashville to Florida and ending up in California. She took the redeye home from CA on Friday night Sat morning. She got home at 7 am on Saturday morning, pooped needless to say. Then it was back to the airport a little more than 24 hours later. The good news is, she's working, and she is able to do it!

Oh yeah, I'll try to post a pic of her "million miler" tag she just got from Continental. It's pretty cool. She's a silver elite flyer for the rest of her life, even if she never flies that much again. The other good part is that I get the same status as her, silver elite from now on and if she reaches platinum so do I. Thanks hon. Love you and keep on flying.

de

Almost Missed WhatshisName!

Well, I'm back from the West, or great NW, or as some call it, Abilene. I already had plans to fly out on Monday afternoon to go to ABL, help Jared finish packing, and move him back home. It just so happens that a tropical storm came right over the house while I was gone. I still can't seem to spell Edwawrd, Edward, Eddy, Edweirdo, or what ever the name of the storm was. Whatever the name, he didn't amount to all that much. I flew into ABL at 4:30, we got the truck, met my brother for dinner, and waited for the sun to go down before loading. (always recommended in ABL in the summer) We worked till after 1:30 am and slept till the trash truck arrived about 7:30 to dump the big metal dumpsters. We finished loading and cleaning up the best we could with no electric, which was turned off about 8 am, made a quickstop by McD's for breakfast, Wally world for gas, and hit the road. It was basically uneventful until we hit Fairfield on I45. Yeah, I45 in order to miss Edwaourd. See it was supposed to go right up 290, towards Hey 36 which we would normally drive so we drove to Ft Worth, down 287, I45, then south.

About Fairfield we me Ed who was much less of a storm than he had been earlier in the day but still quite exciting. We drove in a driving, hard rain for almost 2 & 1/2 hours, then it quit just outside H-town. Pretty harrowing if I do say so myself. J's truck is nothing if not squirrely on the hiway, much less in a driving rain with bigrigs zooming by you at 65-70 mph. I prayed pretty much the whole time for us both. We made it with the help of several good folks who came over about 7 pm to help us unload the truck.

So in about 17 hours, I left H-town, did way too many stairsteps loading and unloading, had an exciting drive home, and still managed to meet ole whats-his-name, the Edster. Maybe he'll cool off Dallas. It sure was hot there yesterday.

de

Friends Overseas

Before last October I had never really heard of anyone going overseas for medical treatment. Kim and I went to India and it turned out terrific. Right now we have to sets of friends going over the pond for treatment. Here's there blogs if you want to take a look.

Vickie & Debra Sims are at Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai,
http://livingourdream247.blogspot.com/

Brad & Jenny Wims are leaving for their 2nd trip to Germany for experimental cancer treatment.
http://www.thewims.blogspot.com/

Read their blogs and most importantly add them to your prayers.

de

Kim Gets Her Masters Degree

This past Saturday, Kim got her Masters degree from the University of Phoenix. Her mom & dad, her brother Ken and his family were all there to witness. Heres some video of the event.

Bride is now a Graduate again!

Yeah, yeah, I know I haven't blogged lately. It's not that there's not plenty to blog about, its just been very busy. The highlight of all our busyness is my brides graduation day. Today was that day. We flew in to OKC just in time to avoid the rain in H-town from Dolly. We really needed the rain though. The bride was working OKC on Thursday, then it was time for a trip to Duncan to visit the family for a day. That is always a pleasure. On Thursday A,A&N drove up from Forney for the night. We spent the next day visiting and everybody enjoying the little ones antics, had some mum-cooked food which is always a treat and headed back to OKC.

Then, this afternoon, the bride officially received her Masters of Arts in Education, Curriculum and something from the University of Phoenix. Yeah, I know we're in OK not in Phoenix but they've got campuses all over and this one was convenient for her to "walk." There were a couple of hundred graduates from Associates degrees to two Doctorates. The speaker was the honorable Mayor of OKC. I was really proud of the work she put in and that we were able to go through the official ceremony. Her folks and brothers' family came in from Muskogee for a few hours to see it all happen and of course to see Noah! He's really a special addition to our clan.

As she walked in with the graduates, waited her turn, and took those steps up the stairs to the official announcement I couldn't help but think that if it had all happened last year, she wouldn't have been able to make that walk, much less those five steps up to the stage and back down the other side. What a blessing her surgery continues to be in both our lives.

The Lord continually watches over us and blesses us at every turn.

Thank you Jesus! Love you dear and congratulations on all your hard work. I'm really proud of you, your courage, and all you've accomplished.

I'll post a video later, much later I'm sure.

de

What You Don't See

Saw this and just couldn't resist. Not original with me.

Just a personal observation...as I watched the news coverage of the massive flooding in the Midwest with over 100 blocks of the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa under water, levees breaking, and the attention now turned downstream for when this massive amount of water hits the Mississippi, what amazed me is not what we saw, but, what we don't see...

1. We don't see any looting.
2. We don't see any street violence.
3. We don't see people sitting on their roof tops waiting for the government to come save them.
4. We don't see people waiting on the government to do anything.
5. We don't see Hollywood organizing benefits to raise money for people to rebuild.
6. We don't see people blaming the President for all that's happened.
7. We don't see people ignoring evacuation orders.
8. We don't see people blaming a government conspiracy to blow up the levees as the reason some have not held.
9. We don't see the US Senators or the Governor of Iowa crying on TV.
10. We don't see the Mayors of these cities complaining about the lack of state or federal response.
11. We don't see or hear reports of the police confiscating personal firearms so only the criminals will be armed.
12. We don't see gangs of people going around and randomly shooting at the rescue workers.
13. You don't see some leaders in this country blaming the bad behavior of the Iowa flood victims on "society" (of course there are no wide spread reports of lawlessness to require excuses).
14. We don't see any foriegn countries offering assistance.

Thanks dad.

I'm fairly sure my dad has no clue what he started. This past weekend Kim and I took Kami to Austin to photo her first wedding as the "official photographer." Boy did she work hard, so hard I'm sure that if we weren't there she would've totally neglected herself. The whole time she was working I was taking her water and feeding her tidbits from the food already out. Shh! don't tell anyone. The videographer asked me how many weddings she'd done before and I informed him, this is her 1st! He then replied, "well let me tell you something, I've been doing this for over 25 years and I can tell you, she's got a fantastic eye for good photos and she works as hard as anyone I've ever seen. She'll do great as a photographer. It made me proud. She took over 1100 photos in just a few hours.

Back to my dad. I'm not ever sure how many of the grandkids know that he started as a photographer in the newspaper business, back in Abilene, back in the day as my kids would say. I'd have to confirm the year but somewhere around 1948 he was taking pictures for the Reporter News when one of his photos made national news, a photo of some awesome looking clouds in West Texas. They can see some amazing, even scary stuff out there. Anyway, that was his start, taking pictures.

Now Kami's an aspiring professional photographer. Not sure when you make the official transition or maybe she already has. I read Heather's blog and know how big a picture bug she is, and Blaine, and Jared. They not only just enjoy taking pictures, they aspire to be better, to take great photos, to experiment, to "see and capture life through the photographers lens." And of course surely one of my favorite photo and video stops is Allisons blog cause there's pictures of my favorite grandson.

Thanks dad, you may not have known it but you passed along something really terrific.

de

Slip and Slide

To say that Kim is doing well is an understatement. I'll just post a video of her sliding down the hill behind the house on Mother's Day weekend. Check it out. It's not Doctor approved but it sure was fun, thanks to Aaron and James for the creativity. lol

Vegas & back

If anyone out there is still reading, the bride and I just got from Las Vegas. Wockhardt Hospital contacted us and asked her to come and speak on their behalf on "the patient experience. Just about anytime someone wants to pay for you to take a trip somewhere, do it. We arrived early on Friday, rented a car, stopped at Walmart for food, drinks, snacks and a styrofoam icechest and headed away from Vegas. After WM, we went and toured Hoover Dam. I'd always wanted to see it and it is worthwhile to see. We took the extended tour which takes you to the power plant and deep within some of the tunnels in the dam. We navigated an "inspection tunnel" deep inside the dam to look out on the river below. Very cool and to think that it was all built in the early 1930's. From there we headed to points south down the Colorado river, through Kingman. Its all desert mountains except for right on the river. Hot and dry and there's nothing really green except for cactus, mesquite and stuff that's by the water. We stayed the night by another lake on the Colo river in Lake Havasu City, AZ. http://www.golakehavasu.com/

On Sat we drove farther down the river and found a nice place and spent the afternoon at La Paz County state park watching folks boat, jetski, and play in the 55 degree water. I got in the water but just briefly to cool down and I mean cool. We both got sunburned but had a great time, picnicing and relaxing.

We drove on further south and made a Uturn around the river at Parker, AZ, and drove the edge of the Mohave desert on the other side of the river, up through Needles, CA, through Bullhead City, Laughlin, again on the river, and eventually back to Henderson, outside of Vegas for the night so we could pick Jared up at the airport on Sunday. We found a nice church there, about 75 folks, in Henderson, picked up Jared, checked into the hotel after touring around and seeing some of the sights. We rested a bit in the afternoon, then went out to see The Blue Man Group show which we all enjoyed a lot.

Monday I spent with the bride and her speaking at the Medical conference. She and another patient from near Reno both spoke on their patient experience at Wockhardt. The other lady had just gotten back from climbing Mt Kiliminjaro. Went back out to Hoover Dam on Monday afternoon cause Jared wanted to go, then back to Vegas and a little more sight seeing that night. J visited some tatoo shop in the Palms, no he didn't get a tat, then to the Hard Rock for a cup. (he's got lots of Hard Rock cups) We all turned in relatively early LV time and left for the airport at 5:30 am on Tuesday. Truth is LVegas is not really our kind of town, neat to see but I didn't gamble one penny and the shows are pricey. It's ok with me if I never leave another dollar in Vegas, but lots of other people certainly are.

latr, de

STB Saturday night video

Here's a link to Forrests sisters myspace. She posted a video, looks like from a regular camera, of one of the STB new songs, "Give It Away." Not too bad. It was Saturday night in Tomball.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=33192093

Another First

I've been thinking for days/weeks that I really should blog. I realize you don't keep readers if you don't write on the blog. You may not keep them anyway! lol Blame it on spring...yeah, that's the ticket...or on the Rockets...yeah...no...Astros...better now...helping A&A paint and move...that's done...the quartet...well, we have sang a couple of times recently and practice weekly...nah...the internet has been out...nope...computer malfunctioned...thats lame and untrue...truth is there's really no excuse.

I guess I just figured to blog at least as often as my lovely daughter and to stay ahead of my oldest son...ha! that won't be hard. If you haven't looked at the pics of my favorite grandson on his mom's blog...do it now! Forget this old man and his seldom written blog...check out my handsome...smart...personality filled grandson...Noah.

Did have a first this past Saturday though. The STB quartet sang and the Spring Creek church of Christ grand opening of their new building. Made the drive up there...hung out for awhile. We do a lot of that. Saw one of the kids friends from way back...a sweet girl named Avery. Another group was there singing...The Joy Singers out of Bay City. We sang with them last week...a really nice group of folks. Anyway, they sang...we took a brief break...then we sang our latest program with four new songs...thank goodness for new songs.

After we were done singing we try to visit and talk with folks for a few minutes...then its time to break down the equipment and hit the road. It takes a lot more effort than you realize to deal with the sound equipment...anyway we're breaking stuff down and hauling it outside when a couple of folks walk up with our CD and ask for my autograph.

I can't ever recall that happening before even when I was singing with the School of Preaching quartet back in the late 80's. Maybe it did and I can't recall. Actually I think I ended up signing three different CD's before the night was over. Kinda weird...pretty cool though...fun. They didn't just want mine by the way...they wanted the whole group to sign.

Well, that's all for now. I finally got a facebook account. Enjoying finding my way around on that site.

For those checking on Kim. She's doing better all the time. She rode the stationary bike three times last week 20-30 minutes. Pretty amazing. Praise God.

C ya,
de