Rain, Rockets, & Swine Flu?

Boy how things change. For most of the winter it has been extremely dry around these parts. I know, some of you say, me too, me too. Drought is unusual for the Gulf Coast. I think our average rainfall is around 54 inches a year. That's an average of 1 inch a week or little more. No wonder I seem soggy as of late. In the Houston area we have officially gotten over our drought and gone straight to flood stage. Some areas of west & NW Houston got 10+ inches of rain early and through midday on Monday. Lots and lots of flooding, stranded cars, likely a death or two. We had gotten 10 inches Saturday before last, 5 inches on Friday, and well more on Sunday. Not the ideal way to catch up from the drought but thats the way it goes here sometimes, rain, rain, & rain.

I do enjoy the NBA playoffs, especially our local boys the Rockets. Been following them since we moved here in 89'. Saw them win most of both championships in 94 & 95. They've pretty much been in a drought since then. Oh, yeah, they've made the playoffs but haven't gotten out of the 1st round in forever. I think its the T-Mac curse. Some guys got it, other guys don't, the "take over the game" mentality and will to do it. Not sure if that guy exists on this years Rockets or not. We will see. Ron Artest thinks he may be that guy but he hasn't showed up the last two games. I'd like to think its Yao but he's not learned to dominate yet. Don't know if he will. Scola is impressive and if some of the other guys contribute, we'll see. Has anybody gotten the kind of calls that Brandon Roy seems to get and that Yao never seems to get. Come on!
The Mavs are looking impressive. Couldn't be happier to see the Spurs lose. Duncan's first ever first round loss if I heard correctly. Looks like it will certainly be the Cavs & Lakers. Not sure anyone can derail either. Game 6 on Thursday, yo! Go Rockets.

The media never ceases to amaze me with their hype. Surely a "pandemic" is coming they say. There's only been a few pandemics, which means a new serious flu strain that kills millions of people. The government already has a website out, that must mean its real. The big ones were the spanish flu of 1918, asian flu of 57-58, Hong Kong flu of 67-68, and some say the avian flu, but it never really made pandemic status. My thoughts, its the flu, albeit a new strain. Watch yourself, watch your kids if you got em. If they get the flu or you get the flu, take em in as a precaution. Try not to cough on people and wash your hands. Come on folks, use some common sense. Its unlikely millions of people are going to die. More will die in poor places where they don't have access to health care and medicines. Please don't start wearing a mask everywhere, it looks stupid and doesn't do that much anyway. Wanna talk pandemic, lets talk traffic fatalities which are holding steady at 40,000+ a year for the past 15 years. Hey, wear your seatbelt. Don't drink and drive. Watch out for the other guy. That will probably come closer to killing you than the swine flu. Hey, I'm thinkin pork chops for dinner, how bout you?

So I rant once in awhile, ;0)
de

My coworker Paul, sent me a surefire thing not to do if you want to avoid the swine flu.

Quiet Lately

I was going to say it was an ordinary week, but one might assume that its quiet or that there's nothing going on. I guess thats really opposite the truth. We continue to do construction on the building that was damaged during Ike. We ran into a bit of a snafu that has delayed our completion of the blue room for another couple of weeks. I may be able to tell you about that later. The rest of the building is pretty much done, all the classrooms are ready to be occupied, some already are the rest should be starting this week or the next. We've been without a regular slate of kids classes for some time. We started a makeshift lineup of classes several weeks ago but not in our regular classrooms. I know everyone is excited about having our building back.

The Lakewood Talent Show is this evening. We had our first one last year and it was a lot of fun. It will be the debut of our newly formed, Lakewood Praise team. With the go ahead from the elders, we've been practicing weekly for about 6 weeks. We'll sing a couple of songs at the close of the talent show. We sing live in the worship for the first time tomorrow. We are all excited about the opportunity to help make our singing the best possible. We'll not be standing in front but seated in the audience. Lord willing we'll not even really be noticed but if you are listening to hear your part, you'll be able to hear it better over the speakers.

Jared and I attended the Rockets/Blazers game last night and had a great time. The Rockets won. It was an ugly win, but any win is exciting. Nothing quite like the energy of a playoff game or Bowl game or something like that. The only down side was that pesky 20% chance of rain we had, on the way to the game, walking into the game (pouring), after the game on the way to my truck, and all the way home. I think it rained at least another hour after we got home. It was the wettest 20% chance I've ever seen but...we really needed it even though it rained 10 inches last Saturday, the wind came up right after and blew for days and quickly dried it out.

I'm sure there's more but I gotta go home now and get ready for the Talent Show.

Thanks for reading,
de

Amazing Instruments!

If you have any question about whether the human voice is the most amazing instrument ever created, you've got to see and listen to "The Voca People."

Who are The Voca People?
The Voca people are 8 friendly aliens from the planet Voca, a musical planet that has no verbal communication but use vocal expressions only. They have heard the music from earth for decades now and with their imitation abilities they have decided to pay a one evening tribute to humanity and to perform the songs they love as musical- gratitude.

This video is only a short clip, 3 min 15 sec, and is nothing short of...well...amazing! The costumes are kinda weird but the vocals are great.

Enjoy and thanks Wendy for passing that along.

de

Thought I Was Saavy!

All along I was thinking I was fairly computer literate. I realize its just electronic 1's & 0's on disk but I thought I kept up and was capable. I've run ethernet cable and connected the ends, make the connections and such. Actually, you don't really have to be all that saavy, just connect it up right and it works. Most stuff now has "auto detect" so all you have to do is plug it in.

I have antivirus, antispam, adware software that I keep up to date and run on a regular basis. I have a registry checker that does the same. Apparently that's not enough. Finally got a new modem late on Friday and everything checked out fine. Yeah. Pc had internet, wireless worked, everything...until...the dreaded until...I decided to upload new firmware for the router. Guess I should've left well enough alone. I won't bore you with more of my sob computer stories. The wireless is working...the bride says better and faster than ever...the pc...well not so good...the pc is actually fine...it just won't connect to the internet.

I just thought I was somewhat computer saavy....not! Doesn't mean I'll give up though.

:) de

It's Modem Wars Week!

Usually after Easter/LTC things kind of let down a little. Time to take it slow, relax and recover from all the busyness. Then on Monday night, who knows what time, Jared shows up in my bedroom, flashlight in hand, to inform me, "the power is out." He apparently calls the problem in and by the time I'm up, everything seems normal. Ah yes, the proverbial seems normal, except for the internet. It seems to be working....but extreeeemmmeeellllllyyyy slow. So I attack the problem for a few moments in between the office and my elders meeting. Ok, power down and reset everything, you've done this dozens of times before....and whalla...is that a word? Well, it wasn't whalla, it didn't work. Call Comcast...get them to do a reset and no whalla but at least the phones working again. More trys after my meeting and the phone works and the internet works when plugged directly into my computer but no wireless router which gives internet to the brides laptop and Jareds room.

So Tuesday, I go at it again, same stuff, no router. It must be the router....so its USR support time. Oh the computer and the router for some reason are conflicting and are trying to use the same IP address...time to reset...power everything down....and up...call Comcast for a reset...and no whalla...nada.

Well, I could go on. It's Thursday now...I even have a new Comcast modem at home...installed by tech...who declared it was my router...all is well with the modem...except for a few more hours on the phone with USR and resetting the IP addresses and all. Now...I've got no internet at all...not even when its plugged up directly to my computer....comcast now says it must be my computer...to get it checked...so I trump with Kim's laptop...oh now it must be my ethernet cables...or both computers....Somebody shoot me please.

This morning a friend at church says a comcast tech told him..."they are at war with their modems." Hmmmmm....me too. Not sure what the outcome will be. Still don't have the net at home. It's amazing how dependent we are on that thing. Sorry to vent my frustration but I've spent hours and I'm worse off than I was when I started. On top of that I might have to miss dinner with some dear friends cause I'm waiting on another CC tech to show sometime on Friday.

So...I'm taking office time to blog...and vent...and hope the modem wars end soon...so I can keep my sanity....yeah, yeah, I can hear your comments now...are you sure you were sane to begin with...well no...but it shouldn't be this hard. The modems are winning!!

Go Rockets,
de

James, via Astros County Blog

If you click the following link, you can listen to an interview with James, blogger for "Astros County" on United Cardinals Blogger radio that he did last night... You need to click on the UCB Radio Hour link. He comes in on the program at about 25 minutes in for those who don't want to listen to Cardinals jabber and the interview goes for about 20 min about the Astors. Very cool.

http://www.unitedcardinalbloggers.com/

direct link to the radio hour

de

It's Back!

Ah, the hectic pace of LTC week. During the rest of the year, most of what happens with LTC is fairly quiet, an occasional meeting or contract to sign or something but its mostly quiet. Then, after the first of the year it starts to pick up with hotel questions, that's my primary responsibility, dealing with the hotel contracts, details, setups and such. Then about a month beforehand activity starts to really ramp up to this week. Really, its a great week.

From the first time I set foot in Dallas back in the early 90's to scope out LTC I was impressed and thrilled with its purpose and how that culminates in the LTC Convention weekend. Even though its changed some over the years, I think LTC is one of best things the churches of Christ have going for them, the training of young Christians in the area of Leadership activity. I was going to say LTC teaches them...but the truth is LTC doesn't each them anything...parents and other involved adults...even some older teens teach the younger ones "to do something," to teach, to sing, to speak, or write, or puppet, or serve...well the list goes on and on. I really can't think of anything more practical or important for the future of the Lord's church.

So, this week, Easter week, its pretty much all about LTC. From tomorrow afternoon through Saturday night, there won't be all that much sleeping, or eating, or sitting, or anything except coordinating the Convention...and I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing. There's a bit of a downside to helping with all the coordinating and not getting to be all that involved with the actual kids and what they are doing. But I plan to stop in and watch from time to time just to witness those kids, doing what they do, for Jesus, their peers, and their parents. I can't wait.

cya,
de

Oh yeah, we get to see Noah and his parents who will come and spend part of the weekend with us!

Not Much of A Blogger Lately

I guess I could say I've been extremely busy (I have) or that I've spent every bit of spare time in the yard (some but not all that much) or that we've been traveling to some desirable getaway(not). I guess life has just been a bit hectic. Not to mention that I've been trying to help with our church rebuilding in my spare time, I volunteered some at the Shell Houston Open, and oh yeah...LTC is this coming weekend.

Oh yeah, we're prayerfully in the process of trying to add elders at the church too. All in all I'm feeling just a tad crazy with everything that's going on. LTC is quite enough to make me that way all on its own. And on the elder thing, I've been praying really hard about it, and I know that God will work it all out, but at the same time, I'll be getting some new bosses. I guess its my dual personality thing going on as both elder and preacher. Some days I'm not sure which I am and I know its an unusual thing for some folks to have someone as both. Some in fact don't like it at all. Oh well. God's in control, I know that. It's been a weird spring so far. It's warm for a few days, then a cold one comes rushing through at 40 mph and we're shivering all over again. Hope I can get some tomatoes planted soon. Guess I'll do that in my spare time.

Sorry for the rambling,
de

To Copy & Paste...ah yes.

With the apparent lack of time to blog lately I did take time to do this thing on FB after being tagged. So, I figure the ideal thing to do was to copy & paste. Boy that didn't take long. I only tagged Kim though cause I'm unsure about the whole tagging thing.

Copy and paste this into a new note and change the answers...If I tagged you, it means I want to see yours! Tag all the people you feel like tagging.

What are your middle names?
Ray & Denise

How long have you been together?
30 years this Dec.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
a few months

Who asked who out?
I asked Kim

Whose siblings do you see the most?
mine - hers has lived in SD for 10 years

Do you have any children together?
uh...yeah...3

What about pets?
Frazier the dog, 15 years old, mostly blind & deaf

Did you go to the same school?
Yep...then OCC.

Who is the most sensitive?
Hands down...herp.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
most...El Toro...favorite...Pappas seafood!

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Australia.

Who has the craziest exes?
there are exes? I thought I was the only one.

Who has the worst temper?
neither...we both avoid that kind of thing with all we've got.

Who does the cooking?
Cooking...what's that...me probably, but she does the dishes.

Who is more social?
Neither of us is all that social.

Who is the neat freak?
Uh...neither...although if there is one...its her.

Who is the most stubborn?
Gosh...is this over yet...we can both be pretty hard headed.

Who hogs the bed? (i understand she does not hog the bed, hey, its a king)
she does.

Who wakes up earlier?
when both at home...me.

Where was your first date?
The Oklahoma State Fair of 1977...a Ted Nugent Concert. "Catch Scratch Fever tour" really.

Who has the bigger family?
close fam...me...extended fam...hands down its her.

Do you get flowers often?
only when I do a funeral but sometimes I bring em to her.

How long did it take to get serious?
Is it serious? We try to keep it light...really. What does that mean? Maybe a few months...not all tha long.

Who eats more?
meep.

Who sings better?
she sings better alto...I sing better tenor/bass. We sing great together.

Who does the laundry?
today...its her...for the past few years it was me. We both do it. (i was corrected on this one)

Who's the smartest?
Herp.

Who’s better with the computer?
lol...meep!

Who drives when you are together?
Meep!

Who picks where you go to dinner?
either or...depends on if she's been out of town and for how long.

Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong?
What? I hope meep.

Who wears the pants in the relationship?
I wear pants and briefs...she wears pants and panties.

Who has more tattoos?
Golly...my kids get those for us.

Who eats more sweets?
Herp, maybe...we try to be easy on the sweet stuff.

Who needs sugar when you're sweet to begin with...I know..yuch!

cya, de

Oh yeah, Elton John & Billy Joel was as good as any concert I've ever been too. 3 1/2 hours without a break. Nothing short of fantastic.

Concert Tonight

I'm anxiously awaiting this evening. Tonight my bride and I, and our youngest are going to H-town to see Elton John and Billy Joel together. Hopefully it should be some kind of concert. We've seen Billy Joel 3 times I think and he's one of our favorites by far. We had tix to Elton a few years back by himself but it was Easter/LTC Saturday night and we were just too pooped to go so we sent K&J & A&A. They said it was terrific. We are anticipating that tonight will be terrific too. So, we'll head in afterwhile, find something good to eat and head to the Toyota Center for a night of singing along with Elton & Billy and some terrific piano playing. That's all for now. Till the next time I'm on the blog.

cya,
de

And as always, thanks for reading!

Too Busy...Too Tired

Haven't spent much time at all on the computer over the past few days. Been too busy...too tired to do much of that. I've been trying to help around the church building with our remodeling project...which by the way is quite a big project. I wonder at times if we haven't taken on too much of it for our own good...we will see. This past Thursday and Friday afternoon I spent with Harold Allen trying different ways to get the old mastic glue off the floor so we could lay new tile on the floor. We did eventually get it to come off after varied attempts and with the right chemical it came up pretty easy...it was the getting it up and off that was the disgusting part. And labor intensive let me tell you. Thanks to a second crew who came in late Friday we did manage to get 1/3 of the blue room floor ready for tile. Then Saturday morning we spent laying that much of the tile floor. I'm still way sore from 4 1/2 hours on my knees laying and slapping tile around on that floor.

After our tile excursion I went home, showered, laid down for 20 minutes then drove to Kirbyville, TX where the STB quartet sang on Saturday night. Turn around to arrive home about 11 pm pooped. Then yesterday afternoon Kim's brother and fam came in to spend a few days for their spring break. In between all that other stuff we were trying to get the house back in shape for company. It still wasn't all the way back from hurricane Ike, so I helped the bride as much as possible to get it ready. Oh yeah, I preached yesterday and our Life group had a pounding party for Mike and his new bride. Boy it was a busy weekend.

Today is rodeo day. We're going to see all that is RodeoHouston and Darius Rucker as the Concert entertainer for the evening. Hopefully the rain is over and the sun will shine before the day is out. Not sure when I'll blog again...maybe after some rest. Right now I'm just too busy...forget the tired part...I'll rest later next week.

cya, de

Insurance Poor

If your like most Americans to some degree we're all insurance poor. We've got insurance on everything. Of course it is a good and necessary thing...say...when you have a hurricane blow by and it blows the roof off part of your house and the rain comes in a makes a terrible mess...and they pay. By way of the constant commercials on TV here in H-town, some insurances did not pay or people thought they didn't or something. Our insurance did ok...they did pay...maybe not as much I thought they should...but we managed to get back to where we were without having to put too much of our own money back in.

One of our biggest issues since Kim went to work as self-employed has been the health insurance issue. Never take for granted if you have access to group insurance. Once you don't have access everything changes...especially if you have any health issues at all. That's been our deal for the past 5 years or so. If you're diabetic like I am...insurance companies just won't write you any reasonable insurance for anything close to a reasonable price. So, if you can get it, its poor coverage and very expensive. So you make do the best you can.

Here's something pretty cool I found to save on ordering glasses. I know you'll think its just not right to be ordering your glasses off the internet and hopefully you have insurance that covers you and your glasses are cheap. I went for my annual eye exam...covered by the way...and had the lady give me a quote for glasses like I have, progressives no-line bifocals, lightweight, metal rims, no scratch, etc...almost $650 retail but I was to get 20% discount. So I went home with my prescription in hand and went to 39dollarglasses.com.

Yeah, you read right...I order my glasses via the internet. Got my $650 glasses for just a little bit over $200. Same glasses with everything I wanted and even got transition lenses too. So if you're insurance poor or just don't want to fork over that much for glasses, check it out. Yeah, I admit its a bit unnerving but everything is there you need to get it right. Maybe you won't feel quite so insurance poor and jilted anymore.

No, I don't get anything for telling you about it. I just know how I felt when she told me my glasses were going to be $500 with my discount...some discount.

Praying for rain,
de

Changes in Latitudes

Not all that much new or exciting going on at the Elhome lately. Not that there have not been some significant things taking place. The most exciting thing has been the change in latitude of our oldest kids Kami and James. They made a successful move from Lat 42.5 to lat 36.1, yeah. That's quite a move any way you compute it from north to south, NY to Tenn, Coop to Nash, above or below the MD line, its quite a change in latitude, probably in attitude as well.

A,A&N are getting ever closer to adding a C to their alphabetic lineup. Baby Cohen is coming along quite nicely and Lord willing he comes into the world in June. They are making room changes, added a hide-a-bed couch for mimi and pawpaw, planning to paint and who knows what all else. A nephew of mine Blaine and his wife Tamara are having a baby quite soon. Baby Anton is expected any day now. My sister, her first grandbaby, is beside herself with excitement, as I'm sure Blaine and Tamara are too. Jared continues to do his 12 hour thing at Lee college in the computer dept, work 20-30 hrs a week at BB, and well...that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for much else.

Kim's getting ready around the house for her brother and fam to come for their spring break week. It's really amazing that we continue to clean up and get things situated from hurricane Ike. Yeah, we're probably slow, possibly even a bit lazy. Then when you walk down the end of our street and see the 15 empty lots where houses were bulldozed, and other neighbors just getting their roofs replaced, and well many who haven't done anything yet, I guess we're doing ok.

We've been working in the yard over the past few days and continue to find storm leftovers. I'd sure like to be done with that thing. Someone from Florida told Kim that when a huge storm like that comes through that it affects the climate, weather, airborne stuff for a long time afterwards... that it literally can suck the moisture out of the air for months or even years to come...that it sucks up dust and stuff from far off places and dumps it here. It would seem to be so for this area anyway.

Lord willing we'll be selecting and affirming some new elders at the church before too long. That's good news. Our building remodeling is coming right along. Walls are back up and even painted. New kitchen area is taking shape nicely with all the work being done by members, a bunch of them. New ceiling and flooring has to be in works soon. Talk about changes...the bathrooms in the office building finally have solid walls again...yeah! They got wet from the storm and were torn out because of mold. The only thing covering the walls were sheets...for months...can we talk privacy here. Once in awhile the only option was to head home to go. Talk about a change in latitude. Now, we've got nice painted sheetrock and panelling back where it should go. Whoohoo! That's todays update...gotta go.

de

Blankness of Mind

In view of my blankness of mind today I submit a thoughtful but truthful collection of sayings about our government as we move ever more towards complete government control of our banking system, the auto industry, and ultimately socialism. Did I say that? Sorry.

de

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. John Adams

2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. Mark Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. George Bernard Shaw

6. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

7. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. Will Rogers

8. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! P.J. O'Rourke

9. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. Voltaire (1764)

10. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! Pericles (430 B.C.)

11. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. Mark Twain (1866)

12. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it. Anon

13. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. Mark Twain

14. There is no distinctly native American criminal class...save Congress. Mark Twain

15. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

Speeching's My Job

I speak for a living. It just so happens that I speak for my Lord. It's my great privilege to be blessed to do both. I often think of how weird it is that preachings my job and that for someone who's terribly shy on the inside. Truly I am...no kidding. And I can't recall the last time I was speechless.

Monday was one of those days. One of our close friends Brad Wims, a young man who grew up in the Lakewood youth group when we first arrived back in '89, passed away from a long, courageous, and faithfilled battle with cancer. My bride seemed to know it was going to happen soon when she left town on Sunday afternoon. As soon as she read their blog on Saturday night when we got home from seeing Noah and fam...she knew. Reluctantly, with 6 days of paid work ahead of her this week, she left for the airport, feeling as though she might have to miss the services if they happened this week. She knew and she will miss seeing the family to express he love for them.

Brad was truly a unique child and man of God, both at the same time. No one I know was able to do both better than Brad. Maybe it was a gift. He loved to play. No one enjoyed life and was able to keep his childlike attitude with him like Brad did. As a man, He had a faith like I'm sure I've never quite seen in someone his age and in his situation. He loved His Lord more in his last days than ever. He loved to worship and sing praises to His God even when he had no breath.

The saddness that surrounds his loss is great. The victory that goes with his passing is unmistakable. The hole that is left by his absence...well it made me speechless and speeching's my job! If there's an Aggie section in heaven...Brad's there...front and center. If not, then he's lobbying for one as we speak.

Brad...we miss you and you will always hold a special place in our hearts. You will never be forgotten.

de

Busy weekend

Technically it was much more than a weekend. It started on Wednesday. Three of our kids, K, J, & J were to be on the road from Cooperstown, NY to Nashville, TN. We were praying for good weather and safe travels for their move south. We left town after we sang a duet and preached at a friend's mothers funeral. We headed north in J's truck, thanks J for the loaner, stopped at a Houston Plant around Conroe and filled the back end with three trees, and almost as many shrubs and plants as we could carry. We then drove to A&A's to drop them off, then on to Richardson where Kim was to work on Thursday. While she worked I went to find a pickupload of good dirt to amend A&A's front flowerbeds. By the time I got to unloading it around 12:30 it was 83 degrees and sunny. By the time I got a bunch of it unloaded I was almost overheated. Guess I should have stopped for lunch. By the time Ade got home from work, with his mom in the car and Al & N got home from preschool the flowerbeds were just about ready to work. Regular updates were coming in as the movers headed out of C-town, through, Pennsylvania, Maryland, WVA, VA, then Tenn. Two days of tough driving but they made it.

Friday we got up and took Noah to see "Elmo's Green Thumb" in Grand Prarie. He called it "Elmo day" and it took forever to actually get here. His mom & dad had to quit mentioning it because he wanted every day to be "Elmo day," don't we all. He was pretty hesitant through the first half and watched virutally all of it with his head on Mimi's shoulder, watching ever so closely out of one eye. By the time the intermission was over he was sitting straight ahead watching with both eyes, smiling, pointing at Elmo and Bigbird, clapping, and enjoying the whole thing. I proudly I resisted paying $10 for a helium ballon that looked like Elmo. I felt bad for all those who whipped out the ten, only to leave it on the ceiling of the theatre or to watch it fly away into the sky on the way to the car. We opted to spend that money on crawfish at Pappadeaux for lunch. Good choice dave. Then it was back to Forney and the flowerbeds.

We kept after those flowerbeds till we got them all planted by sundown and I think we were all pooped. By the time I got up on Sat to go buy some mulch it was 40 degrees with a 25 mph north wind. Glad we only had the trees to plant. We put down mulch on the flowerbeds, and planted 2 of 3 trees and called it a project. Ade will have to plant tree #3. It was time to head home. The bride was leaving Sunday for a six day work week and I needed to be ready to preach on Sunday.

When we got ready to "go home" little Noah plainly declared, "Me go home too, me go home too." His folks tried to explain that he was already home but he was very clear when Pawpaw & Mimi were going home, "me go home too." If that don't make your heart swell up, nothing will. Mom & dad promised him this summer he could go home with M & PP. We can't wait.

We got home tired but early enough to be ready for the Lord's day, thankful to have spent a bit more time with our kids and thankful that all had safe travels.

You can check out pics of our landscaping project on Allison's blog on the blog links.

thanks for reading.
de

About Bolivar

Before we even drove off the ferry on to the Bolivar Peninsula, you could see a huge pile of cars to the left hand side of the road. It looked much like a salvage yard that was not there before. There were dozens, maybe 100's of destroyed cars, I assume awaiting their ride to a mainland salvage yard via some barge. After that a huge pile of appliances of all kinds, then debris, and well having to drive ahead at a reasonable speed to keep up with the traffic I surely didn't see it all. It was pretty sad. As we drove east there were some houses left standing on the beach side and a few on the bay side. On each side of the road are huge piles of debris, remains of beach houses that have been gathered up, piled up, and ready to be picked up and taken away. In between those piles of debris are huge piles of sand (the beach) right on the road which I assume means that Ike picked up the sand from the beach and brought tons of it inward, put in on the road and it had to be scraped up to make the road drivable.

As we continued east, the damage gets worse. Anything that was built or sitting on ground level is either completely gone or pretty much totally destroyed. Many of the landmarks that once helped you to know where you were are unrecognizable now or gone completely. A 5th wheel RV serves one of the local grocery stores. A large RV park has sprung up a few miles in, on the bay side. A sign indicates that the Stingaree marina is now open. The grocery store is in the works. Where the church of Christ stood in Crystal Beach now stands a makeshift sign that says "Church of Christ" and a white tent, with a big stack of bottled water at its side. A few things remain but what does remain suffered extensive damage.

The familiar signs of the various beaches as you drive on eastward are gone, some replaced with plywood telling you the name of the beach. Once you reach Crystal beach it gets worse. From Crystal beach east, there's nothing, well no houses anyway. The beach has been eaten back from its normal place maybe 75 feet or more. All that's left of the houses may be pilings or a slab, nothing else. All at once the bride kinda lets out a bit of a scream as we recognize we're at the Rollover Pass bridge. We didn't even know it was coming because nothing is recognizable, no landmarks.

We pullover at what used to be Rollover Pass bait and tackle and stop. It was tricky pulling off the road there in the convertible because its so washed out and rough. We get out to look around and try to get our bearings but can't because its all gone. Whatever was there before, is now gone. You couldn't even pull off on the SE & NW sides of the road, just too washed out and rough. There were a couple of folks fishing and catching the occasional redfish but we're stunned. We cross what's left of the bride, passable enough and pull off on the NE side where I'd come to so many times to fish and to flounder. The bride stays in the car, wiping her eyes at what we've seen but I want to walk the pass. I walk towards the bay side and realize that all the sand and shell from the beach side is now deposited on the bay side of the pass, in huge piles, along with a sign laying on the ground, pole and all that says "open." There's all kinds of other debris, a sink, the regular beer can, a road grader or bull dozer and piles of sand or mulch. There is one house standing, obviously a fairly newer house, way up high on stilts that made it but thats it.

We sit, we contemplate, we realize just how serious that Ike was. We still can't believe its all gone, forever changed. There's no doubt in my mind that I'll be long gone before much of it is rebuilt and the fact is, it will never be the same. Sorry to sound so depressing but it was a lot to take in. It was impossible to fathom and this a full 5 months after the fact.

Unless the beach is replinished the next big storm will take out chunks of the highway making it impossible to reach High Island. The water is so close now that a really high tide will send the waves and water over the road. It washed out the dune all the way from Rollover to the turn north to High Island. Staggering. No wonder lots of people died and some will never be found.

Well, that's all of that. Just thought I'd pass along our trip. I recommend you go and make the drive yourself. Just be prepared to cry. It's really, really sad. No I didn't take my camera. A picture may be worth a thousand words but a drive down there, well, there are no words or pictures that do it justice. We did finish the trip with an evening meal of "Al-T's Special." They have totally remodeled due to Ike damage. It was as good as ever.

Again, thanks for reading.
de

Trip to Galveston

The bride and I took a drive we have been wanting to take since September 13, the day hurricane Ike paid us a visit. We have wanted to take the drive down to Galveston, take the ferry, and go over to the Bolivar Peninsula to see the damage. About 2 pm on Friday afternoon after she had finished some major cleaning around the house, or at least got to a stopping point, and I was done working the church building remodeling, we headed out in her favorite way to travel, her convertible. It was really a bit cool, low 60's, to be wearing shorts and driving highway speed with the top down but the sun was out 100% and we just couldn't resist. Each time we got over the water it cooled down a few degrees and it was windy but overall it was great.

We drove the speed limit to Galveston, turned down 61st street and headed out to the West end to see what it was like down there. The moment we turned on to 61st, there was still a sailboat perched right by the road, in a parking lot, like it was parked there for the night, then a few blocks another, then another. The housing edition on the left side of 61st not too far across the small bay was obviously heavily flooded by the surge. Most of the businesses just off of i-45 & 61st were closed but as you got closer to the seawall, more and more were open, and many others were under repair. Traffic was fairly heavy. We turned right and drove to the West. Almost anything situated at ground level was damaged or flooded. Many of the condos were under repair, trying to get ready for the summer season. Unfortunately, there was no beach extending out from the seawall. The waves lapped right up on to the rocks all the way down. We didn't go too far before making a uturn and deciding to go ahead and drive to the Bolivar ferry. The city seems to have brought sand in to a couple of sections across from the Convention center area to rebuild the beach between about 3 of the jetties. Every pier, structure, everything on the beach side is gone. Technically the Flagship hotel is still there but heavily damaged, everything else that was over the water is gone. Murdoch's and those places are nothing but pilings in the sand now. We didn't drive to the strand or around in the neighborhoods but there was obviously a great deal of flooding damage and many blue tarps still on roofs. A fair number of eating spots were open and some hotels but its going to take a long time for it to be back to normal.

We went ahead and drove to catch the ferry and waited well over an hour for our turn to take the ride. The ferry ride is one of our all time favorite things to do in Galveston and it has not changed. Sitting in the convertible with the top down, while the gulls fly over head is not the most comfortable feeling in the world though, we manage to get on without getting pooped on. By the time we got on the ferry it was time to put the top up, it was just too cool.

Well, there's much more to say about Bolivar but I better get to work now. Maybe tomorrow I'll write about what we saw or didn't see on the Peninsula. I will say this, the further east we travelled the worse it got.

Thanks for reading,
de

What's on my mind

I can't help but be fascinated and concerned by what's happening in Washington these days. I heard over the weekend that with the passing of the stimulus package the Federal governments share in the GDP of the United States goes up. What's the GDP? Its one of the measures of national income and output for a given country's economy. It is the total value of all final goods and services produced in a particular economy; the dollar value of all goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a given year. I'm certainly no expert on such a thing but what I heard is that for the past 20 years the Gov't share in the GDP has ranged anywhere from 17%-22% in any given year. Probably higher than I expected but ok. With the new stimulus package in place and the government taking a huge part in the auto industry and banking, the gov't share of the GDP goes to, get this, 39%. Looks like we're running headlong into socialism. I'm not saying there weren't some serious issues with corruption, greed and such but I've never been a big advocate that bigger gov't is the answer. I guess time will tell.

The other thing that is happening is all those folks he's trying to put around him. I guess it is best explained by this cartoon I got today.


But I guess its only been 30 days. We should give him a chance. It's the debt he's given my grandchildren that I'm concerned about.

de

The Beat Goes On

The bad news is that there is pounding outside my office and over my head upstairs in the teen classrooms. That's also the good news. Construction is in full swing at our church building. It's been a long time coming or so it would seem. It's a tremendous undertaking and I'm grateful we've hired pros to do most of the work. I recall when I first arrived in Baytown in May of 1989, that the men of the congregation had undertaken the task of remodeling this same building that I am still in. Of course I volunteered to help as did many of the men in the church. I like to work with my hands and sometimes I'm pretty good at it. The trouble with that undertaking was the sheer size of the project. Not that we didn't have the skills to complete the work but the sheer size of the task was likely too big for a set of volunteers to sustain the momentum. Plus, if things didn't go just right, who could you blame? Always an issue. There remain some hard feelings that go back to that remodeling project almost 20 years ago. Thankfully, this time around, the insurance payment from hurricane Ike should pay for most everything, done by the contractors. If there's a problem, you have someone to hold responsible for making sure its done right and they are working each and every day, not just when voluteers can make the time to do it. I guess that's my point, the beat goes on, every day, the sooner the better as far as I'm concerned. Our building should be in better shape than it has been...well since the last time it was remodeled, and in some ways even better. My prayer is that we can utilize it in all kinds of ways that Gods name and His Son will be lifted up.

I'm still enjoying our winter here in S Texas. Bright, sunny, and 70 degrees.

de