Well here it is Monday night and I am finally caught up after having life somewhat disrupted by Hurricane Rita. Sunday and part of today were clean-up and then catch-up.
The Storm
I have to say that any time I witness even a fraction of what Mother Nature is capable of, I am left in awe. The storm itself was not very scary, considering we were on the outer "clean" edge, with minimal precipitation and lower winds. Yet the wind gusts were quite impressive. It definitely made me glad that we were only out on the edge and that all the stuff from outside had been brought in. It also angered me that many of my neighbors had been less responsible and left stuff outside, which had experienced higher sustained winds would have been inside my house. That in turn reaffirmed my desire for pre-fitted plywood panels for the windows of my new house.
I had the webcam up and running until about midnight Friday/Saturday night when the power went out. We could have kept it going using the battery packs and inverter and dial-up, but we were challenged by silly things like lengths of phone cords. But, I hope it was useful or at least interesting while it lasted. I did receive several nice emails from people I have never met thanking me for the cam while it lasted.
Once the power was out for good, it was time to just sleep. We new it would not be too bad for us so I think we all actually slept a bit.
Saturday morning the storm made landfall just as we got up around 6 or 7. Part of my fence was down along with some twigs (found all the branches in the backyard later...):
Saturday first light, mostly blowing rain.
Fence down...
Twigs.By 10 the radio said the weather was over for the greater Houston area. What area they were talking about, I dunno, because it was still raining and blowing here. We amused ourselves by taking turns online with the battery/inverter/laptop/dial-up and bloggin' and bloggin'. By 2 it had calmed, and by 3:30 we were all going stir-crazy and had to get out of the house so we went on an excursion into town which you can read about over at SHG's bythebayou and see some pics from over at G-Hopp's flikr. When we got back the electricity was on and the house on its way to being somewhat cooled down, but still no cable and no internet.. It was an early night that night for all of us.
The Clean-Up
It turns out Kingwood got the worst of the storm as far as Houston goes. As far as how much damage we got here at the house, it's average for the neighborhood, maybe a little more because of the downed fence. Some people have whole trees down, others have nothing. What is interesting is that you can tell how few people evacuated by the state of their yards - they're not back yet so it's a mess. A pet peeve about the clean-up here: People who do not sweep the leaves and pine needles from their street gutters. Hello, it's all going to back up and create local high water the next time it rains, you dumbfuck.
Kingwood's main roads were cleared of down trees early, but there are still some signals out. Everybody is very orderly about stopping etc. Why can't they be that way normally at the four-way Stop signs? Out on the freeway you see a lot off messed-up billboards and corrugated metal roofs. All in all, we are very lucky. In Liberty County, one county west of here, as well as Beaumont, Galveston, they are not so lucky.
Sunday was a feverish effort to fix the fence that blew down, gather tree limbs and twigs, and return the house to show-quality for anybody who might be insane enough to look at it Monday or Tuesday. My cleaning lady had to cancel the previous Thursday (I wonder why?) and after having the four of us holed up for several days it was in need of a good cleaning. The hardest task was putting the fence back together again. I was inspired and scurried off to Home Despot in search of what I needed and managed to get all the items I wanted to put the damned thing back up AND I found a generator! Yay! Of course at the check-out, the woman was talking about how "we reap what we sow, we reap what we sow, and look at Louisiana, they have many sinful, sinful, cities there." Seeing as how I really wanted that fucking generator I bit my tongue and smiled.
Macho Man For Rent, with pratical glasses on.Fixing the fence was interesting. I am glad that I learned a lot about some manual labor from my Dad, and about "general contractor" type work, e.g. how to do something. As I was doing it, I realized how little of that I do now - my tender hands that were once calloused from working outside and being a field geologist got all red and blistered. I also realized that I much prefer to pay somebody else to do this stuff, although I am all kinds of proud of myself and my "butchness" in having fixed it myself. Anyway, everybody pitched in on the fence (which went faster than I thought, although there was a set-back due to extensive cement sub-surface, some termites, and a nest of mean-looking red wasps in the lady-bug house. D decided to just duct-tape them in: he's braver than I!
Duct tape fixes all!
Peekaboo...?
Fixed Fence.Anyway, everybody pitched in on everything, and after a while SHG went home with Boris, and G-Hopp & D went to go look at a car for D. I carried on for a while longer until I was ready to collapse. The lawn guys not only could not show up the previous Thursday, but had not shown up the one before that, either, so things were raggedy in addition to debris-ridden. So, I dragged out my 20 yr-old lawn mower that weighs about 132 lbs. and is all fucked up and did it myself. Mind you, the oil has not been changed since I moved to Texas 8 1/2 years ago and I have not started it in 2 years. Well, that good 'ole Briggs & Stratton engine fired up on the fourth pull! Yay quality American products! Anyay, I quickly remembered that even though I enjoyed doing that kind of work at my parents' house when I was in school, and that I did not mind it except for the hottest weeks of the year in Dallas, I really fucking hate it here.
The Return
So far the return of people who evacuated Houston seems orderly and not as bad as prediction, which is good. There's gas to be had if you look a bit and don't mind waiting a few minutes. What I really worry about is how many people will not evacuate the next time that we really should. Tomorrow I go back to work, mostly caught up from several days away. First task is to re-assemble my office.
