I don't like Ike.

IKE, the Texas Chainsaw Hurricane

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The End.

10 10 08 .:. No more aftermath in Laceyville

Back on track and very proud of my city. There are still a few without power, only a handful and my heart goes out to them, and quite a few without cable. But I'm told they are still working around the clock to get things in order.

The grocery stores are back to normal and, now that the economy is in the toilet, gas prices are at a slightly lowered fortune, but still too high for what its worth. I had hired a guy to barter work (finishing my wood floors in the living room) for a website; I completed his website but he didn't come through with the work. I should know better than to barter anymore. I'd heard somewhere that SOME amount of money should be involved or it will come out inequal.

One would think that this day in age would bring about integrity and conscientiousness in work, but I didn't get that out of him. Spent a bit on getting his domain secured and the site up and running, but he kept dragging his feet on pulling up the tack strips, bringing in the sander and getting started. I fired him.

So that is the basic end of the aftermath for me. I'll do my own floors, get it all together myself. I guess I'd better get used to that in this atmosphere of uncertainty. Oh, and thanks, Bush. You just fucked the entire planet.

Speaking of, check out "Jolly Rancher 2007" from Patrick Medrano http://patrickmedrano.com/Home_Page.php

Civilization?

09 29 08 .:. Cable down all weekend and I have a theory...

I got my power back on Thursday September 25th, at about 4:45pm. I've been too busy to say so, much less to upload any updates, so I'm doing it now - offline. I was without cable from late Friday night until about 10 minutes into Desperate Housewives Sunday night.

Not sure I like all this civilization crap, either. I went to the grocery store and everything had been picked through, especially the mayonnaise, relishes, popcicles and anything else that someone might deem "perishable provisions." And it was crowded as hell. One would have thought it was the day before a hurricane....

I went to the hardware store and, because I couldn't find a parking place (which has never happened), I came back home. Crowded as hell. Everyone's wanting to fix whatever broke during the hurricane and it seems quite a few of them either have their power back on, or are still spending a fortune on gasoline for their generators.

I had just filled my own generator when the power came back on. I'm going to drain the gasoline by using the generator for my power tools, finishing out all my metals for my upcoming art show. Waste not, want not and besides, who wants to store a full generator?

Someone told me that gas can go bad. I'd say all foreign oil is bad.

As of this writing it is Monday morning... last evening I was still offline, cable was oddly disconnected - I was getting the channel information but no picture and no internet/email. At around 6pm I realized it was Desperate Housewives premier. I remembered my friend Mark of the Artery talking about using his HD box to link up to channels after running a power line across the street from his powered neighbor's house. He said he got THE BEST picture from this box! He had a dinky antenna, which is required, and it gave him the all-important news that kept us all alive.

So I went and got me an HD box at Radio Shack, found a dinky antenna up on a shelf in my garage, hooked it all up to (first) my small TV, then my big TV because it was working so well. At 8pm, I had HD bitches all over my TV screen!!

So if I ever lose both power and cable, I've got the generator and an HD box so at least I can catch the news....

Oh, and my theory on the lost cable -- I am convinced that someone at Comcast bought a lot of stock in HD box manufacturers, knowing there were football games, premiers and other various important entertainment things that people hate to miss. Once the weekend was about over, they flipped the switch and BOOM, we got cable again in spite of all having gone out to purchase HD boxes.

Corporate Pigs.

Little House on the Prairie... and the buffoons

09 25 08 .:. Afternoon

I do believe I've pinpointed the problem with why it is taking so long to "fix" the electricity problem. I have been dealing with a truck, then two trucks, outside my house for about the last 2 hours. First, a trailer truck pulls up and takes a very long time getting a cherry-picker off the back. Then, it tries to get between my house and the house to the west of me. After about 45 minutes, the men working on it realize they can't fit this enormous thing between the two houses. Men have always had a problem understanding the complexities of size, but that is another matter. I'm not sure why they were trying to get between our houses because there is no pole back there, only a long stretch of lines that are NOT down.
Go figgr.

So, after taking eons to get the enormity to move a few dozen feet, they try getting it between two more houses. They can't. Then they try another two houses..... I'm hoping that is a bingo. I can't help them. After all, they are the professionals, right? Right. So I'll probably spend the next hour or more watching them fail at their attempts. I'm in need of some good old fashioned entertainment.

These are no doubt contractors. There are no signs on their trucks. Not even a magnetic stick-on. Who knows if they're doing work for the city or for themselves. They claim to be working to bring back power but alas, no power. Hell, they can't even figure out how to get to the lines. I'd say Houston, we have a problem.

Day Thirteen
09 25 08 .:. Morning

Day 13 of no power but at least I see the electric company on the corner with their cherry-pickers. Maybe they remembered my neighborhood after all. They stopped take our calls because it isn't an "emergency".... define emergency. My neighbor to the east of me, right next door, has had power since the day of the hurricane.

Things are bad all over and I need to stop complaining. The country is going to hell in a basket - thank you goddamned republican money mongers, Texas will suffer economic consequences of the hurricane for years to come, and many of us are losing business by the day because we can't hold our own in a community lamed by a bigger-than-they-need-to-be electric company.

Why should Wall Street worry? So many of the higher-ups are jumping these sinking ships with millions in compensation, and for what? For fucking up an entire industry I guess. This has been the worst presidency, worst economic failing, worst overall time in our history regarding business than we have seen in almost a century. It has been said by economic experts that this truly is as bad as the depression except that we may not recover anytime soon.

Energy companies in my area? What good is deregulation if the mothership - Centerpoint Energy - holds all the rights to all the lines, poles, boxes, transformers, fuse lines, and everything else that goes into bringing a city back up from chaos? Bad business as usual. Satellite companies hold the rights to sell power to a customer, but the big kahuna owns all the tangibles in the area. This means they've truncated their ability to be effective. If you can't be effective, then sell off the goods and get out of the way.

Incompetency at its worst.

I've had to develop a system. Before powering up in the mornings, I have coffee made with my French press, although "cold brew" coffee is an option if I make it the night before. I feed the animals and, if I'm not having a grand mal allergy attack, I run the park with the dog. I'm having a grand mal allergy attack today because I had to sleep with the windows open last night and the night before because it is no less than 80 degrees inside when I turn in for the night.

After all my morning rituals, I make sure all the lines to the generator are unplugged (they were plugged in last night because it ran out of gas while I was watching a movie and doing my yoga.) I check all the lines and, once everything is safe, I fill the tank then start the generator. Today I moved it toward the back of the yard because of the noise. It's a little better.

Once the generator is on, I plug in the power cords outside, refrigerator first, then computer, etc., then come in and power up the computer, TV, and whatever else I will need. The refrigerator is always on so I hear the generator chug down a bit when I plug it in.

Then I lead a relatively normal existence for a few hours, until I get the notion that I will need more gas. I first power down everything inside, then unplug outside, THEN turn off the generator, setting the fuel line to "off." I have to take the batteries out of my landline phone so that it doesn't lose juice during the night and I usually forget to do this.

I am running at half-load which supposedly saves gas, but who knows. I'm spending an average of $25 to $30 on gas DAILY for the hungry machine so I've gotta stop counting. Too depressing.

I usually bring Blaze the dog with me to get gas and I've been filling up one 5-gallon container at a time in hopes of getting my power back on quickly. Ha. I've decided not to get gas until I run completely out today, just in case the cherry pickers spring into action.

Thank goodness the temperature is down to the 60s this morning - it was sweltering night before last, like a very warm, wet blanket smothering me as I fell asleep.

IKE Cleaned Out My Refrigerator (and Freezer)

Nutrition for Power Outages
09 22 08 .:. Afternoon

Still out of power, but I'm one of many so I'm not complaining. At least I have a generator and I'm online....

I'm figuring out some of the better foods to have during a power outage:

Once the dust has settled, I'm looking into buying a battery-operated fan. I found plenty online, but my hardware stores are OUT, as are most of the online distributors.

Get 'em while they're available.

09 21 08 .:. Morning

In addition to taking this opportunity to rip up my carpet (see below,) dumping my pool, and various other household activities, I was forced to clean out the fridge. This happened several days ago but in conversations while standing in line at the grocery store, a lot of us decided we would never buy anything we simply don't need and cannot eat pretty quick, except for jellies, olives, etc.

Throwing away 3 bags of perfectly good - gone spoiled - foods made me realize that I hoard. I'm a hoarder. Come and arrest me, I hoard like a packrat. No more. Now my fridge, being powered by a generator that uses tons of gas and emits tons of CO2 bad footprint, is quite clean and lovely on the inside. I was reading in Consumer Reports that getting a smaller fridge isn't any better because they actually use just as much (and sometimes more) power than a full size. So get the biggest you can afford.

Then just give it a little food at a time, enough to get you through a week or two. I learned that the grocery stores always have more. Better yet, find an organic distributor and buy from them. You'll only buy what you'll use in a week and you are contributing in so many ways to society, the environment, and you're keeping those who keep us healthy, well, healthy. I have a distributor who sells from local growers every Wednesday and Thursday. I will patronize them heavily now.

and you'll have more room for champagne.....

Like Crazy...
09 20 08 .:. Afternoon

I'm going a little nuts so I'm tearing up the carpet in my livingroom. I'd been wanting to do this forever (6+ years since I moved in) and finally got the time. The wood floors underneath are GORGEOUS. I should do the hallway, but until I get runners or rugs, I'll leave it. There is nothing to catch the dust that gathers and my vacuum might be too heavy a load for the generator. I'm already running the computer/monitor/cablebox/router/phone, and the TV, and it's attendant cablebox and the DVD is plugged in. Oh, and I've got the fan going. They say it's going to be a little hotter than yesterday. Lovely.

Things I Miss the Most in my Electricity'less World...
09 20 08 .:. Morning

Ice Cream
Blow dried hair (I don't miss the blowdryer itself, only the results)
The Young & the Restless

After Ike

09 19 08

I will be quite pleased when the droning chug of generators is replaced with the quiet, assuring hum of home electricity. At about the twelfth time I went into my dark garage/studio and flipped "on" the light switch, I became more thankful than ever that electricity exists and that I am spoiled rotten with it. Too much of what makes me me involves electricity (or gas, or other sundry power thing) and I have learned so much about my habits in the last week.

Hurricane Rita taught me a lot. Hurricane Ike taught me everything. I am learning about generators, have learned about the grid with the thousand (customers) then the hundred then the ten then the one. It is the hundred that I am on that is keeping my power from being served. We have a break in the Line Fuse.  Oh. Okay. They'll get to us once they've served the last thousand, which I hope was today?

Actually I'm doing just fine. For provisions I have lots of food, too much toilet paper, plenty of paper towels, lots and lots of reserve gas in the car and a few gallons for the generator.

I have a 5500 Watt Power Boss generator which doesn't have an automatic starter like my neighbor's friend's does, but I kinda like pulling on the... the pulling thing.  It has a name that I just saw but I fugit. I like the chugging starts of it, but hate the loud noise and the gas consumption. I didn't know it will take about 7 gallons to power me at half load for 13 hours or so (that's what it said on the box.)

I'm working here with about 2500 Watts I guess. I'm not good with Watt Math so don't quote me.

I have THE best cooler, made by Igloo, the MAX COOLER.  I have the 40 quart, but mine doesn't have a spigot. Get a spigot. You'll wanna drain off that melted ice pretty quick before it makes soup of your stored food.

I have THE best radio, a crank radio by Eton that I got right after hurricane Rita. I got the industrial silver color, but it comes in much prettier colors (I bought it with my credit card points off their site and the choices were null.) That radio has lasted all week on just 3 AA batteries and I've not had to crank it yet. It has a nicad battery that is charged with the cranking action and has cords that are supposed to allow me to charge my cell phone. My car charges my cell phone fairly fast without starting it, so I was good there.

My car, a Ford Escape Hybrid, can be used as a generator but they say I need an inverter. I don't have an inverter, so all the little outlet will take is 150Watts. That's not much, maybe like a lamp or something. Remember that blowdryer is 1200....!!

I have a pretty good rechargeable lantern by Coleman, but the Energizer Weather Ready is a much better one that will last longer. It isn't rechargeable but it says it will light for a month or longer on one set of batteries. It's still going while my Coleman needed recharging after about 3 days of morning and evening wear.

Food?  Well that's up to the eater. I'm a nosher more than a diner, so I like snack food and proteins such as peanut butter, salmon, string cheese and eggs, though I haven't had an egg since last week because I hear they're scarce and I'm always afraid of not refrigerating them properly during an outage. This has been one hell of an outage.

I will say - I am truly blessed and so very fortunate. I don't have regular power, but there are SO many who don't even have homes anymore. And all those animals that had to be abandoned. So tragic and I do hope that as many can be saved as possible.

I had all my cats here during the storm as well as the dog-for-adoption, Blaze. I and the cats were freaked the entire several hours of the storm while the dog (and my hurricane "partner") slept. Yep, my hurricane partner opted to stay here in Houston with me instead of going to Austin to visit his son awhile. Wow. Risked life and limb to stay and keep me company. At least until 9 or 10 when he crawled off to bed and I stayed on the computer awhile. I migrated to the sofa to watch the news while the storm rolled in...

everything went black at about midnight.

The storm was gaining a lot of ground outside and I listened. On through the night I tried to doze a little but I'd hear a loud bang and wake up. Magic the cat was at my side, as were Moxie and Blaze the dog. The storm just got worse. I listened to the crank radio the entire time, hearing the news reports of downtown being ripped to shreds after Galveston had been demolished.

I was scared but there were people who would call into the station sounding far more afraid than me. One woman whose voice I'll never forget called in to ask the meteorologist how long this was going to last told the anchors that she was scared and alone because her husband had died. My heart went out to her, realizing there were thousands of people out there alone, as I'd been during hurricane Rita.

I guess that the dog slept through it was a good sign that we were all going to be okay, and we were. I won't trust that logic on the next storm, but hindsight gives me a little comfort. At around 4am it got horrendous. What was bad just got worse and every moment was filled with heavy sounds outside. They said that the back of the storm was hitting us and was far more treacherous than the front of the storm. I didn't know that was the case in hurricanes, but they say it can be.

I thought of those nuns in Galveston, in the storm around 1900 who, for safety and to keep the children close, had tied themselves together with ropes and placed the children within the string of people, and all of them drowned. They had done their best and it was for naught.

In the morning light I woke my hurricane buddy and we watched the winds whip the trees into confetti. It began to die down around 6am, and around 7 or so I asked him to take the dog out to pee. Poor Blaze, she couldn't until awhile later, but she was such a great girl during the whole debacle.

Once we felt we could go outside it was still raining, drizzling a bit, but the winds were sporadic and we could stand without being swept away. Surveying the damage I found tons, literally TONS, of debris everywhere. There wasn't an inch of ground that wasn't covered with tree limbs, branches, leaves. Live stuff, too, green like it had been torn from its mother trunk. Very little dead stuff lay in the roads. All deep green and recently alive.

I had asked my nayber next door to PLEASE trim her tree last Spring - I'd spent about $750 having my own trimmed and just couldn't afford to cut hers. She didn't. Nope. So her tree shit was all over my property. There is an email going around with mixed drinks that parody that scene.

MANDATORY EVACUATION

1 1/2 oz. Absolute Ruby Red vodka

1/2 oz. vermouth

Clamato

Prune juice

Combine vodka and vermouth in cocktail glass. Fill remainder of glass with equal parts Clamato and prune juice. Stir. Drink. Ask next-door neighbor whose ficus tree blew over and crashed onto your roof - even though you'd warned her for months to uproot it - if you can use her bathroom. Repeat.

I'm on my second one.....

[Getting into day 7 of having no power after Ike's wrath. They call it the Texas-sized Chainsaw that ripped through a nation. Yeah. I'd say so.

If you haven't heard from me, please don't worry. Everything is fine. I'm very limited on phone because I still have to turn the generator off at night - I don't need an open window as an open invitation, so I'm without resources (except a stainless steel .357 Magnum and hollow-tipped bullets) but just know everything is okay.

Thank you for your thoughts, words, prayers, messages and especially for your friendship. I am moved by the outpouring of love and assistance during this time. I am also very lucky and blessed in that I am quite comfortable (probably TOO comfortable sometimes) and need nothing at all but the kindness of my friends and family.

If you need to contact me, please email. I'll check those periodically and get back to you as I can. Thanks so much.]

Riding the Storm Out

09 12 08

11:50pm. Wow. I guess it was a power surge that just knocked out my elect for just a few seconds, then back on again. It didn't go off completely, but just long enough for me to feel around for a flashlight (which is now in my pocket.)

The news on the major stations has been on 24/7 since yesterday and I can't stop watching it. I need to sleep. They're on the seawall in Galveston, some camped out at the San Luis Hotel whose lights went out hours ago. I'm shocked my lights came back on!! They say once you're down, you're down til its over. I need sleep. Between this sinus infection and no sleep last night, I can hardly type right (lucky you - I tend to fix as I go...)

Winds are high and threatening outside. I've got the animals out and scouring the place right now, no one is sleeping.  I'll lay down in my sleeping bag on the sofa and see what happens. I have ambien, hydrocodone, codene (sp?) and other sundries but just don't want to be out of it. I'm leaving that up to my storm partner (so much for that idea, bless his heart.)

Gotta go because I don't know how long the elect will stay on. If I don't post again, it doesn't mean I'm not okay. I'll post if it all holds up (which it probably won't.)

10:11. I'm filled with anxiety. I'd LOVE to go to sleep, but that's not going to happen.  I have my sleeping bag unrolled on the sofa and am about to pour another glass of white. Storm partner's gone off to bed and left me to my devices. Frankly, I'm fine. I like that I'm self-sufficient, but this isn't the time to be totally alone. I have a friend out there who is, takiing care of his place while his family went to a place with a generator, but he needed to take care of possible broken windows. Me, too. I'm very tired with this sinus infection but too hyped up to sleep. 3 glasses of wine isn't going to do it.

They're saying flooding in quite a few places here. No surprise. It hasn't even begun yet....

Wind gusts are furious. Often. Then silence. Quite a few hours before landfall, and many hours before it hits my area. This is always scary, but this house has been here since '57 so I'm cool. Original windows and my plan is to replace them soon. Big honkin' storm windows. I'll shop around.

I'm pretty scared, but I'm okay.....

9:35pm.  Storm partner's back and I just won the second game of backgammon. I have this back-burner fear of the coming winds; I have trees that could blow over. Yikes. But I'm cool. The animals are okay. I'm okay. I will live in the moment for now.  That's what storms are good for (can't think about that next client or that impending art show with a hurricane overhead.)

Really great food and wine and I have pinpointed the perfect safe place in the house. Winds are picking up tremendously for now, but just gusts. At about 1 or 2am it'll be really scary. I'm sure we'll be out of power by then. I hear River Oaks is completely dark at this point. They're just a few miles south of me. Ouch. All of Galveston is dark. That's unreal. Surreal. This should all get pretty surreal shortly.

More news as my power stays on....

7:30pm. Well, my storm partner has gone across the street in these rather breezy winds (saying the guy across the street was wanting him to come over) and has stayed there. Odd. He's never met my naybers. I guess he's tired of me being anxious about the storm but hey, its part of the deal. We played a game of backgammon (he won) then went outside to watch the winds. I've made some salad to accompany his smoked chicken so I suppose he's going to return eventually. If not, oh well. I've got plenty of provisions here. The guy across the street staying with Mildred is a military guy (read: republican) and might be better company for him. Me, I love my animals, hate hunters, love peace, hate conflict. Yeah, he might as well stay over there......

4:48pm. So far, so good. I'm glued to our CBS affiliate (just like Rita) watching a fire in Galveston (just like Rita.) We'll know more later, but for now, it is a very intense fire. What now.

I'm hanging out here, sheltering in place, hunkering down. I decided to stay again because I have animals and will not 1.) leave them here nor 2.) pile them into my little SUV Hybrid for a long trip to nowhere. Cats and a dog? That would be more insane than staying.

Looks like the storm will hit land around midnight, but the storm surges are enormous. Galveston is flooded and may be underwater sometime tonight. I'm not boarding up the windows because it was SO claustrophobic last time -- think of it: most of the light during the day is through the windows and at night it is artificial. With boarded windows, it has to all be artificial. That would not be a happy thing.

'Found this fascinating site: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/h2005_rita.html

I have two battery (rechargeable) lanterns, my cell phone is plugged into the wall until I lose electricity, I have a ton of food and am making ice blocks for the coolers ('wish I'd started earlier because ALL the stores were out of ice this morning and they're all now completely closed,) my IPod is full of juice and music, and I have a fully charged portable DVD player for when the lights go out. Lets hope no flying debris hits my windows.

Houston is a ghost town, or will be very soon. It is like a Sunday morning at 7am - no one on the roads except city workers. The bigget thing that scared me was hearing an official say that when the storm hits, we're on our own. It isn't something you consider until you're in it because when that storm hits (and it hits hard) if anything bad happens, no one can come to your rescue.  No one. You've got to brave the elements until it all passes, then you pray your cell phone works.

The beauty of having a Hybrid car is that it is like one big, fat battery pack. As long as it has gas, and I have a full tank, it can literally charge all my rechargeables for days and days. Friends take theirs camping and can light and power their campsite for 3 days on a tank of gas. Hybrids are IT. I even have an a/c outlet right in my console.

It's 5:10pm and I just came in from disassembling my backyard, which actually took about 2 days. I have a raging sinus infection which was preceded by a summer cold, and have started antibiotics today. Braving the small winds and pollen didn't do me any good. As long as we don't have tornadoes (a possibility) everything should be fine.  I have potted banana trees that would be perfect missiles if the winds wanted.

More later.....