Brain Dump

Worst Birthday Ever

You gotta love when really bad things happen on your birthday.  A couple of years ago, my grandfather died on my brithday, and of course we had 9/11 happened the year after that.  Not on my birthday, but close enough.  And now, Hurricane Rita.

I suppose I should be thankful and feel fortunate that nothing bad happened and we all have our health.  None of my friends or family came to any harm.  Those are all good things.  The fact that practically no one called to wish me a happy birthday still sucks.  Actually, that's not a fair statement.  I got a few calls from some very, very unlikely candidates, and those whom I would expect to remember did not.  That's how it goes as you get older.  I did get my first card from my daughter, so that counts for something.  She has surprisingly good penmenship for a 6 week old.

Photos as Promised

Here are some I took this morning while riding around on my bike.  Overall, I'm not too impressed with Rita.  Reminds me of a date I once had in college.  Spent a lot of time chasing that girl around, but what a let down.  You know, all of the anticipation about what a date it would have been, and then went home feeling so unfulfilled.  I suppose I should be glad on both fronts.  Without one, I wouldn't be married to my wife now, on the other, well my house might have looked like it was owned by one of the three little pigs.

Score Keeping

For you home gamers keeping score, Hurricane Rita turned out to be quite a bust for Houstonians.  That's not to say that there wasn't some damage in its path, but for sure we dodged a bullet.  I was up until 4AM listening and watching, making sure nothing busted in the house.  We had some window frames spring leaks, which was a first for me.  The back yard looks like I have a lazy teenager who hasn't picked up in a while.  Not sure about the rest of the neighborhood, but I am about to head out on my mountain bike with my camera.  More in a bit.

Oh, the wife, Chickpea and I are fine.  We will be interested to see how long it takes to get people back into Houston.  My guess is that normal business doesn't become the status until sometime next week.

Nightmares

When I learned to read at age 12 (kidding!), I learned that you read from left to right.  I used that skill to read many Stephen King novels, mostly to scare myself.  Well, this nightmare reads from right to left, and is scarier than any of the Backman Books.  The storm has arrived, the wind is howling and the rain is falling.  We'll see how it goes from here on out.  So far I'm not hiding under the stairs yet, but make no mistake about it; I will take refuge in order to live to fight another day.

I got some emails from some folks who live in my area.  Apprecaite that guys, thanks.  Tomorrow is going to be a tough day, but you can be sure that just as soon as it is safe to do so, I will be out with my friend in his Bubba Truck with some chainsaws and axes to free up the roads and start clearing out the neighborhoods.  If you are in a hard hit neighborhood up here in The Woodlands, let me know and we'll come by.  I'm not good for much except lifting heavy objects and putting them back down again.

Hurricane Rita vs. Hurricane Chickpea

The wife and I generally believe that we have been blessed with a very docile and good natured baby.  We love to joke that she got her father's looks and her mother's temperament, which is great for us, but terrible for her.  Be that as it may, things are not always rosy.  I generally subscribe to Murphy and all of his laws.  Sure enough, the sun sets, a monster hurricane is bearing down on our house and our 6 week old baby erupts into spasmodic screams and cannot be consoled.  For the last two hours we have been battling the raging storm of Hurricane Chickpea.  It makes the screaming wind outside seem like a joke.  I got the brunt of the hurricane, with swirling winds of screaming, rain (pee) and even hail (poop).

I feel pretty terrible for the wife at this point, because she has to be mindful of everything that she eats for fear of how Chickpea will react to it.  So far we know that the road to ground zero is paved in chocolate, brocolli and tomatoes.  Turns out that tonight's fiasco was brought about by, we think, cabbage in the egg rolls wife had for dinner tonight.  I guess we got too comfortable with how good she was being, and that's when you start to make mistakes.  So to sum up, if you are breastfeeding, DO NOT EAT CABBAGE...or tomatoes or broccoli or chocolate.  I put that last part in because the wife was complaining that there is no definitive list of things you shouldn't eat while breastfeeding.  This link, and this link were the top two for that search, and they are useless.  Hopefully someone, someday will Google that term and have an answer.

'Twas The Night Before Rita

Looking out from my driveway, you would be hard pressed to even believe that a monster storm was coming.  The color of the sky is amazing, and the sun is setting.  Sure, Rita has been downgraded, but we are still bracing for the worst.  In some sick way, I am waiting for it happily.  I want it to begin.  There's an old saying that "the anticipation of death is worse than death itself."  I'm not thinking about death here, but the saying captures the moment.  The anticipation is terrible.  At least the rain has started...it's a sprinkle now...the heavy stuff should be here in a couple of hours.

Fun With Chainsaws

Ah the things that can make you feel like a tough guy.  Nothing like preparing for a little Chainsaw Jousting on mountain bikes.  Actually this was right before we cleared out some trees that had already fallen in the neighborhood.  The winds are starting to pick up here.  Rumor has it that there are something like 1,000 cars at the local mall here, all with stranded travelers.  Wow.  We feel pretty safe for the time being, but have certainly taken on a siege mentality and are ready to bunker down.

The Calm

Well, today is the big day.  I made the comment last night to my wife that I feel like we are sitting around waiting to die.  As I lay awake last night in my bed, completely incapable of sleeping, I was left wondering how to relate the feeling.  Since I lived through 9/11, I can tell you this.  It is as if you were in an office building and were called 3 days ahead of time to be warned that a hijacked plane was coming your way.  You could not get out of you building.  So you spend all of your time looking out the window at the next building over and hoping that the plane hits them instead, or an even better case, that the plane simply misses entirely and splashes down in the water.  Grim?  You bet.  That's the way it feels around here.  The sentiment was echoed amongst my neighbors and the fear is palpable.  The winds start in a couple of hours, the rain should be here by 5pm.

The monster breathes off the coast, inching slowly toward it's prey, snacking on fear before feasting on buildings.

My neighbor just got back from running water over to an on ramp to I45.  He said there were hundreds of stranded people, having run out of gas.  Where are they going to go?  I just met a lady in the parking lot of the Shell station (had to get my Pepsi) and she was about to sleep in her car when she got a call from a cousin who offered her now evacuated condo.  Everyone in the line who had tried to get out had the same story.  9+ hours of sitting in traffic before turning around.

Why We Haven't Left

People keep asking me why we haven't left.  That's a great question, and one for which I have several good answers.  First, since many of my clients are in the energy industry, I have some very good information regarding the gas situation.  It's pretty bleak.  Second, traveling with a 6 week old who hasn't had her shots is bad, but doing so when it's over 90 degrees and you risk running out of gas, well that's just bad parenting.  Third, if you really need a VERY CLEAR PICTURE, let me present you with this:

Folks, that is a shot courtesy of Houston Transtar, taken at 11:01PM CST, about 6 minutes ago.  If you can't put 2 and 2 together, try putting 2 and 2 and 2 and 2 and 2 and 2 together.  Count 'em, 12 lanes of traffic moving north, in a fricking gridlock.  This section of I45 would be on my exit path, so you can guess what my decision is.  It's like this all the way to Dallas, 200 miles away.  I'll take my chances here.  We've got plenty of food and water and other goodies, and our house is on one of the high points of the neighborhood (read: about 4 feet higher than others).  It's not much, but enough to give some hope.

Apparently, God Reads Blogs

So I post this little gem at 8:48 AM.  And then at 3:24 PM (1:24 PM PST), there were some earthquakes in LA.  See, my little brother still lives there.  God was apparently angry that I would say such things like "I am on [His] shitlist." I am guilty of the sin of arrogance to think that I could solely be on his shitlist, and in fact he wanted me to know that the cone of responsibility extends to my immediate family as well.  I guess he was busy with this whole hurricane thing and needed until right after his lunch break to phone in his earthquake.  The good news in LA got theirs...the bad news is somewhere in South Carolina bad things are about to happen.