How is everyone in Texas?

[Dave H]

Hey Bear,

I hope the Bear family is doing good!

I found this video of you at the beach in Galveston.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKwMiExUKXg

Michael what is it like in Dallas? Are you OK there? Did your buddy get his truck out of Houston?

Dave

[michaelb]

Nothing has happened here in Dallas. It's overcast but so far no rain nor wind (although they are predicting both for this afternoon). My sister and her husband and kids and animals got out of Beaumont. Augusto is still in Houston, said that he's in the high ground part of Houston so he's not worried about floods and also that almost all his neighbors stayed put too. Besides, he said he has a load 'Austin' Saturday (which is today, by now). I never did get it quite clear whether he is supposed to pick up the load in Austin or deliver it there.  Either way, he's supposed to call me this afternoon and let me know that he and his family are alright.

[utopiacowboy]

Hard to believe that all hell was breaking loose 300 miles east. We didn't have a drop of rain in San Antonio just blue sky with a few clouds.

[Dave H]

We had some tropical storm winds and a little rain on Wed and Thur, on Friday most of the clouds had been sucked from the sky, leaving it very blue. Today is a typical beautiful Soutyh Florida day! 

[michaelb]

Update from Houston (I've seen that picture before, by the way, Dave). Augusto says that he and his family are all OK. He can see trees and lots of limbs down blocking some streets and there is a tree on his neighbor's roof, but he doesn't know how badly the house is damaged. His house is totally undamaged. He's heard that downtown is flooded (and he's probably right, downtown is prone to flood). They rescheduled his trip from today until tomorrow due to the weather. The plan is: Empty to Austin, load up a house full of furniture (he's in the moving van business, not general freight, Allied Van Lines, to be specific), come back to Houston and pick up another house full of furniture and take both to New Orleans, where they will both unload, then there is one house full to pick up in N.O. to take to North Carolina, maybe by then they can get him something else too to make a full load, either another customer in N.O. or something on the way that wants to go to the same or nearby destination in NC, then, who knows? For those who may not know (and I'm sure many don't care), that is typical for the household moving business, a truck can hold two or three, if they're small, house loads of furniture, and you may well have to run empty between 2 nearby places to consolidate a full load or have to run only partially loaded for part of the trip.

Here in Dallas, we're got light rain and moderate (I'm going to guess the gusts are 20-25) wind, nothing more. I heard that Galveston really got it bad. No word from my sister, the calls didn't go through, the recording said all the circuits are busy. But I'm not worried, they were going to leave in plenty of time.

Isn't Ray in Houston? Ray, are you guys doing alright?

Wait, Ray's in San Diego, Bear is in Houston, right? Sometimes I get confused, ala "Who's on First?" So, Bear, are you guys alright?

[Dave H]

Hi Michael,

I'm glad Dallas is doing OK. I wanted to cheer you Texans up, but I couldn't find the cartoon of a Floridian with a hurricane driven stick through his head.  I think her name must be 'Dora,'    as 'Mount Dora' is the highest mountain in Florida with an elevation of 184 feet above sea level.  Britton Hill is the highest point at 345 feet above sea level, but it is only a hill. Being a married man, I no longer have any pictures like that.    I was thinking about taking my camera with me on the street, so that LA guys could see all the free scenery they are missing out of in South Florida. 

Power poles and cell phone towers are probably down where Bear lives.

I picked up my generator today...$65 and a free air filter. 

Dave

[michaelb]

I don't know, I don't have Bear's phone number, so I couldn't try to call him, only contact I have with him is via this board. Although Augusto's house escaped, since then I've seen some newsreels out of Houston and Galveston, and it looks like downtown Houston got it fairly bad, and as expected, Galveston looked downright terrible. So it's possible that you're right about the utilities being out where Bear lives. Hope he and his family are OK. Good deal on the generator, didn't let them jack the price and got a freebie thrown in. BTW, I wasn't COMPLAINING about the picture , just mentioning that I had seen it before. For real? 345' is the highest point in Florida? That's interesting. Say, since you brought it up, do you know what the official difference between a 'mountain' and a 'hill' is? (I learned this in geography class about a million years ago, actually has nothing to do with how high it is nor how steep it is).

[Dave H]

Hey michael,

I've can't find Bear's cell or home number either. I think I had it once.

Not bad on the generator! I was just real nice and he addmitted his  counter help sucked, quoting me the weed eater price. Knowing that I had quite a few more motors that might need serving, he gave me a break.  He was a very level headed, calm, nice Cuban. The generator now runs like a top!

Interesting about a mountain and hill! I learn something new every day! Thanks!

Dave

[Bear]

well at least from work...

No real damage or anyone hurt.  Lost a lot of roof shingles and the same fence that blew down during Rita blew down again (got it back up yesterday).  Had water and gas throughout but NO ELECTRICITY!  I bought a 300 and a 140 watt converter to use in my car and ran cords out to them to get a light, fan and TV going.  Worked okay.  The car used about 1/4 tank of gas each day doing that. 

Worst problem was Honey broke out with some sort of fungal infection.  Its covered her body like chicken pox.  No fever or anything just ugly dark splotches all over her body.  Honey always scars pretty bad even when a mosquito or flea bites her so this is going to be tough on her.  Can't get on the Internet to check how to deal with it and the medicine the doc gave is totally ineffective.

My phone is VOIP so until the internet is up I have none.

The Bear Family

[michaelb]

I was starting to get worried, but hoping that it was only that your neighborhood didn't have utility services restored yet. Tell Honey to get better.

[Dave H]

Hey Bear,

I'm very happy to hear that you and your family made it through the hurricane safely! I'm sorry to hear about Honey's infection and hope she gets better soon!

Wilma was a much smaller storm, but it took several years to clean up. We still have cement power poles leaning. Most of the wooden poles snapped and were replaced.

Dave

[Jeff S]

Glad everyone came through OK Bear except for Honey's condition. Hope she gets better soon.

[Bear]

Still no power!!!  I was on a list to have power by today but the list changed to having power by Thursday?  Its an older neighborhood (about 55 y.o.) and most of the people are either poor or elderly so I do not know how the power repairs were determined?  Really tough to sleep at night with the high humidity.  My company saw we didn't have power and gave me a generator.  Great now I get to spend $40/day keeping it running!!  Thats $1200/mo. for those who are math challenged!  So we run it during the day and turn it off at night.

Honey didn't have the fungus infection we thought, it's some sort of allergic reaction.  Covered her from head to toe with whelps.  Now that it has been properly diagnosed she is starting to clear up.  Scared me pretty bad, her too.  Why her and AJ seem to have theses allergic reactions, breakouts and hives I've yet to determine but if I don't figure out what soon I might have to consider moving.  I worried a lot this last time that in might get into her lungs or eyes (I did notice it in her ears).  Don't know what I'd do it she got sick over this because no one knows whats causing it.

Just to make everything worse when I took Honey in to the doctor he pointed out I hand been in for a year so he ran a few test on me and made me get back on insulin - man I hate that.  Even though I've lost over 50# (and its stayed off eating like a normal humand being) my blood sugar skyrocketed.  He said my urine was pure syrup.  How do you diet, lose weight and still have high sugar?  Don't really think its diabetes.  At least my blood pressure stayed down.

Make it all worse it seems I've got a sinus infection in this high humidity and fall pollen season.  My head feels like a steel wrecking ball with someone pounding on it with a sledge hammer.  At least I get to go to the office and work where the A/C works - feel sorry for Honey and the kids.

The Bear Family

[fathertime]

Thats $1200/mo. for those who are math challenged!  So we run it during the day and turn it off at night.

Hey Bear!  Take it easy and don't torture yourself too much, run the damn AC for some of the night if you need it!  We only live once and hopefully you will get power back soon.  Getting some good sleep is important for your health, which in turn is critical for your lovely wife and little kids!

Fathertime!

[Bob_S]

Make it all worse it seems I've got a sinus infection in this high humidity and fall pollen season.  My head feels like a steel wrecking ball with someone pounding on it with a sledge hammer.

Gah!  When isn't it pollen season there?  I remember visiting a friend up in Spring, TX years ago.  Parked my car there in the afternoon, and the next morning, my blue car had turned green.     I'm with FT.  If you are expecting the power back on in a few days, stay cool and get a good night's sleep.

[Bear]

Its actually Honey who wants it off at night.  She is used to a higher temperature/humidity being from Davao and she worries about fumes and noise.  So I let her feel safe.  I turn it on when I leave for work so the kids can watch their TV and the small window unit and icebox can run.  Honey can wash if she needs to.  She sets up the A/C to 78 so its basically a fan for her.

I think the hardest part for her now that we dealt with the allergy is not being able to blog.  She has like 5 sites she runs.  The kids don't seem to notice a problem.  For me I see the day-to-day expenses as being extremely high because we can't depend on electricity and we have to constantly purchase food items and gasoline.  Very expensive way to live.

The Bear Family

[Dave H]

I purchased a small generator a few days before Hurricane Katrina passed through. After the storm, we were without power for 10 days. My daughter had a very bad cold and allergies which was making her miserable in the heat. She couldn't sleep in the heat...none of us could! I went out and bought a small a/c unit after the first night. We all (6) slept in the one air conditioned bedroom. The room was ice cold! Luckily the a/c unit had a remote control so I could turn it up or off for the Filipinas  without getting out of bed.  We all slept great and my daughter's cold and allergies cleared up.

Dave