Hurricane Rita

Okay... so everyone wants to know what's been happening post-Rita.

Well... the power company decided that they needed to shut down an entire grid of power (which includes my house) so that they could repair some bad lines. The "blackout" was expected to take place at 1:00 pm on Monday, and would last one hour.

Well... the blackout took place, but the "one hour" estimate was waaaaayyyy off. It didn't come back on until 9:30 pm, from what I heard.

I spend a couple hours at BW3s (my favorite "when you have no power" place to relax) and then got home (still to no power) around 4:30 pm to get ready for a wedding. I had been asked to run audio and technical for a wedding on Sunday, but since Rita hit it got posted to 7:00 pm on Monday. So... off to the wedding I went. It lasted pretty long, but a good time was had by all.

I got back home around 11:00 pm to a house full of power (and it's a good thing too... because it was HOT).

Speaking of HOT... Sunday (the day after "Rita") it was 102° outside. Can you believe that? We didn't even get the benefit of cool air from that hurricane. And HUMID... oh man, was it humid.

Anyway... On Tuesday I'm working along on the computer and WHAMO!!! Power goes out. Okay... now this time I'm pretty pissed off. The first outage I knew about, but they never said ANYTHING about an encore. Oh well... off to BW3s again (see Part 13 to the left in the menu).

Fun Fun Fun. It seems people are somewhat interested in my lame life... so I'll keep posting updates here. Truth be told, I think they're just more interested in The Pugs than they are me, but I'll take the fame however I can get it.

Well, the weekend have finally come to a close. Faberge left and if probably trying to figure out why he is currently chickless. All the Beef Jerky is history, and Shane and The Waz are... well... let's just say they're just Shane and The Waz and leave it at that.

Mr. Fuggs and Pugitta grow more and more tired as every minute passes (especially the minutes directly following the consumption of the last stick of Jerky).

The beer has finally reached a respectable level... but just in case my mom is reading this I want to officially let everyone know that the BEERS REMAINING counters are totally made-up. We actually drank nothing but water out of old coffee cans and fruit juice the entire weekend.

It was a great weekend, and I'm kind of glad that everyone got "stuck" here (except for The Waz who went crying off to mama's home like a little sissy baby girl).

Wings was wonderful. I haven't had wings since Wednesday, so you know I was hurt'n for 'em. We all had a pretty good time, but we didn't stay too long. There were so many people there that the wait was too long. So we sat outside where seating was immediate. And for good reason. The temperature here in Houston was 102° during our wing-fest (and still is right now). Plus, it's humid as all get-out.

Amanda was going to join us, but since we weren't going to stick around that long she just stayed home. We eventually left and got home ourselves. Paul played DOOM on The Waz's computer while The Waz and Faberge watched football. Shane was busy downloading and listening to music, and I spent much of my time upgrading software and installing it. I know, I know... a bunch of geekie loosers. We all just felt like being vegies today.

Well... Paul just took off for home. I'm going to play with The Pugs some more and just relax the rest of the afternoon away.

What a weekend this has been.

Great news... I've been on speed-dial this morning with BW3s (Buffalo Wild Wings). Wings-n-More will not be open until tomorrow, and everything else is still pretty much shut down... but I JUST got through, and BW3's has JUST opened its doors!! whooo hoooo

The excitement around here is something you can feel. mmmmm.... wings (we'll take some extra Jerky, just in case).

Today, my friends... is the start of something wonderful.

The guys returned from Taco Bell -- with plenty of food, beer (notice increase AGAIN in the beery tally) and a fresh supply of beef jerky and other meat-type products.

After a hearty south-of-the boarder (if you're talking Missouri) authentic Mexican meal from Taco Bell, we all sat down to watch The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was a great DVD, although maybe a bit too odd for some.

Shane hit the sack before the movie started, and now everyone is back at the crashing game on the XBOX. The Pugs? Snoring, as usual. It's been a long day for those two inspectors.

Thanks to Amanda, who brought over 13 beers and 1 big bag of Beef Jerky, the beer counter is now at a respectable level.

We were getting worried there for a few minutes, but all is looking better.

Also... Shane, Paul, and Faberge called and said they found a Taco Bell open. The line for it went all around the block, so it may be another hour, or so, before they returned... but hey, emergency food in a can SUCKS!! Taco Bell is what we really want.

Hope they ran into more Jerky too... because Amanda's bag is almost all gone!

Well, things have become still here... as the pugs sleep, The Waz gets upset because his computer isn't working and Paul, Shane and Faberge head out to find more Beef Jerky.

Paul flew into town from Chicago Thursday. You'll have to ask HIM why he was flying INTO Houston. I'm sure he has a good reason. His initial plan was to head off somewhere outside of Houston to be with family, but when he landed (and saw the crazieness) he gave me a call and said he was heading on over to my place.

IAH (Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport) isn't but a 30 minute drive from my home. But I gave him directions through some backroads, as the main highways were pretty much just a parking lot -- a sea of cars going nowhere.

About 10 miles from my house his truck overheated, so he pulled over and called me to pick him up. I left the house and headed in his direction. Took me about 15 minutes to get there. The problem was that a hose blew off, so we simply needed to reattach it. Being the clever person that I am, I had totally forgot my toolbox, so we just got in my truck and headed to my house. It took us over four hours to get back (traffic, even on the side roads, was just that bad).

Yesterday morning we took off (with tools this time) to go fix his truck. Filled it with water and headed back to the house. By this time all the traffic was pretty much gone. Everyone got out of dodge who was planning on going. A few miles down the road his truck overheated again. He was following me and I saw him turn off the road, so I doubled back. By the time I got there he was unscrewing the cap to the radiator refill... and it fizzed everywhere. So we checked the oil. Sure enough, it was near empty. I remembered a quickie-mart we passed that was still open, so we doubled back and picked up some oil (and more Beef Jerky). Put oil in the truck, headed off... and a few miles down the road -- overheated! This time we added MORE water, figuring we didn't replace all the liquid that had fizzed out during his last exploration. Well... that seemed to do the trick. All the way back the truck never overheated (or even came close).

So I just hit the shower... and Paul took off in his truck (with Shane following in his car and Faberge tagging along) to test it out again. They also planned to hit a quick-mart, or two, to see if there were any more Beef Jerky supplies.

So that's the latest update -- no photos this time around. But seeing as how everyone is gone (except The Waz) and I was in the shower I figured I'd spare you all those photos.

Amanda just called and is heading over. Tonight we will watch The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on DVD. It's a comedy... so hopefully that will lighten the mood. As the beer and Jerky runs out, so have our high spirits. Let's hope those guys find that Jerky!!!

I'm getting overrun with SLACKERS!! People see the site and are coming on over to drink up all my beer! What is a brother to do?

All is looking really good here. The skies are starting to turn blue again and the clouds are going away. Haven't had rain in a while, and no sign of any wind gusts.

Look like it's back to Houston's typical Hot-n-Humid crappy weather again. Oh joy.

It's morning time 'round these parts. Everything was pretty quiet last night... well, except the hurricane. I don't think winds really got above 30 MPH gusts, with much, much lower sustained wind speeds.

The worst part about this morning was that we had no TV or internet access. The cable modem provider must have lost power, but it finally came back on about a half hour ago... so Part 7, as dull as it is, is now up.

I just wanted everyone to know that we're all doing well... we found some hidden Beef Jerky under Shane's pillow and we're eating it now! Oh... and the pugs are good (they are currently snoring on the bed).

Well... the rain has pretty much spattered on and off throughout the night. Nothing big to speak of. But the gusts have picked up a bit, and it's raining pretty good now. Nothing like what was originally expected, so that's good.

The Pugs have informed me that it's time to hit the hay. I'll try to pry my lard self out of bed early and provide more updates, but for now we have to make sure we don't run down our beer counter too much (seeing as how it's just the first night, and all).

I wish everyone well in the next few hours, but I'm signing off now before the electricity does it for me. ;) We've had a few brownouts, but nothing the backup system can't handle for now.

Cheers!

Well... as every hour goes by we fear it might be our last (for electricity). We have enough battery power and ice cubes to keep the remaining beer cool enough to drink for at least 12 hours following the power going out... but that may not be enough.

Until then, I will try to continue to post updates.

If you have comments, please read/add them to the first (bottom of page) post I made here. Or just drop a note to say 'hey.'

The power is "flickering" here, so if it gets too crazy I'll be shutting down for the night and start in on the beer while it's still cold.

Okay, so photos just don't cut it sometimes. In the latest addition (Part 4) I have two videos at the end.

Remember -- the best way to view the photos (and captions) is to click on the first photo to see the large version, and then just click your way through.

To view the VIDEOS (at the end of Part 4) simply click on the thumbnail image and watch them. I'm sorry the video file sizes aren't smaller, but I wanted to make them as compliant with all operating systems as possible.

Okay... so far so good. We have all our supplies (beer) and everyone that we know is safe and secure. I will try to take photos every hour, or two, just to keep everyone posted as to what is taking place here.

Keep your eye on this page, or subscribe to the RSS feed if you have the ability. I'll keep posting as long as I have power (or until I fall asleep).

Click on an entry (time) to the left... and when you see the photos you can click on the first one to get a bigger picture and then "next" through all of the photos.