SEARCH NO FURTHER ...
... surfers of the world. Hurricane Ike has just generated the "perfect wave."
It's noon on Sept. 16, 2008 and I just got this update from Mifflin in the Houston Area:
We are among the blessed in the area. We experienced the wrath of the storm from 2 AM through late morning Saturday, and had electrical power until 4:30 AM, although it frequently went on and off. We lost phone and cell phone capability mid-morning. When we went out and checked for damage, we found none to the house or fence. Only a few plants toppled. And that was true for most of our surrounding neighborhood. We had been advised that we would be without electrical power for two weeks to eighteen days. Knowing we were going to shelter in place, the decision being because we are 50 miles from the coast as the crow flies, we stocked up well on supplies and prepared. Plus we have a natural gas stove and hot water heater, so we could cook. And we froze large pans of water for block ice in the freezers, mainly to sustain my insulins, and as much perishable food items as possible for as long as possible. I have a small battery powered analog television that we watched, and I bought a hand cranked am/fm radio with solar panels for dual operation, and we were able to use that. Saturday night here was eerie because of the stillness and quiet, the likes of which we haven't experienced in years. The only sounds were a distant generator. The authorities were strictly enforcing a dusk til dawn curfew, so we had no traffic. I could see lights in the distance south of us, and since we have all underground utilities, I felt the projected time without power wouldn't apply to us, but one never knows. Sharon, by some devine inspiration (her spirit of shopping and buying everything in sight) found a couple of battery operated box fans about 18 inches square at Linens and Things in early June. They take 8 D batteries, and will run approximately 72 hours on low speed, so I put one in the open bedroom window and it drew the cool night air into the room and circulated it, and we were very comfortable all night long. Miff went to the church Saturday afternoon to check on damage there, said everything was fine, and that they had electrical power, so invited us to go spend the night there which we declined. He stopped back by at 9 Sunday morning to check on us and was encouraging us to go to Dixie and Joe's in Austin until the power came back on, and we were giving it some thought, but we had to get rid of stuff in the two fridges and chest freezer as not to have a rotten mess when we returned. And I'm too old and broke to have to buy new appliances when these will probably last til I draw my last breath. I was in the shower when Sharon opened the door and hollered the power just came on. We both were ecstatic, but held our breath in case it was a short lived fluke. It's still off in another section of our subdivision across West Little York from us. Then the phones came back, as did the internet and t.v. service, so we are one out of every fifth person throughout the greater Houston area enjoying such a luxury. We got out and drove north for about four miles to check on our friends, Judy and Edward Holub, who just built and moved into their $325,000. dream home in a gated community. The trip there was surreal. There was no power to operate the street lights, at least the ones still standing, and many of them were hanging from one wire in a vertical position ready to fall at any time, traffic was horrific, and people had to stop at each intersection as they do at 4-way stops and progress through one car at a time. Imagine the amount of gasoline that takes. Signs were blown down, fences down everywhere, extensive roof damage, trees scattered everywhere. Krogers and Walmart on the corner of Fry and West Little York down from us both were open, but their parking lots were a zoo of people and cars. When we got to the Holub's, the story was the same. No power, lots of damage to those brand new homes, especially the roofs. Thank goodness the trees were all young, as they are in our area, but they for the most part were toppled over because they didn't have established root systems. They weren't home and we found out later they had gone to her brother's in Cuero. Sunday Miff had 40 souls at church giving thanks for their safe deliverance. We had 8 sirloin strips in our freezer along with sausage links, so Miff came, picked them up and grilled them Sunday afternoon, and we had seven for a feast of Thanksgiving at our house Sunday night. Then Sharon lost her mind and prepared a roast for Monday evenings meal and had seven over for that. Guess seven is our magic number. I told Sharon I wanted to hear nothing about her aches and pains if she kept insisting on slaving over meal preps like that. And for those without power, God blessed us with this wonderful cool front that blew through. Love these early fall temperature drops. It still will be a week before we can get out into the world and get back to normal around here, but as I said, we are a lot closer than most. It always does our heart good to know that the two of you are still there and hopefully doing well. At our ages, we take everything one day at a time and are grateful for it. Thank you so much for your prayers, interest and concern. We thought we left hurricanes behind in Corpus Christi. Boy were we ever wrong. Love, Mifflin
SEARCH NO FURTHER ...
... surfers of the world. Hurricane Ike has just generated the "perfect wave."
It's noon on Sept. 16, 2008 and I just got this update from Mifflin in the Houston Area:
We are among the blessed in the area. We experienced the wrath of the storm from 2 AM through late morning Saturday, and had electrical power until 4:30 AM, although it frequently went on and off. We lost phone and cell phone capability mid-morning. When we went out and checked for damage, we found none to the house or fence. Only a few plants toppled. And that was true for most of our surrounding neighborhood. We had been advised that we would be without electrical power for two weeks to eighteen days. Knowing we were going to shelter in place, the decision being because we are 50 miles from the coast as the crow flies, we stocked up well on supplies and prepared. Plus we have a natural gas stove and hot water heater, so we could cook. And we froze large pans of water for block ice in the freezers, mainly to sustain my insulins, and as much perishable food items as possible for as long as possible. I have a small battery powered analog television that we watched, and I bought a hand cranked am/fm radio with solar panels for dual operation, and we were able to use that. Saturday night here was eerie because of the stillness and quiet, the likes of which we haven't experienced in years. The only sounds were a distant generator. The authorities were strictly enforcing a dusk til dawn curfew, so we had no traffic. I could see lights in the distance south of us, and since we have all underground utilities, I felt the projected time without power wouldn't apply to us, but one never knows. Sharon, by some devine inspiration (her spirit of shopping and buying everything in sight) found a couple of battery operated box fans about 18 inches square at Linens and Things in early June. They take 8 D batteries, and will run approximately 72 hours on low speed, so I put one in the open bedroom window and it drew the cool night air into the room and circulated it, and we were very comfortable all night long. Miff went to the church Saturday afternoon to check on damage there, said everything was fine, and that they had electrical power, so invited us to go spend the night there which we declined. He stopped back by at 9 Sunday morning to check on us and was encouraging us to go to Dixie and Joe's in Austin until the power came back on, and we were giving it some thought, but we had to get rid of stuff in the two fridges and chest freezer as not to have a rotten mess when we returned. And I'm too old and broke to have to buy new appliances when these will probably last til I draw my last breath. I was in the shower when Sharon opened the door and hollered the power just came on. We both were ecstatic, but held our breath in case it was a short lived fluke. It's still off in another section of our subdivision across West Little York from us. Then the phones came back, as did the internet and t.v. service, so we are one out of every fifth person throughout the greater Houston area enjoying such a luxury. We got out and drove north for about four miles to check on our friends, Judy and Edward Holub, who just built and moved into their $325,000. dream home in a gated community. The trip there was surreal. There was no power to operate the street lights, at least the ones still standing, and many of them were hanging from one wire in a vertical position ready to fall at any time, traffic was horrific, and people had to stop at each intersection as they do at 4-way stops and progress through one car at a time. Imagine the amount of gasoline that takes. Signs were blown down, fences down everywhere, extensive roof damage, trees scattered everywhere. Krogers and Walmart on the corner of Fry and West Little York down from us both were open, but their parking lots were a zoo of people and cars. When we got to the Holub's, the story was the same. No power, lots of damage to those brand new homes, especially the roofs. Thank goodness the trees were all young, as they are in our area, but they for the most part were toppled over because they didn't have established root systems. They weren't home and we found out later they had gone to her brother's in Cuero. Sunday Miff had 40 souls at church giving thanks for their safe deliverance. We had 8 sirloin strips in our freezer along with sausage links, so Miff came, picked them up and grilled them Sunday afternoon, and we had seven for a feast of Thanksgiving at our house Sunday night. Then Sharon lost her mind and prepared a roast for Monday evenings meal and had seven over for that. Guess seven is our magic number. I told Sharon I wanted to hear nothing about her aches and pains if she kept insisting on slaving over meal preps like that. And for those without power, God blessed us with this wonderful cool front that blew through. Love these early fall temperature drops. It still will be a week before we can get out into the world and get back to normal around here, but as I said, we are a lot closer than most. It always does our heart good to know that the two of you are still there and hopefully doing well. At our ages, we take everything one day at a time and are grateful for it. Thank you so much for your prayers, interest and concern. We thought we left hurricanes behind in Corpus Christi. Boy were we ever wrong. Love, Mifflin