Weekend update

Friday:

Lunch at Perbacco's
Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake

Saturday:

Awakened by thunderclap at 4 a.m.
Heard tornado go by shortly thereafter
Woke up at 5:30 a.m.
Blueberry muffins
Back to bed until noon
A&M football
Cleaned debris out of drainage ditches and french drain
Fire ant bites
Fry's, Academy
Dinner at El Centinela with K


Sunday:

Didn't get moving until noon
Texans football
Tree cleanup at the rental after the storm passed through
Grilled out burgers and brats

Weekend update

Friday:

Ate in the office
Aikido

Saturday:

Blueberry pancakes
Stayed home from aikido - allergies
Slept a good portion of the afternoon
Dinner at El Centinela with K
Rockets on TV

Sunday:

Lazed about due to allergies/cold?
Baked sourdough sandwich bread
Baked peach and blueberry cobblers for neighbors
Made peach ice cream

Monday:

Lazed about due to allergies/cold?
Rockets on TV
Massive storm came through Monday night - lost power 3 times (1 a.m., 4:30 a.m., 5:30 a.m.) 5 inches of rain

Weekend update

Friday:

Lunch at Springbok, after trying Mocando and Honeymoon Cafe and Bar
No Aikido
Massive storm

Saturday:

Blueberry pancakes
Did some cleanup at the rental, post storm
Did some cleanup at the house, post storm
Loaded up stuff for Spring Sparkle
Aikido
Dinner at El Centinela with K
Storm - K kept Tank company

Sunday:

Banana bread
Storm - K kept Tank company

Aikido Friday Night - 4/17/15 (cancelled)

Big storms in the area, probably the biggest storm since Hurricane Ike, caused us to not hold class.  3" of rain, high winds, etc. did a good job of clearing out the weaker branches in the trees.

Aikido Friday Night - 8/16/13

Class cancelled because of severe thunderstorms in the area.  Didn't want the students to get caught in floodings.

Aikido Friday Night - 3/9/2012

Class cancelled due to bad weather

Rain!

It's actually raining outside right now. Probably not at home, but at work it is. ( I checked and it's not raining at home :( )

We haven't had rain since May 24th.

The week in Denver

My new job sent me out to Denver last week with a number of colleagues to chat with some folks we work with out there. We had a fairly productive week, and got to drive out to Breckenridge one afternoon to look around.

The big event of the week was a severe snowstorm that dropped from 10 to 18 inches of snow on the Denver area. This happened on Thursday morning. Wednesday afternoon I'd asked one of the folks we were visiting how often they closed the schools. His reply was "very rarely." When I woke up Thursday morning the first thing I saw on the TV was a scrolling list of school closures. Not much snow was on the ground yet, but more was expected by the end of the day.

I needed to get into the office and talk with one of the guys there. The rest of the folks from Houston were iffy about driving the short distance to get there, but they were willing to since I needed to go.

We got to the office, got some work done and decided that the snow was piling up too deep. The snow was about 6 inches deep on a power transformer outside one of the windows. We left for the hotel. We spent about 20 minutes getting the minivan out of its parking spot and then 30 minutes driving to the hotel.

We watched snow fall for the rest of the day, and a bit of Friday morning. Thankfully, the snow slowed down enough, and the plows got rid of enough of the now on the roads that we were able to make our flight out of town that afternoon.

Below are pictures from the trip from my cell phone.

Snow

Snow!

Snow?

Snow.

A tie in the records books for earliest recorded snowfall in Houston. Tied with 1944.

We only got about an inch or so, and it melted away when the snow turned into rain (cue Dan Fogelberg), but it was pretty while it lasted.

I like snow.

A. I. Day 7

Trees processed today: 2

Trees left to process: 2

State of power: off

Estimated power turn-on: unknown. I'm guessing 3-9 days.

State of the weather: fabulous, all things considered.

I cut up the last pine tree and the tallow tree that were in the creek/ditch. I did not complete it, but until I get access to a chainsaw, I'm done.

We've still got a lot of debris to haul to the curb.

My mom got power yesterday, so it's just my sister and I now left in the family without power.

A. I. Day 6

Trees processed today: 1

Trees processed previously: 4

Trees left to process: 2

State of power: off

Estimated power turn-on: unknown. I'm guessing 3-9 days.

State of the weather: fabulous, all things considered.

I cut up one of the pines that had fallen across my creek/ditch. One of
the branches was under far more tension than I thought it was. It
released the tension quickly when I made the final cut. I was not in
its path when it did so.

The next two trees are going to require getting into the muck to make
the cuts, so I've got to find my rubber boots.

No cutting tonight as the dojo is up and running and it's a night for
aikido.

Hurricane Ike: a summary of events

Thursday, Sept. 11

8:15 am: Friendswood announces voluntary evacuation

8:45 am: I decide to evacuate and head home

10:30 am: Finish packing, with K.'s help. Say a tearful goodbye and head north

1:30 pm: Arrive at the in-laws' place

Friday, Sept. 12

9:00 pm: Take Jack and Tank out for the last chance to relieve themselves before the storm

Saturday, Sept. 13

1:30 am: Call from K. giving the conditions in Friendswood

4:30 am: Hurricane Ike arrives, causing the structure to sway slightly for the next 7 hours

6:20 am: Power goes out

10:30 am: Attempt to take Jack and Tank out to do their business. Jack cooperates, Tank decides it's too windy.

1:30 pm: Storm has abated, leaving a very light rain falling. Tank decides he can go to the bathroom now.

Sunday, Sept. 14

3:00 am: Call from K. with conditions in Friendswood

10:00 am: Finish packing to go home and head out

1:00 pm: Arrive back in Friendswood

End of timeline

Surveying the damage, we got off very lightly. A total of 7 trees lost major limbs or gave their lives in the storm. The bamboo plant also lost a number of shoots. None of them damaged the house.

Trees left to process: 3

State of power: off

Estimated power turn-on: unknown. I'm guessing 4-10 days

State of the weather: fabulous, all things considered.

Pictures when I can get them off the camera

Hurricane Ike, still

Picked up more plywood for the protection of windows and doors, along with some more Plylox. Spent the time after volleyball sizing the plywood and the 2x4s necessary as adjuncts. So, should we decide to do it, we can board up the final windows and doors in an hour or so.

I don't expect to do it, as it looks like Ike will come in south of us. We will likely get some rain, but not the really high powered winds.

The shop has, according to K., been filled with loose stuff from the yard.

Unless things change, I'll be riding the storm out at home.

Hurricane Ike

It looks like Mr. Ike might be headed my way.

Yesterday afternoon, I got home and saw the projected path. It looked like he was likely to come straight up the gut. So, I went out to the shop and got down all of the storm boards.

I spent some time spray painting them with labels that are easier to see than the Sharpie I had used previously.

I also cut the plywood for the windows of the addition, and figured out how they were going to get installed.

K. came home and helped me get the last board down from the shop and we started installing them. We had to do some size adjustment along the way, along with learning some tricks of using Plylox. If you place the Plylox further away from the ends of the board, it makes it easier to install them.

It took judicious use of prop boards and cinder blocks to install the boards on the addition, but we got it done.

We got in from the installation and sat down to check the news on Ike. Now it looks like he's going to hit South Texas instead of the Upper Texas Coast. Grrr.

We need some more plywood for two doors and the big windows (107" x 52" and 107" x 72"). K. is out picking that up now, with her dad. We're going to need 'em at some point, so might as well have them ready.

I'm really glad I've got the shop now. I've got a plywood cutting methodology down after doing so much for making the cabinets for the shop. It made the cutting of the new boards, and adjustment of the old ones relatively pleasant.

One car is gassed up. It's the one that will be staying in town with Kim. She's a part of the city's emergency team.

She's using the truck to get the plywood and will fill that up during her errands. I'll use that to transport myself and the animals to our chosen destination. That might be the family place in Granger. I haven't checked to see if there are prior claims on the space there.

But, I'm now thinking I won't need to leave. And, I'll be busy unboarding the windows this weekend.

Edouard, pt. 3

Edouard was the cause for me to work from home, for a whole day, for the first time. Not tremendously fun. K. was home, and it was always tempting to go help her do whatever she was doing.

I got started late and, therefore, finished late. But, I still had some hours to reset the yard to the way it was before the storm. I also had some time to work in the shop.

Edouard, pt. 2

Well, Edouard is a bit of a bust. Overnight he turned a bit north, so we did not get the dirty side. We have not received much of anything. In the 6 hours since the rain started, we've had 1.5" of rain. We've had a little wind, but not much.

I spent a couple of hours prepping the yard for the arrival and it wasn't necessary. And I'll have to spend the same amount, or more, un-prepping the yard

Still, with these things, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Edouard

This tropical storm, likely to be a hurricane, is coming right up our drainage pipe. I don't expect it to be too much trouble, but we're storing loose items away.

Garage sale

Due to the construction, we put a lot of stuff into a storage unit. Now that construction is *this close* to being complete, we're slowly getting stuff out of storage. However, some of that stuff does not need to come back out. It needs to go away.

To achieve that, we had a garage sale on Saturday.

A bunch of stuff from my in-laws, a couple of items from my mom, and a bunch of our own stuff.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous. In the past, we've had a garage sale in the summer and we've closed up shop by 11:00 am to get out of the heat. Saturday, the high was in the low 70's so we were quite happy to stay out selling stuff until 2:00pm.

All of the big stuff (lawn mower, picnic table, table saw) sold. Most of the little stuff sold, too. What didn't sell is now out in front of our house, free for the taking.

While we didn't make a lot of money in absolute terms, we did bring in enough to make it worth our while. And we cleared out a bunch of junk.

Enough drama, thank you

Everyone's ok, thank goodness.

Yesterday was day 1 of a 2 day electrical switchover related to the new construction. We're adding a bunch of circuits in the new place and changing the line from the street to the house from overhead to underground. One or two of the circuits being added are 220V for woodworking equipment.

Kim arrives home for lunch and sees the electrician's vehicle in the driveway. She walks into the house and passes by the fish tank. Or is about to. Something catches her attention. Flames.

The timer that regulates the lights for the fish tank is on fire. She reaches over and unplugs the powerstrip for the timer. The fire goes out.

She talks to the electricians. They discover that 240V is running through some of the circuits. Something happens and that problem disappears.

Kim and the electricians do a survey of the house.

Items that fell victim to the "power spike" (I think it was electrician incompetence):

Power adapter for network router
Answering machine/phone
Air conditioner logic card

So, we are currently without internet and A/C at home. The logic card may take 3-4 days to arrive. I hope to find an appropriate adapter for the router today. Failing that, I'll get the new route I was planning to get once the construction was done.

We also discovered that the thieves took the microwave/vent hood for the new addition that we had stored in our dining room.

If Kim had been a few minutes later, we would probably be out our entire house and our pets. So we had some good luck there.

However, if our trend of luck continues, Dean could be a real issue next week.

Saturday Morning at the Dojo 4/7

Aikidokas: Rob and Kim.

Ukemi: Not bad.

The Walk: as usual.

Releases: Worked with Kim.

Techniques: worked with Rob and Kim.

Ran through a couple of attempts at Kote-gaeshi with Rob. Did not do very well. Probably his height had something to do wiht it.

With Kim, we ran through 6, 7 and 8. We spent a lot of time on the footwork for 6/7. It seems to be the most difficult footwork of the first 17, I think.

We then worked a bit on the arm bar for 8.

Aftermath: Cold and rainy as we left the dojo. It's April. It's not supposed to be in the 40's.