Even with Ike, you gotta love Texas

[Fast Frank]

Still here.

I'm not too worried about looters.

I'm at the end of a dead end street way in the back of a nice neighborhood.

If they are foolish enough to drive all the way back here to my house I will deal with them, but I don't expect it.

My neighbors will not be a problem.

 

[springmom]

So far, so good. Rain and gusty wind here. I can hear the "thump" of small tree branches from that cursed pine tree in my absentee neighbor's yard, hitting the roof. But so far we still have power (apparently fairly rare at this point, may it continue!).

The storm, according to the talking heads, is bigger than Texas. That's impressive.

You guys who shot at it...I think you may have missed

Springmom

 

[Geronimo45]

Good luck, Houstonites!

Not much chance of me being blown away up in NE Texas (as usual), but we could have some nice flooding and strongish winds. Have a .mil depot nearby with a pack of FEMA trailers that might get washed away.

 

[Monkeybear]

Well this Ike business gives me my first chance in nearly a month to visit THR and what do I see...a post on Ike.


I'm over here on Richmond about three miles from I-45. Went outside a few minutes ago and it seemed like a nice evening albeit a little windy.

Got food and water for at least three days and enough guns to fill every hand and paw in the house.
Too bad none of my family, my fiance's family nor any of my cats are interested in learning to use one.

 

[peyton]

I called daughter and SIL today who live in west houston to see how they were doing. They were packing up the car and and I reminded them not to forget the cats, important papers, and GUNS!! They went to SA. It took them 5 hours to make a 3 hour drive. In comparision, when RITA was coming in it took 14 hours to make that drive!!

 

[Fast Frank]

I'm still here.

The eye of the storm is beginning to go ashore in Galveston.

It's pretty windy and raining, but no big deal so far. it will get worse as the storm moves north.

My lights have been flickering, and going off for a while, but they keep coming back.

At the moment, I'm on generator power.

 

[Jdude]

Good luck Frank.

 

[Elza]

Deer Hunter: Want to know something crazy?
Here in College Station, I had friends that "evacuated" to houston.
Now somebody tell me the logic behind that!

Aggie logic?

 

[ArcherandShooter]

Well, we still have lights, but not cable, so the broadband air-card my company gave me Thursday is coming in right handy.

Almost 1:30, still just windy and wet but no big deal here in Spring, just north of Intercontinental airport.

May be about time to get some sleep.

 

[ArcherandShooter]

Did I say something?

Well, #@%^$%*.

Springmom and I were just getting ready to call it a night when BOOM

Either someone lit off a pound of black powder in our back yard or a big chunk of that bloody <lots of non-high-road language> tree we've tried for years to get our neighbor to cut down just landed on our roof.

And there go the lights.

Now they are back on again.

Now they are off. This time I think they're off for good.

Time for bed.

Catch y'all in the morning.

 

[Fast Frank]

No lights here in the woodlands, either.
The gen is humming along just fine.

It's storming pretty good, and my roof is holding.

so far, so good.

Keep your heads down out there!

 

[ArcherandShooter]

now it's not so good

at 4:30 this morning that bloody tree finally DID come down - right through our living room ceiling. there's water everywhere and the back half of the house is wrecked.

springmom and i are unhurt, though obviously upset and a bit shaken. that tree came in right over the easy chair where I'd been dozing earlier in the evening.

we're also a LOT p.o.'d. we've been practically begging our absentee neighbor to cut that tree down for 4 years - it is / correction was / very tall, had lots of sickly limbs that had to be trimmed a year ago, when we again urged him to just get rid of the thing. but he and his tenants would not tell the trimming service to do that, :banghead: so it stood proud and ugly until this morning when it tried to transplant itself into our house.

one of the neighbors, who was also afraid of this very thing happening to us, came by and promised to help when the storm is over and we can get out with the chain saw and tarp.

we've already gotten a claim number from the insurance, and a water extraction contractor has been contacted, so the necessary cleanup and repairs will be underway soon, God willing.

hope it was better for the rest of y'all.

 

[Rokyudai]

Archer and Spring, I'm so sorry for your misfortune. Thank goodness you both are unhurt.

Prayers to you both.

 

[BobCat]

Just echoing "thank goodness you are both unhurt" - perspective helps.

Yesterday while boarding up, I decided that if my wife and I survived, the cats and dog survived, and we were left with one functioning vehicle and my sidearm, that I would simply give thanks and we would get on with life.

West of Houston, we have no significant damage that I know about yet, and were without electricity only from 3 AM until about 8 AM. Can't believe they got the power back on so soon!

Springmom and Archerandshooter - hang in there! You will fix it all back up, better than it was, and your insurance company might just take your negligent neighbor to the cleaners over this.

Stay safe!

 

[texas bulldog]

spring and archer...

sorry to hear of your trouble. i know how it can be with negligent neighbors (yet another reason i look forward to moving to the country). i'm sure y'all will handle whatever comes your way.

good to hear you're safe, even if it comes with some bad news as well.

 

[Mrs. Armoredman]

Springmom and Archerandshooter I am sorry that ugly tree wrecked your home but I am glad y'all are ok and safe. Neighbors can be rather stouborn and rather loud. But I am glad y'all are alive and well.

My prayers are still with everyone in the Great State of Texas.

 

[The_Shootist]

Damn!

The Balinese Room is GONE! Collapsed into the Gulf at 1am this morning.

From some pics I've seen, i-45 S to Galveston is just piled with debris

 

[Mrs. Armoredman]

Mr. Shootist sir, What is a Balinese Room?

ArcherandShooter Is this neighbors tall tree thar tried to transplant itself in your living room his fault for not telling anyone it needed to be cut down? I see a possible lawsuit happening maybe?

 

[SCKimberFan]

springmom & ArcherandShooter

Glad to hear y'all are ok. I hate the tree issue.

We'll keep you (and everyone else in the path of Ike) in our thoughts and prayers. I hope things can get back to near normal quickly.

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Springmom and Archerandshooter, I'm glad both of you are unhurt and I wish you luck in the lawsuit you should file against the negligent neighbor.

 

[macadore]

What is a Balinese Room?

http://balineseroom.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balinese_Room

 

[Duke Junior]

delete,dupe

 

[Caimlas]

Re: the NWS warning:

This isn't the dim bulb mayor of New Orleans saying this, this is the weather geeks in Oklahoma City saying this. I'm glad I'm 300 miles inland in DFW.

Actually, the warning was more-than-likely inflated by the global warming din and cry we've been hearing escalate over the past several years to a clamor. You know, "oh gaia, yes, Texans are going to drown!" type crazies.

 

[bowl443]

So I'm somewhere in Alabama, have no idea about my house in Beaumont, don't know about our beach cabin in Crystal Beach, my dogs don't like the hotel room, my 8 month old doesn't like 11 hour car rides, etc....

Anyone involved with one of these knows how horrible it can be and how everyone that goes thru it has their own unique story to tell.

Misery loves company, and we're trying to drive it out of our two little hotel rooms. The "news" doesn't help... a bunch of soothsayers if you ask me.

 

[Catherine]

My prayers are sent to you and others in the midst of this storm.

TREES, shrubbery, etc. do need to be kept up, trimmed and sometimes cut down or planted further away from homes from the gitgo.

If I lived down there, I would try to help you. Been there - done that myself and with friends in my former states - Great Lakes and the East Coast. Blizzards, high winds and damage, high water, tornadoes and blizzards/hurricanes back on the east coast.

A friend of mine was moving from my former state to Maine years ago. He has since moved from Maine to NY for his job. His house sold and a couple of days before the official move, his neighbor's TREE fell on his roof. The neighbor's insurance had to pay for it because the tree was NOT trimmed or kept up... it was 'rotting in spots' plus my friends had asked politely if 'said tree' could be cut back or cut down. They had already done tree trimming in the past on their town size lot - the neighbor did jack squat. The neighbor was held responsible. Even if the neighbor fights it, your insurance company will take care if it, later on go after the neighbor, etc. You most likely have ALL of the big insurance coverage on your house, wind, flood, water, regular house policy plus the EXTRAS. Trying to see how some people who 'thought' that they had good coverage and later on got screwed because they were told water versus wind - vice versa, etc. is another sickening STORY. UGH.

The MAIN thing now is that the two of you were NOT HURT. You can fix STUFF, replace STUFF, things, houses, etc. but you can't replace your loved ones as you can STUFF.

Stay safe - we will pray for you and all of the others in your MESS due to the weather and other situations.

God speed.

Catherine