Only at my house

Only at my house could we have some of the crazy problems inadvertently caused by Hurricane Ike. As some friends noticed when they visited us we have had trouble with a family of raccoons who made their home in between the floors/walls of our house after the hurricane. It was VERY annoying because being nocturnal creatures they made all kinds of thumping sounds and talked to each other in the night when we were trying to sleep. We borrowed a trap from a neighbor and caught two or three I think but there were definitely still more. Just a couple of weeks ago the sounds in the bathroom began to sound like babies to me and I thought oh joy they are really here for the long haul now.

When our friend came out and fixed our roof for us he also showed the boys how to seal off a place in the garage where we thought they might be going and coming. While we were happy to have it done we suspected that we had just sealed in some of the raccoons. The ones under the bathroom floor made a lot of racket for about two days before that stopped. Then a couple of days ago the smell began. At first I could only smell it when I first came home from somewhere, it would be one little whiff and then it was gone. A little later I could smell it fairly well if I stood in a certain spot in the school room which is directly under the bathroom. Today the smell was BAD. I had been afraid it would get like this and hated to think about how long we'd live with it like that.

We decided the worst smell was in the hallway/bathroom upstairs and in the big boys' room. Mom decided someone should at least investigate the attic to see if any of them were up there because we could remove those. If they were in between the walls and floors though like we suspected that wasn't going to be a fixable situation. Josh apparently volunteered to check it out and went upstairs. A minute later he yelled down to us. "I FOUND ONE!" He had opened the door to the attic and it fell out onto the floor. I was really surprised because I thought for sure we'd been in the attic fairly recently but I guess not. It was a little baby like we'd thought and while I didn't dare look when Dad removed it Mom saw it and I thought she was going to cry. "It's so cute! How HORRIBLE!" she said with a distraught look on her face. "It's just like the baby mice we caught in the trailer..." This was exactly why I didn't want to look because I was already feeling guilty for trapping baby raccoons until they starved/thirsted to death. I kept telling myself that I have nothing against raccoons whatsoever, even the big ones are usually cute (except for the massive dog-sized ones that have been seen in our backyard but I'm fairly certain can't be the ones that lived in the house because there's no way they squeezed their humongous bodies into our walls). But they do NOT belong in my house. Sealing it up so they can't get in had to be done and there was no way to be sure none got stuck inside before we did that.

I waited a good long time after they removed it to go back upstairs again. The scent has GREATLY improved but we can still smell it in the boys' room and a bit in my room. I'm sure there are more as after a quick Google check we discovered typical raccoon litters are 3-5. I'm hoping though that the others are buried in the walls still and won't be as horribly noticeable...one can hope right?

Lessons Learned During and After the Storm

Someone wrote this forward I don't know who but it just about sums everything up!!!! :)


> Lessons Learned During and After the Storm
>
>
>>
>>
>> Subject: Lessons Learned During and After the Storm
>>
>>
>>> No matter how many times you flick the switch, lights don't work
>>> without electricity.
>>>
>>> Vienna sausages only appear on the food pyramid during hurricane
>>> season.
>>>
>>> Gas mileage is recalculated based on miles per fume.
>>>
>>> Lovebugs do not disappear in 80mph wind gusts.
>>>
>>> Disasters can cancel Texans football game.
>>>
>>> Despite protests, kids can re-live their parents' youth when there
>>> were only
>>> 3 tv channels!
>>>
>>> Cats are even more irritating without power.
>>>
>>> Houston without traffic lights resembles Mexico City , Rome , Los
>>> Angeles and New York City all rolled into a single snarl.
>>>
>>> There are/were a lot of really big trees around here!
>>>
>>> Just because you're 18 doesn't mean you can stay out as late as you
>>> want.
>>> Mayor White meant busine ss when he said curfew.
>>>
>>> People will get into a line that has already formed without having
>>> any idea what the line is for.
>>>
>>> Calories consumed during a hurricane or power outage do not count.
>>>
>>> Telemarketers function no matter what the weather is doing.
>>> New Delhi does
>>> not check the weather report in Houston .
>>>
>>> Most popular text message after September 11: do u hve pwr
>>>
>>> Twenty-seven of your neighbors are fed from a different transformer
>>> than you, and they are quick to point that out!
>>>
>>> Crickets and cicadas can increase their volume to overcome the sound
>>> of 14 generators.
>>>
>>> Dirty clothes in an unsupervised hamper multiply at an exponential
>>> rate.
>>>
>>> Coffee, spaghetti and frozen pizzas can be made on a grill.
>>>
>>>
>>> He who has the biggest generator wins.
>>>
>>> Tree service companies are under-appreciated, except after
>>> hurricanes.
>>>
>>> Water will fill the I-10 & SW Freeway.
>>>
>>> There are a lot more stars in the sky than most people thought.
>>>
>>> If you owned a store that sold only ice, chain saws, gas and
>>> generators, you would be rich
>>>
>>> With only a small amount of guilt Houstionians can collectively pray
>>> a second hurricane to landfall in another state or country.
>>>
>>> And so to our friends and families, some who are still without power
>>> and&n bsp; others who have endured great personal loss, you are in
>>> our prayers. Hang in there, we are making progress. Thank you to all
>>> our first responders, healthcare professionals, service technicians,
>>> teachers, police officers, small business owners, and more who join
>>> with the thousands of individuals sharing their time and talent to
>>> help restore our community to wholeness.
>>>
>>> The most important lesson of all learned from Ike in the last week
>>> is that the human spirit has an amazing resilience that even a
>>> hurricane cannot bend. Through God's love and amazing grace we can
>>> endure all things.
>>

After 13 days....

Our power is back on again!! How heavenly to use a hair dryer today! I'm so grateful to all the people who came from out of town to help get Houston back up and running again.

Now if we can just get the cable company on the ball...

More damages

Here are two more pics I snapped on my way around town. Things are ever so slowly trying to get back to normal but there is still much left to be done as far as cleanup and restoration goes. If you go to centerpointenergy.com you can see a map of the area and the red indicates outages. It still covers most of Harris county although there are pockets of power and businesses open but you have to know where. Our zip code is not expected to get power until after next Monday so we are in it for the long haul. :(

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

108+ hours with no power

Today, thanks to my great aunt, Circuit City came by and brought lots of ice, water and some neat backpacks with MREs, whistles, glo sticks, and first aid kits. They asked if there was anything else we needed but we are doing well. Ice was our only concern as the fridge was gone (nothing like a hurricane to make you deep clean your fridge!) and the deep freeze is not frozen all the way anymore. I also found some gas and filled up.
We are surviving and it's a pretty cool ride to see how God works. According to the latest projections we won't be getting power until after Monday so this thing ain't over yet.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

72 hours with no electricity

Since there is only so much one can do without lights one resorts to finding amusement in anything.

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Coping with no electricity

After 48 hours of no electricity: Did you know if you boil a pot of water and run it through the basket of your electric coffee maker that it makes something very similar to the beverage you usually drink? So similar that with creamer and splenda you can hardly taste the difference!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Hurricane updates

We are alive. Power is still out for most of the area (the power company estimates still 81%). Here are pictures of the tree that landed on our house and one that was across the street.

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Most accurate forecast model for Hurricane Ike

Hurricane party @ my house on Friday & Saturday! :-)

Well as we have watched today it just seems that Ike is getting closer and closer to coming straight through my back yard. I have a hard time balancing my multiple personality self about it. For several years, I would guess from when I was 8 to age 14 I diligently listened to my weather radio for every update and plugged the coordinates into the simple computer program I had. Then for awhile I used a computer program that would simply download the coordinates for me and I'd watch the animation as it plotted the storm across the ocean. I had such a great time studying storms of all kinds and even went to Weather Camp at the Weather Museum in Houston. Seeing the complexity of the storms always amazed me at God's handiwork and yet I have a healthy respect for what these things can do. I've always wanted to be a meteorologist and a storm chaser, following storm systems and observing them and yet keeping a healthy distance. I think one of the things that I love about storms is that they are predictable and yet unpredictable all at the same time.

As I think about the hurricane coming one side of me is excited to actually live through one, to experience it first hand (to completely fulfill this dream I would like to stand outside in the middle of the eye and watch the sun shine down and see the eye wall coming). And yet knowing the power that could be packed into this one, knowing of the destruction that would be caused I feel almost dread at what could be around the corner for many people I love. Storms are part of God's creation just as the flowers, a mountain, even a volcano. In a storm you can see God's power and glory that he could create such an intricate thing that seems to almost have life, to even 'breathe' and respond to the forces around it. So while I am concerned I am excited that I will possibly have a front row seat to one of God's most amazing creations.

As Ike approaches check this out. It's pretty cool. :-)