Unruly Behavior

It has been a very odd week around here. Some things and places are very normal, some places look like the hurricane hit yesterday. And there is no rhyme or reason to the patterns. The Wal-Mart on my end of town is business as usual. The Wal-Mart at the other end of town still does not have full power or perishable groceries.

After a week like last week, you begin to notice the odd things you missed. Speed Racer The Movie came out on DVD last Tuesday. I didn't get to take advantage of the release week Sale Price becuase no stores were open to sell it to me, and none of them would have had stock anyway I think. Wonder why they didn't extend sale prices on things like this for their customers. Oh well, I'll have to wait till it goes on sale to see Christina Ricci as Trixie again I guess.



Meanwhile, I've had my first visit from a Nationwide Insurance adjuster. Spent less than five minutes at my house, taking pictures and then just left, didn't say bye, didn't leave a business card. Nice. Called Nationwide just to be sure he was really one of their employees. Nationwide has been nearly worthless in this experience. I've been passed around by adjusters, then told I had to file my own claim with the Texas Wind Insurance Agency. Contacted them, they said my agent had to file. My agent doesn't answer his phone, and his voice mail box is full. The 800 claims number from Nationwide couldn't help me, the adjustor couldn't help me, I finally had to push and file with TWIA on my own. I'm thinking I should find a Homeowners/Windstorm/Flood insurance agent far from here, say San Antonio or Dallas. Somewhere that if I have a problem, they aren't likely to have the same problem or worse. Next time you hear that commercial that says "Nationwide is on your side", be glad. I can't imagine what they would be doing to me if they were not on my side.

Things at work are sort of back to normal. Last week while we were on generator power, we had to rig up some workstations with Extension cords and power strips. One of our genius users unplugged a working system, re-wired it, then called us when it was not working. The picture is below. Yep, they plugged one power strip into another, then a thrid daisy chained off the loop. Wondered why they had no power to the devices on these strips. No kidding, true story.



Those of us that worked the hurricane got a $1000 bonus today. About $800 after taxes. I took $100 of it to the Spec's Liquor Warehouse and got a 750ml bottle of Don Juilo Tequila for shooting. A 1.75L bottle of Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Tequila for making drinks. And a 24 pack of Red Stripe for my wife, who sent me text saying, "Don't come home without Red Stripe beer or I will kill you." At least she knows how to negoiate. Also saw the funniest brand of Tequila ever, "Don Nacho". Would someone actually buy this, thinking Nacho is good? Sure, Nacho makes a great Cheese, but Tequila?

One of Jamica's finest exports. And a good way to keep the wife from killing me...

Labels: beer, dvd, hurricane, speed racer, stupid users, tequila

And the mess around here won't get fixed much faster.

Yesterday we got up early, had a nice breakfast at my folks house, packed up the kids, dog and junk and headed home. I made a trip to Lowe's with the boy, we spent $135 on cleaning supplies. Then, when I got home from that expedition I started tearing out wet sheet rock. I didn't do much, I'm too tired to be mega productive at this point.

Then ordered pizza, a loaded one for ourselves, cheese for the kids.

From New York Pizzaria - New York Village - Sausage, Pepperoni, Ham, Ground Beef, Sausage, Black Olives, Green Olives & Mushrooms. MMMMMM....

Much like the enchilada plate a couple of days ago, this was a nice reprieve from things. Drank some cold Miller High Life to wash it all down. Then, while the kids watched Sponge Bob upstairs, the wife and I watched Matrix Reloaded. The boy still can't sleep in his room, so he got to spend the night on the couch upstairs.

This morning the wife went for donuts. We had some good coffee, but the donuts were only so-so, but there was only one donut shop open in town, beggars cannot be choosers. I've now steam cleaned most of the downstairs carpet, trying to get rid of the stench around here. There is a big fan in the boy's room trying to dry things out. To add insult to injury, the wife's mini-van would not start this morning, so it is on the battery charger and I've added some water. Why won't Ford and all it's subsidiaries put in maintenance free batteries?

It is close to Lunchtime. I think we might have lunch, naptime and then go to the mall. We don't have any money, but it would be nice to escape for a little while.

Oh, I got a call yesterday, I do qualify for FEMA aid. So at least I can get some help with the $4350 deductable from my insurance. Still might have to sell a kidney or start work as a gigilo in the evenings. Guess I need to call my doctor about getting some Viagra.

Here are some more random photos from the hurricane.



"I drove from Alaska to Texas and all they had waiting for me was a Category 2 hurricane!"



Big RV lot near my home, nice that they didn't attempt to move or strap down any of their inventory.



Neighbor's house behind me, guess they won't be watching the new TV season.



From up on my roof, the one thing I was really worried about, our shed. It had no damage, no water leakage, didn't budge an inch. I'm staying in there nesxt Hurricane.

Labels: FEMA, huricane, normal, pizza

The power came back on at my house after we had all the kids down for bed last night. We drove over, there is no cable modem yet, but we turned the AC down low to help dry things out, closed up the fridge, tested all the lights.

Now we're packing up stuff at my folk's house. Taking a while, stuff has sort of trickled over here all week. Our house was without power for almost exactally 7 days.

Thinkpad USB Modem or Cable Modem I will be online at home tonight, on MY TV, on MY Surround Sound, on MY Couch. Woot!

I'm so jazzed!Still have a long road ahead, but sleeping in MY bed at MY house tonight will really be nice.

Labels: hurricane, power

Things are starting to get back to different degrees of normal around here. My parent's hosue now has electricity and the cable modem is back and working. My house has neither of these, and currently Centerpoint Energy is saying next week sometime, maybe later. Of course they said the same thing about my dad's house.

I was supposed to meet with a roofer yesterday, but he never showed up, I have an appointment with him at 10:30 AM today. We do have tarps (or 30 mil plastic) covering the dmage now. But the house looked terrible after the storm.



And while there are folks out there a lot worse off than my family, this is still very trying. I can't get into my routine. And it is the intangibles I miss. Yesterday I found an open Taco Cabana near my house and had some really good Beef Enchiladas, rice & beans. Felt really good to do something familiar like dine at a counter service resturant.

I've priced out a replacment trampoline, it is $139, the safety net is $89, and a set of spikes to hold it in place are $20. Didn't know they made spikes for these things. My son was, and still is very upset about the hurricane demolishing his trampoline. "Daddy, why did the hurricane break my trampoline?"



I started back to work on Monday, we didn't get power at the building till Tuesday. It has already failed once since then, and we didn't get AC back till late Wednesday. I took this really pretty sunrise photo from my parent's back yard on Tuesday morning.



The rest of these photos are kind of random, just various destruction and damage I saw. Some of it is my house, some other folks houses.

Labels: damage, dining, hurricane, sunrise

I spent most of Sunday at the house, waiting for the roofing company to arrive and put up tarps on our roof. They didn't get there till very late in the day, and it rained most of the morning, so I mostly tried to take care of the house.

Our front door no longer opens, there is water damage in every room of the front of the house, upstairs and down. We lost one tree, and have another that might not survive.

Monday I went to the office for about half a day, the realized I left my laptop and aircard there. So I grabbed up the wife and kids and we went on an expedition. Back to the office, got the stuff, and found a Target that was open. Not much food, all the perishables were thrown out. But we did get some snacks and new toys for all the kids.

Tuesday I worked at the house all day, but did some remote work for the company. I trimmed th tree that was damaged, then topped the second tree that is not going to make it from the damage. Inspected the roof, hauled off a ton of trash. I now have a pile of tree limbs, trampoline and shingles the size of a car in front of my house. About noon my oldest came home, he is very upset that Ike destroyed his trampoline. And it was tough to explain why this happened.

Today I'm back at the office, we have power, but the AC didn't come on till about 11 AM. Someone took lunch orders, but never came to my cube. Thanks, I didn't want lunch. My wife called to say that she opened a closet upstairs that she hadn't checked yet, and everything inside is soaked. Evidently the light fixture for that closet was the drain for the attic. Great, now I get to go remove wet carpet after work. I need a vacation.

At least we have a warm bed to sleep in, and air conditioning. My parent's Natural Gas generator kicks ass. And we are a lot better off than a lot of folks from this disaster. At least I'm not waiting in line for MREs, water and ice.

Think I'm going to crawl under my desk and take a nap now...

Labels: hurricane

I'm back at work today. Thanks to everyone who sent well wishes about our situation here with Ike.

I'm at work today, our corporate Interenet connection has gone away, along with our main phone system. I'm now connected via USB Verizion Broadband.

I've gotten all our systems up, with a lot of help from my team. Waiting on VMware to call me about an issue. Had hell with EMC this morning getting the SAN back up and running. If you understand any of that last paragraph, you're a huge geek like me!

On the home front - we have our roof protected with a cover now, so we don't have to worry about rain. We have extensive water damage, and the house got knocked crooked by the winds, the front door no longer opens and closes properly, windows are physically pushed into the house, everything is a mess. I got our fence mostly repaired yesterday and trimmed the storm damaged trees as best as I could to keep them from rotting. I have one tree that is fallin down, and I don't think I'll be able to save it from death.

Kids don't seem too affected by things, but my oldest has not come home to find out his beloved trampoline is gone either.

I managed to play some Call Of Duty online last night before bed, so things are sort of getting back towards normal. We still don't have power, and the Cable Modems are still down everywhere.

Hope everyone is having a better week than we are out here.

Labels: hurricane, xbox

It's 5:30 AM, my wife just called, the storm is still raging, she never got the eye. The roof is coming off the house, our kids trampoline is in the neighbors yard, and the windows are leaking. Haven't heard from Grandpa and my oldest boy yet.

Then I called my dad, he lives about 5 miles away. He has no damage he can detect right now, but said the eye wall rent right over him and it was really violent. Think the same thing probably happened to my house.

We left the Firewall, MPLS Router and one Server up at our office. I can ping that server through the VPN, so it sounds like our office building is surviving.

Got 4.5 hours of sleep, guess I'm up now, wonder if there is an open Starbucks in walking distance. Need coffee and valium.


Update 10:00 AM:

My wife sent this via her camera phone. This is lookiing out the side window of our house, the area to the right of the fence is the neighbor's yard, the crumpled blue & black thing is our destroyed trampoline. There are trees down, the fence is down in places, and the black stuff in the grass is pieces of our roof. She is putting out buckets to catch the rainwater as it comes into the house. This just sucks more and more.

Labels: huricane

My wife just called, power is out at the house now. Can't get her to go to my folks house. Guess she and the twins are going to be warm and hang out in the dark.

Labels: hurricane

I found this site, I can't get much to come up, but it might be interesting for watching the storm arrive.

Galveston Web Cams

Labels: hurricane, web cams

Well, the eye is now headed straight by our house, a little east of us, so it will be windy and rainy for my wife and the twins. Meanwhile I'm stuck at a bank branch, wating to see if our Data Center survives the storm. If it does, I'll be heading home late tomorrow or Sunday. If it does not, my life will become a living hell of server recovery and screaming bank presidents. Could be fun either way.

Labels: hurricane

Ok, I'm in San Antonio, wife and twins are at home, boy is with grandfather. Went to HRC for a little dinner. The fun starts in about 5 hours when we start recovering some servers to get business back to usual. Looks like Ike is going to go right over our office and it shitty, leaky roof. So, best case the building and servers survive with minimal damage. Middle case, building is damaged, servers live and just have to be relocated. Worst case, building and servers gone. I have to recover from tape. Update resume and apply for job as greeter at Wal Mart.

You can check Ike's progress here...

Labels: hurricane

Ok, they are predicting this thing will go in at Freeport, which is due south of my house. I'm still on the evac for work list, and my wife is starting to get a little freaked. We are also in the Zone C zip conde list, which means we should evac for a Category 4-5 hurricane. So far it is only predicted to be a Category 3. I needed more stress.

Labels: hurricane

So, I took the day off from work. Thought we were in the clear. That will teach me a lesson. I have a feeling that I will be headed to San Antonio sometime tomorrow morning. I'm packing up my stuff now, clothes, XBOX 360, computers, etc. About to go clear the crap out of my vehicle as I think I will have a traveling companion for the trip as well. Yay! Taking one of my other techs along for the ride. Going to have to leave the wife and kiddos here. But it's OK, my folks live nearby and have a generator. Just a pain in the ass mostly.

Labels: hurricane

I took the day off as a comp/sick day. Figured everyone would calm down about Ike now. Boy was I wrong. The White path is the only one that comes close to us now, but it does put us on the 'dirty' side of the storm. I'm remoted into our systems now, configuring and running a Disaster Recovery backup job. I might be heading to San Antonio inthe morning.

Labels: hurricane

Well, after tracks that were heading right for us, Ike keeps heading further and further south. At it's current rate, it is really going to head for Brazil I think. The White line still goes right by my house, but I'm not as concerned today.

Labels: hurricane

Ok, the yellow track goes South and West of me, but if the hurricane follows that track, I will end up in San Antonio as a precaution I am sure. They are saying landfall around Friday. Great, ruin my weekend, why can't a freaking bad weather system arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday?

Labels: hurricane

Check out that dark blue track, it's coming right at me, again! First Gustav, now Ike. What is is with these hurricanes? There are going to be people freaking out at work when I arrive tomorrow, and this thing is till over a thousand miles away. Looks like I might be heading for San Antonio sometime soon. Got to pack up my XBOX 360 and keep my streak alive at 360 Voice if that happens. Should be an interesting week.

Labels: hurricane

Check it out, back in January I turned 40. I started asking folks to visit my XBOX 360 Blog at 360voice.com. I didn't make most popular then, but I stayed in the top 20 for the next few months. Then in May, I moved to the #1 spot and have been there ever since. This is something I find both really cool and amusing. If you have an XBOX 360, it is a really cool site, it will blog about your gaming exploits every day, track how much you have played various games, award badges for different objectives, and introduce you to a really great community of gamers. So, if you haven't checked it out you, see where the dren's Xbox 360 can blog. It can be a very entertaining site.

Well, looks like Gustav is going to hang out with the Coon Asses and leave us alone. Thousands from Louisiana came here, even after being cautioned to head north instead. I saw on the news that folks from New Orleans did the same thing, going to Baton Rouge. Joke is on them, it looks like Baton Rouge will be harder hit than New Orleans. People so stupid that they evacuate from one huricane prone area to another, just 100 miles away make me laugh. Maybe Natural Selection will take over and thin them out a bit.

In other news, preparations for Gustav horked my Exchange Migration, I got all but 21 of the 350 boxes moved successfully last night. I'm about to go to the office and work on recovery of the other 21 boxes. Should be a funy, entertaining day.

Labels: exchange, hurricane