AD,

That was funnier then all get out to read. What goes on with some people, and in their heads is really delightful when they tell you about it the way you did. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Faithful, loving you today.


slh

SLH, so wonderful you found a place for your boy. Praying for your family.

slh,

really glad that u found a place for your horse. I didn't even realize that u were one of us (horse-peoples)!

good luck,
jls

Hi JSG. That's me, long time member of the pony-lovers regime. Where've you been, babe? How are you?

Yuppers, I 'm a horse-lover. One of my favorite destinations to ride at is the beach -- the same one they are showing on all of the news channels. The water is stiller and darker and muddier in those shots than I have ever seen it in the Gulf. Totally strange.

Well, y'all, I've been watching the news intermittently as I am getting everything ready to go. Still have a ways before we can fly. It is so bizarre seeing our city's evacuation plans listed on all of the National Weather and News channels! But at least we have them, right? So many other cities just aren't prepared.

According to all of the computer models, my house is going under from storm surge. It also did for Alicia, which was a Cat 3, in '83.

Rita's already been upgraded to a Cat 5 with lots of time to go even higher and so we are pretty much expecting it to flood. I am going around, making sure all of our belongings that can be are at least a few feet off of the ground, and taking pictures of them. Ouch.

Gray, what does Amelia say?

We're leaving tonight for Dallas.


StillLovingHim

Haven't talked to her today. She rang me earlier, but I missed the call. She's either flying or looking for a nice pilot to hook up with. I hope #2.

GC

Darnit, I wanted a fresh perspective on this Monster.

A nice pilot to hook up with over flying? LOL. Ti would rather be flying than *ahem* any day. Flying's just gotten into his blood, the same way I am when I'm riding. The only reason he's not an AF pilot right now is because of his blasted Asthma.

So instead he went to school for his Aerospace Engineering degree. A lot of good that's done recently, poor guy, LOL!

Just killing time while Ti still secures things and we finish loading the car. Having to improvise every few hours as Rita strengthens and the warnings go up -- put belongings higher and higher per the storm surge warnings. It may be pointless but what the hey, can't hurt.

Rita's already on Record as the 3rd most "intense" hurricane agreed via barometric pressure.

Getting jittery waiting to go.I hate waiting. It's damn hard to make a phone call; all circuits are busy. So it's nice to have a place to talk about it.

In other news, did you hear about the one where the Airliner couldn't land? Ouch.

slh

SLH, I meant hook up as in hook up.

I think she flew Rita today, though.

This business, this trying to single-handedly restore my house to increase the likelihood of financial security, is wiping me out.

Today I played hooky and went to the hardwood floor restoration store for supplies and advice. The woman told me, "You need to get a life."

So true. So true.

SLH, just put your prized possessions in ziploc bags and bungee the whole shootin' match to a flagpole.

Be safe.

GC

Woops. I thought you meant "hook up" as a long-term paramour. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

LOL. She's right, Gray. You need to get out more. I hear MelodyLane's having a Hurricane Party. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

You are wearing yourself down, about to burn out. take a break, even if it's just a little time out with friends. Or will you be berating yourself the whole time for not taking that opportunity to work on the house? I am prone to doing just that myself.


slh

Thanks Weaver! Sometimes I, like GC, wonder if I'm seriously difficient in some way. (I'm sure he isn't, but not so sure about myself.) I thought I was deficient in the humor department. I'm glad that I can amuse once in awhile.

BTW. You sound good!

-AD

SLH, I've put myself in a game of "Mouse Trap". See, I have to have my floors done by a week from tomorrow, because that's when my parents are coming to help me work on my windows. Which reminds me, I need to get the sashes to the glass man for reglazing yesterday. Oh, and but also then I have to finish stripping and refinishing all the window trim (eleven pieces for each of three windows) by then also.

But all this hinges on the floors being done by then - which the other reason that has to happen is because it's when the equipment I'm renting is due back.

Of course all this is impossible, which is kind of cool. It's like Clark Kellogg says in The Freshman:

"There's a kind of freedom in being completely screwed."

GC

LOL. I love that quote; all too often its entirely too true.

slh

GC,

With that kind of a time constraint I imagine you'll be using a water based finish.....No? Faster drying and little odour.

SLH,

I can't imagine getting my house ready to flood. Though if insured I guess it would be good things high......crappystuffIwantohavereplaced......in the basement. Though I imagine in that warmer climate of yours, few houses have basements. Anyways.....prayers to you and yours.

Binder, no way daddy-o. Water-based finishes just seem, somehow, unserious. Not really - I know they're not so bad anymore - but the lap marks and bubbles drive me nuts.

And I do love that smell.

Just did the first "warmup" coat - on a small landing by the side door off my kitchen.

Enjoying a fancy schmancy bottle of English bitter. Almost no U.S. micros make them, maybe because they're afraid none of us will buy a beer called "bitter".

This is "Ridgeway bittah" from Oxforshire. Hoity toity beer. It's wonderful.

But you better not think I don't drink the cheap stuff too.

GC

The water based finishes now are pretty good, but they do leave the wood looking a little “cold”. The oil base finishes have that warm amber look and age well I admit. The smell gives me a headache though.

That hoity toity beer sounds good; I’ll have to look for it here. I call the typical regular pale lagers “lawnmower beer” cuz the only time I’ll drink them is when mowing the lawn. That's right.....I'm a beer snob.

Gray, with everything you do on your house, when on earth do you ever sleep? Especially in light of your Vampire tendencies? No wonder you're so tired. So much to do and so little time.

LOL, Binder. You're right, we don't have basements -- in fact, in all my years in Louisiana and Texas I have never seen one. But people here sure make extensive use of their attics.

I don't think that will help much here if 200+mph winds are making landfall only 20 or so miles from my house. Attic? What attic?? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

I don't think I'm as worried about flooding from rainfall as I am about Storm Surge -- we didn't flood during Tropical Storm Allison, when the rest of Houston went underwater. Over 25 inches of rainfall in my area in a 24 hour period, and nearly 37 inches of rain was recorded at the Port of Houston over the course of a few days. And yet we stayed dry!

It was Hurricane Alicia in '83 that flooded our house a few feet. Alicia was a Cat 3; Rita's a Cat 5 and still its winds are intensifying. All that water in the Galveston Bay and from the coast will just be shoveled inland.

Either way, we don't have flood insurance; doesn't that bite? One of those things we kept putting off because of the money. I remember hearing back in February that this Hurricane Season was supposed to be one of the most active ones on record, and even back then I wanted to get Flood Insurance just in case. Oh, well. That's why I've been piling stuff up as high as I can get it, and then higher than that.

I'm hearing a lot of noises from states griping at insurance companies for not shelling out the home insurance money for "Flood" damage. The "Flood" in these particular instances wasn't due to irregularly high rainfall, but due to storm surge because of a Hurricane, so they argue, it should be covered, not being a "bona-fide" flood. It's just semantics.

We'll work it out, no matter what. But I always appreciate your prayers.


slh

LOL, y'all. What, no Arrogant B*st*rd Ale for you guys?

Guess the fire went out. Maybe we should light her up again. Praying for ya SLH

Lit.

I'm working too hard.

FF, relax here. You can take a break from making agonizing decisions.

GC

Thanks, GC. I will take you up on the offer. Any wine or we just on brew? If just brew, can I have one of your fancy bittahs?

I wanna see pics when you are through with those floors!