Pictures of the Ike Aftermath...

After Ike, I took my camera with me everywhere I went and tried to snap a few pictures when I could. Most of these pictures were taken near my house...keep in mind that I live approximately 80 miles inland!

Saturday - after Ike

The kiddo in her "helmet" and rain boots with my Dad just checking out the damage. Fortunately, there were only fences down and tree debris everywhere.



A common sight around the city - billboards...or at least they used to be!








Water! This was taken on the I-45 feeder near 1960:


Trees, trees and more trees....

A few harmless ones in my neighborhood (there were lots!). This one is at the entrance to the subdivision.



This one is near the elementary school. There was an even larger one down at the playground across the street.


The next two are in my parent's neighborhood:




Almost every palm tree at this dealership was lying on the ground!


Some not-so-harmless trees. This one is in the neighborhood about 1/2 mile from where I live:



This one is in my Sister-in-Law's neighborhood in Humble:



Gas lines - this became a way of life for the week after Ike. These were taken off of I-45 heading north. I am lucky that I never had to wait more than 45 minutes the week after Ike.





This was taken at I-45 and Rayford and shows only 1/3 of the line. Behind the truck on the left was a weaving theme-park type line with at least 100 people in it. And this isn't even showing all the cars lined up down the feeder road!



This was taken on my way to work - excuse the crack in the windshield.


More damage from Ike:

This was also taken on my way to work.


1960 near I-45


On Rayford...


In Humble...


At 2920, I think. Oh and most of the Sonic restuarants in the area had damage similar to this.


1960 - dangling lights everywhere!


A part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife convoy on Saturday afternoon...

A part of the Border Patrol convoy...

The creek near my neighborhood...you can usually see the sandy bottom!



An attempt at humor during the storm. I have a picture of the same store with a similar scene from Rita.

Guess What!?!?

WE HAVE POWER!

Hallelujah.



At 2:16 pm (about 5 minutes after my last post) on Wednesday, the hubby called with the most wonderful news. At the same time, I swear I looked out my work window and saw the clouds part and heard a chorus of angels. We got power at 1:58 pm - the hubby said he knew that because the clock was blinking and showed that we officially had power 18 minutes earlier.



I almost didn't believe it until I arrived home to find the garage door opener working. Then, I walked into a nice, cool, air-conditioned house. After dark, every time I turned on a light, everything seemed just too bright! LOL, after living with one lamp and a lot of flashlights, it's hard adjusting to full lighting again.



There are so many things I took for granted before Ike:

1. A dishwasher


2. Electric stove


3. traffic lights


4. washing machine


5. cable tv/internet


6. my treadmill - since DH was working strange hours, it was near impossible to get in a run outdoors which meant I didn't get to run much at all!


7. street lights


8. gasoline - readily available with no lines


9. fresh produce


10. frozen foods - they are still hard to find in my neck of the woods

I know I'll think of a million more, but that's it for now. I am just happy to not have to wake up at 4 am to fill the generator with gas while trying to hold my flashlight under my arm and fight off mosquitos!!!!

Thank.You.God.

Oh, and I'm praying that Centerpoint can get the rest of the area's electricity working again soon. I know what a pain in the ass it is to live without it!

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Update - Thursday, 9/25

When we arrived home at 7pm, my garage door opener wouldn't work. I must have pressed the button a couple of times before it hit me - the freaking power is out! Again.

As I unloaded the kids from the car I said hello to the neighbors, who informed me that the power had been out for about an hour. And, they had just bought groceries - including frozen foods.

The kiddo ate her dinner by candlelight and we hung out for awhile. The hubby wasn't home and I was trying to decide if I should grab the dolly and attempt to get the generator out again - most of our neighbors already had theirs going. I opted to just wait and see what happened.

Finally, about an hour later the power returned!

I went on a 25 minute run around our section of the neighborhood. It felt great to get out of the house.

Day 12

Still no power. We're still on the Thursday list, but rumor has it that Centerpoint is "locked out" of our section of the grid (whatever that means) and we won't have power until Sunday. Whatever. I am getting used to the hum of the generator and waking up at 4 am to fight the mosquitos fill up the generator with gas, lol!



We did get power at work, so things are slowly getting back to normal there. I will be happy when our offices are rebuilt and we can move back in. Right now, I'm with the accounting department in an open space rather than an office. It's noisy, but it will work until the construction is over.



Speaking of work, yesterday I had to travel to Austin for a career fair. My co-worker and I ran into Jack Black at the Austin airport when we were waiting for our flight! He was there with his co-star in the movie "School of Rock", Mike White, apparently for a meeting with Richard Linklater. Here's a picture of the 4 of us....sorry it's so blurry, the man working at the chinese restaurant took the picture and I didn't want to ask everyone for a do-over:





I realized yesterday that I had not gotten in one workout this week...ummm, time to make some time to workout!!!

Powerless

Still no friggin power!



To add insult to injury, a large section of our subdivision got power back last night around 8:40 pm...just not our section.



I am trying to be patient, especially since as of this morning there are still 750,000+ of us without power...but it's getting difficult. I just want to cook indoors again soon. :-)



I intend to get on my bike tonight for at least 15 miles. I have to ride 30+ on Sunday and haven't been on my bike in over a week.

Still Okay

But still no power. My in-laws actually brought us a small a/c window unit, so that has helped immensely!!! I am currently using the internet at my parent's house, so I can check work e-mails.

I met up with Woodlands Fit yesterday AM for our long run - 7.4 miles! Our average pace was 11:30. Not bad considering I had only run once since Ike and have been eating all kind of crap this past week. Luckily, I was able to get lots of fresh produce and some chicken breasts at HEB yesterday, so the diet will get back to normal.

I'll check in again soon. Take care!!!

Checking In

Hi all!
I just wanted to get a quick post up to let everyone know I'm a-okay. Since the hubby was at work during the hurricane (and 2 days after), the kids and I stayed with my parents. Lemme tell you, that was some scary shiat! If Ike was a cat 2, I don't ever wanna be here for a cat 4 or 5!!! We had no damage to the house, but like the majority of Houston, we have no power.

Still.
Day 6 of no power.
Ugh!

We do have a generator, so that's been awesome. This cold front has also been awesome (huge thanks to the big man upstairs for that one!!!) For awhile there getting gas for the generator was a pain in the ass, but that seems to get better each day as more and more stations open up.

I can't complain, cause like I said, there was no damage to the house! I have a couple of family members who live by the coast who did have some damage and my friend Marlina who lives in Shore Acres had 3-4 feet of water in their house. But, everyone is alive and well, and that's all that matters.

I am at a Starbucks near my office using their internet so I can get some work done. Our office building suffered some major damage, so we've been in and out all week trying to get stuff moved into other parts of the building. We have no power there either - good thing we're a commercial general contractor, because we have a huge generator and the crews are already making great progress in the reconstruction of the damaged areas. I went to the Dallas office yesterday just to get some work done and met with the General Manager there.

I hope all is well with everyone else. I haven't had a chance to check anyone's blogs and may not until we have power again. The hardest part is not being connected to the rest of the world with no cable and no internet. We bought some rabbit ears, so we can watch one channel - 13 KTRK. I swear, after this, we are getting Direct TV, our breaker box wired for the generator and a gas cooktop. I love camping and grilling, but I'm getting tired of pulling out the grill every night for dinner. :-)

Take care and stay safe!

Take care everyone!!!