Ho Hum

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood closing out an extremely boring week. Nothing interesting has happened nor anything humorous that I could share with you. Ricardo the gardener came over to "TRIM" the tree that was ripped to shreds by hurricane Ike. "The Madge" really likes the tree and it even has it's very own spotlight, letting the neighbors know we have a 50 ft tree in a brand new barren neighborhood. This tree is a Chinese Tallow Tree which is described as an invasive tree (a nice way of saying weed) and when it's leaves fall off and begin to decay, they are toxic to other plants.
We saved it, but now it looks like one of those trees you see on the african veldt, you know, barren on the bottom then about 25 feet up there is a branch or two. The Madge is happy.
I was so bored this week I fired the pool cleaning service and hired another one. Because it was the policy of the old cleaners NOT to clean the pool when it is raining, storming, or assuming your house does not have electricity after hurricanes but rather skip the week, bill you and try and make it over the following week. This doesn't work in my book. The following is a little test of logic;
The pool water is short approx 4 gallons of acid, the normal absorption of acid is about 3/4 gallon per week and the pool service will only put 1/2 gallon a week in the pool. Question: When will the water have the right amount of acid??? Answer: NEVER.
After asking the old pool service company the same question, which by the way they did not know the answer, I managed to get them to give me extra acid that I can put in the pool. Huh? Why have them??? Well I don't any more.
Oh yeah "Cooper" went to the Vet this week and weighed in at a whopping 120 pounds, they did blood work ($350) and discovered his Thyroid level is low? I am sure it's the Thyroid and not the amount of food and treats he gets on a daily basis. "The Madge" is even giving him more love and more dog cookies then normal, maybe that is my problem too.

News Flash

In response to a number of complaints that FOX News doesn't show enough Black and Hispanic people on the network, FOX has announced today that they will now air "America's Most Wanted" TWICE a week.

Many thanks again to Billy Kenney for this important news flash

Flash !!!!!! Caden gets Baptized

Caden was baptized today and much to Dad Brad's dismay the little guy wore a dress. It's not just any dress but the baptismal dress of Caden's great grandfather, so relax Brad it was only for one day.
If Brad had his way this is what Caden would be wearing all the time
If his mother, aunt and grandfather had their way this is what he will be wearing.

She's Back

"The Madge" hit the ground running, she arrived back from Conn yesterday afternoon. The whole way home she was saying "It's not that bad", "I thought you said there was a lot of damage" and "It doesn't look like anything happened". All these comments were referencing hurricane Ike and the damage it caused. Huh???? Make those remarks to the one million people still without power and neighbors in our area that had their roofs blown away causing lots and lots of water damage to the interior of their homes. Gee, I'm glad you're home.
Around 5:15 last night "The Madge" asked if we could go out and have Mezcan. We headed up to "Mi Rancho" and the place was packed, and these people were not the blue haired type that eat at 5:30 so they can be all tucked in by 8. I think the powerless invaded the restaurant to get a hot meal and some cold drinks. Even the spaz parking spaces were all taken, so we hoofed it over to "Paravotti's" to have some Eyetalian grub.
I hope next week things get somewhat back to normal it isn't fun not having anyone or anything to complain about but wait till the end of next week.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN CRABB.
I also want to share some pictures of Sean first birthday extravaganza, poor little guy didn't know what to make of it and he even had to get a hair cut for it.

THE DOG FOOD DIET

The next time someone asks you a dumb question, wouldn't you like to respond like this... Yesterday I was at PetsMart buying a large bag of dog food for my loyal pet Cooper the Wonder Dog and was in the checkout line when the woman behind me asked if I had a dog.
What did she think I had an elephant?
So since I'm retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her, 'No, I don't have a dog. I am starting the dog food diet again.' I added that I probably shouldn't, because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet, and that the way it works is to load your pockets with dog food nuggets. Then you simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete, so it works; well, and I was going to try it again. I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story.
Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, that I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter's ass and a car hit us both. I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was laughing so hard. PetsMart won't let me shop there anymore. Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the world to think of crazy things to say!
Many thanks Tammy, my favorite Canuk.

L.A.I - Life after Ike

The weather here has been great, high 70's during the day and high 50's at night, this really helps the people that are still without power. The latest report is 60% of Houston is still blacked out, including Colleen and Mark's place and half the area we live in. We were advised by the community office that the water treatment system does not have power therefore ( I am not making this up) they have asked us to minimize using water "If yellow let it mellow, if brown flush it down". Yuck. They are concerned about the sewage backing up into your house. I believe that the water is gravity fed into the plant and it is about 1.5 miles from our house (over near the Calonico's) so if Dave and Kathy show up here smelling foul it will be time for us to be concerned.
It takes about 1 to 1.5 hours to get gas and after standing in line for about 1 hour you can get into a grocery store only to find a stale smell, barren shelves and nothing, unless you got there at 5 in the morning, fresh. We are so lucky, "The Madge" has enough food here for a family of six to live till the end of the year and having electricity.
Life is slowly returning to normal.

Goodbye Ike

It's early Monday morning, since 3:15 AM Saturday morning we have been isolated from the world. Last night when our power came on and after our celebrating stopped, we turned on TV, it was our first glimpse of the damage that Galveston/Houston and surrounding areas had sustained. Friday we sat around, watched a few movies and waited for Ike, the wind was stronger than normal but certainly not hurricane material. It was late afternoon when the winds picked up a notch, they were probably around 35/40 mph, but still not the big time. Boring!!!
We watched a little TV and hit the sheets around 10:30 pm, the wind was blowing pretty good with a "now and then" gust that show signs of potential. Wind was still about 40ish mph but the gusts were more frequent. Around 11:45 pm all hell broke loose, no more wind but just one long gust of about 80 mph wind with increased gusts of who knows? The trees and shrubs were moving all over the place, leaning one way then whipped around leaning in the opposite direction. Our power when out at 3:15 am.
We were all awake, but we stayed in our rooms thereby not realizing the each others nervousness. Mark's car alarm tripped a few times, windows rattled and howled, and strange noises were occurring all around the outside of our house.
Around 6 am I went went outside in the backyard, our long wait was over. The newly planted trees were all on their sides, some snapped while others were just laying down, the big tree (45 ft) snapped halfway with it's debris all over the place. Our back door, which is about twelve feet under a covered patio, was wallpapered with leaves from the tree. The wind was still strong but decreasing by the hour, no one in the neighborhood had ventured out yet and we hung out on the patio oohing and ahhhing, like you would do while watching fireworks, but in our case it was the gusts of wind.
We spent most of the day checking the place out and listening to the portable radio only to find that Houston had really been hit hard. Colleen cooked spaghetti that evening and it was then we experienced our first and only hurricane Ike accident. She cut her finger on the foil on the bottle of red wine. OUCH. Around 8 pm our neighbor John strolled over and asked whether we would like a generator. He had a spare one and this way we could plug in the fridge, lights and other various appliances. We thought we all died and went to heaven. We hung out in a well lit room and played cards until 11 that night, we are very fortunate to have someone like John and Pam living next to us.

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Company is here, Colleen and Mark arrived yesterday to ride out the hurricane, a good move, Mark decided to bring out their fifteen plus year old cat, bad move. An otherwise docile 107 pound Cooper went hyper. "The Madge" rescued Cooper from a KILL CENTER in Arkansas because he couldn't pass his training as a hunter, so rather than keep these dogs around they kill them. If you have met him you would understand why he failed his training, he would smother you with kisses and needs constant attention. When we lived in Conn he had a couple of acres to roam and every now and then he would kill an animal and bring it to us. Here comes Mark with the cat and Cooper starts licking his chops. The cat will remain in the bedroom.
Anyway the latest is Ike will make landfall early tomorrow morning, this refers to the "Eye", flooding has already begun in Galveston and surrounding areas. Words the weather people have used when they talk about this storm; massive, catastrophic, extremely dangerous, killer storm, gigantic, devastating, on and on. They anticipate a storm surge in excess of 24 feet, Houston's elevation is about 40 feet and is about 40 miles from the Gulf. You look at map and figure it out, not pretty! It's 9 AM and the winds are starting, this is with the storm over 275 miles away.
Oh Well

Happy Birthday Sean and Fred

While I sit here waiting for Ike's landfall, which should be tomorrow, I want to wish Sean a Happy Birthday and a premature Happy Birthday to Fred Magovern. We might lose power here so wanted to get it done today.

Click to play movie

Latest reports are evacuation has started for the zip codes south of the city and I'm sure they are trying to stagger the traffic, remember there are about 6 million people they have to get out of Dodge. Since Shell Oil, along with many other companies, are shutting down as of noon today and Colleen will be heading here for a few days. I better make sure I have plenty of chilled wine. For Jill Carter of Fort Worth, "yes dear I will keep in touch with your mom and dad, thank you for your concern".

Need I Say More

Here's the forecast - - -

Friday Night

Hurricane conditions possible. Showers and thunderstorms likely. Some thunderstorms may produce heavy rainfall. Lows in the upper 70s. Northeast winds 35 to 45 mph in the evening increasing to 45 to 55 mph after midnight. Gusts to 70 mph in the evening increasing to 75 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 70 percent.
Here we go, it looks like this one will make a mess down here. I cleaned the pistol and am ready for action. Colleen might be taking refuge up here, but the last Hurricane that threatened Houston clogged the freeways and it took her twelve hours from her house to here when it normally takes her forty five minutes. "The Madge" is now in Conn. and is probably oblivious to what is going to happen here. There is a good part of this, we do need rain.

You Want A Piece Of Me?

"The Madge" heads up to Conn on Wednesday and it looks like Ike will visit us on Saturday. My neighbor, John, came over before and asked if I wanted anything plywood from Loew's? He is boarding his windows awaiting the arrival of Hurricane "Ike", when he asked me what I was doing?, my answer was "Loading my pistol and keeping it by my side". When you have such a vicious watchdog like Cooper you have to be ready at all time to protect him. I have plenty of water (in the pool), plenty of food (three boxes of mini wheats) and plenty of toilet paper, what else do you need????
If this does hit here maybe the Katrina people will leave and go back to New Orleans better yet go north, way north like Chicago. Wishful thinking.

The Many Faces of Fu Man Struck

What a fantastic Saturday. This morning it was in the mid 60's, no clouds and very little humidity. It was a little chilly out so maybe it is time to get the rugby's out. Spent the better part of the morning deflating the baby swimming pool toys, probably would have been easier if I used a knife and a garbage bag but you never know when we will need them again. Now it's time for College Football so turn on the answering machine, get out the onion dip and relax until late tonight maybe stopping every now and then for a bathroom break. But before I pay attention to the games I want to share a few things with you.

1. Ran across this picture of an old friend on mine, Ed Oswald. It seems he is the pastor of a church in Penn. Hard to believe that this is the same guy that stole his parents car while they were at a party. They decided to leave early and uh oh call the police, they caught him flying down the road near Jones Beach. No, I was not with him. If anyone knows his email address please let me know.

2. Reconnected with another old friend of mine, Wing Morse, yes that's his real name. I haven't heard from him since the sixties. It turns out that he has been living all over the world and has settled up in Thornhill, Ontario. He is also retired and says that Monday through Saturday is vacation time and Sunday is a day of rest. Since he states that he loves to travel maybe I can get he and his wife spend some time with us.

3. Many thanks to Lisa Reed of St. Louis for sharing this picture of Air Force One that is on the drawing board and will be built if Obama wins. Thanks Lisa.

4. Erin wanted me to post this one.

The following pictures were taken by Meaghan in the span of 6 minutes. Have you ever seen so many facial changes in such a short period of time.

Just when I thought it safe to go in the water

Our house population has been diminished to two people for almost one week now and we haven't even been near the pool since Monday. I would like use it everyday but "The Madge" says "It's too hot during the day" then around 7 PM she says "I don't like to swim at night", Boy am I glad we put a pool in. You are probably asking yourself, use it without her, but the truth is that for the time being I am supposed to have someone with me while in the pool. Oh well, it's time to pack up the floats and noodles and wait until "The Madge" goes away then it's pool time with Cooper.
While the gang was visiting my son in law "Brad" asked whether I could go 24 hours without complaining about the pool company, no problemo. The next day one of the workers came over to sod the front area that had been used for access to the backyard. He put down the sod BUT he laid it OVER the sprinkler heads (GOOD JOB), he then said he ran out of sod but would return. I am still waiting for him, but it's only been one week and I know that there is a sod shortage in Texas so he probably drove to Vermont. I am so glad Brad was here for that.
A bright spot is Ricardo and his crew, they have done a tremendous job on the landscaping, fence and lighting. They had an open check and zero input from us on how to do it, but as you can see he came through with flying colors, plus the total cost was half of what I expected to pay.
It certainly is relaxing and romantic, I sure hope Cooper enjoys it.

Last but not least

Caden, his parents and their dog just left our house and are headed back to Frisco, TX. I think everyone had a good time, ate and drank enough and had enough pool time. Gustav NEVER visited our house, WHEW. We are not prepared for any type of emergency, I think we only have one working flashlight. As of Sunday Lowe's was sold out of generators, wonder how I knew that?? Well, I asked about buying one, thought it would be a good move to keep "The Madge's" Pinot refrigerator running and one TV. While the crew was all here we celebrated Sean's birthday, he doesn't turn one until Sep 11 but since 90% of the family was together we figured what the heck. As you can see from the pictures "Butter" wasn't exactly enjoying his birthday.

Goodbye Sean, Hello Gustav

Sean and his parents left for Conn. yesterday while Caden and his folks remained here, watching "Gustav". Sean or as his parents call him, "Butter" had a good time and got in plenty of Pool Time. Rather than type here are some pictures.