I, Alive, I think?

[Bengal65]

Hey Mike, glad you and the family are OK! The whole area looks like a war zone. My house is backed up to the bayou as well and open fields behind it. When the wind direction switched as the eye past downtown, going up I-45, my neighbor's house took the brunt of it. If their house was not just to the West of me, I probably would not have a roof at all! At least they are working pretty hard at restoring power.

[Bengal65]

Whooo!! Go inland areas!! *high-fives*

Only a true guitar player would do that!

Ben..

And..... last night I had lots of loaded weapons, just in case the looter's wanted to pick my house. Luckily, no one visited, otherwise, they wouldn't have left. Don't mess with a Texan!

Ben, I'd love to be up there for the summer, but I would have to leave during winter. I can't take those -40C wind chills up yonder

[bonghits]

Hey Mike, glad you and the family are OK! The whole area looks like a war zone. My house is backed up to the bayou as well and open fields behind it. When the wind direction switched as the eye past downtown, going up I-45, my neighbor's house took the brunt of it. If their house was not just to the West of me, I probably would not have a roof at all! At least they are working pretty hard at restoring power.

That's good to know that they are doing their best to restore power. Hopefully you'll have some juice in no time. When we finally had electricity, I couldn't help but plug in my Soloist, fired up my 5150II, and cranked the intro riff to "Rock You Like A Hurricane." My neighbours weren't very thrilled especially the family from India across the street. Fuggem!

[nhspike]

Ben..

And..... last night I had lots of loaded weapons, just in case the looter's wanted to pick my house. Luckily, no one visited, otherwise, they wouldn't have left. Don't mess with a Texan!

Ben, I'd love to be up there for the summer, but I would have to leave during winter. I can't take those -40C wind chills up yonder

Ahhhhh... how satisfying it is to live in the USA.
Still, the greatest country in the world.
And I am not the least bit apologetic when I type that.
Just proud.

[Ben...]

Ben..

And..... last night I had lots of loaded weapons, just in case the looter's wanted to pick my house. Luckily, no one visited, otherwise, they wouldn't have left. Don't mess with a Texan!

Ben, I'd love to be up there for the summer, but I would have to leave during winter. I can't take those -40C wind chills up yonder

Uh oh!


You get used to the cold after a while. It's weird because in fall you think it's insanely cold when it hits just below freezing (like 0 degrees Celsius or lower) yet in spring, you think it's a heat wave when it's over 0 degrees.

In summer it's crazy. It can from rainy and +10C to dry and +40C (I think that's like 100 degrees Fahrenheit or something).

I think the coldest windchill I remember is about -57C back a few years ago when I was in elementary school. They didn't cancel that for ANYTHING. They only canceled school if it was below -60C! That said, only about 50 people showed up because most parents didn't want to risk their kid being dumb, walking home and freezing to death. I find it funny how I saw this thing about having school canceled in Arizona for a "snow day" when it only snowed about a half inch. We had a blizzard that dropped over 3-4 feet and school was still on. I had to walk home that day. 4 feet of snow and -40C without the wind and 47 with. Good times.

[Bengal65]

Ben... great stories. You have to remember down South where ice and snow are rare, the public resources are very limited in snow and ice removal. I'm originally from snow country, but a lot of native southerners have never driven in it.
I remember back in 1989, I lived near Ft. Worth, TX and we had several ice storms. They tried their best by putting rock on the roads! (No salt or sand, I guess) I lost several windshields between '88 and '89 winters. I had to go to Florida for a business trip in early January and barely made it. I had driven 35 miles to the airport and ended up spinning a 180 on the entrance to DFW!
When it snows in Houston, your better off staying home even if you know how to drive in it. It's the ones that don't know that are dangerous!

[scotty]

Glad to hear from you guys and glad you guys survived. Best of luck getting back to normal again. Being with out electricity and water sucks. I imagine repairs will take some time. After our little Dolly close call there was a lot of help with the clean up and supplies. I hope you guys get the same support as we did. I am not sure where these crews came from but this was best support we have ever had.
Best wishes,
Scott

I use to live in Alvin

[El_Kabong]

I'm glad you are ok Bro, but I would complain about the trampoline. It is supposed to come with drunk chicks in bikinis.

[Flametop]

My house made it through OK. I've got family who used to have houses in Galveston living here now. This is Texas......We know how to survive.

[horns666]

Great to see you ok!!! I have a 100 year old maple tree in my front yard, that took out power lines..sparking all over the place. I had to poop in the dark..making it harder to wipe my ass good. CEI came out with the buzzers and chainsaws and shit..

Trees and lines are down all over my neighborhood..I live in fuggin' Cleveland!! I'm waiting for the other tree to become part of my decor!! The fucker is leaning towards me and looking at me funny!

[DonP]

For being in the middle of the country and supposedly "safe", we got messed with pretty good too. I was lucky to have a short power outage from Sunday at 2pm until Monday night 9:20pm. Still about 350K people without power. My kid's trampolene went flying down the street and crash into a bunch of trees, mangled. Lot's of roof damage, downed trees, etc. Can't get gas because gas stations don't have power to pump the gas.

Stupid Ike was a PITA.

[phill_up]

is there anyone on the forum that wound up homeless because Of Ike?

[TexasRocks]

Shit, I still don't have electricity. The damn eye of the storm passed right over our heads. Really weird to hear 100+ mph winds, and then all the sudden...nothing.

Luckily, we had no damage, but there are a ton of trees down, and we aren't projected to have electricity until next Thursday. Two freaking weeks without juice.

Glad I bought a generator! Going to track down a window a/c unit tomorrow to help deal with the heat that is coming back.

[phill_up]

Thank God you have a generator. gas to run it is probably $5. per gallon. When people are down and vulnerable that's usually a good time to screw them over. I google everything I buy so when I bought a generator last year I found this.

http://ago.mo.gov/newsreleases/2006/122906c.htm

[OnlineStageGear]

Price gouging sucks but it exists in every day life. My girlfriend went with one of her friends to a Bruce Springsteen concert and has to pay $8 for a Corona beer. That's an 800% markup over what they are sold in the grocery stores. One of the many little festivals they have here had 12oz Draft's for $5. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say it probably costs them 50 cents a beer when it is in draft form, so that is a 900% markup. Nobody investigates the government controlled alcohol price gouging.