Day 160

Church, Work, Football, Rest...
and I officially hate The New England Patriots...stupid Tom Brady and my fantasy football debacle...

We went to Walmart yesterday....to restock our shelves before IKE heads this way...and this was the line to get into the store...

Day 159

Today my younger brother Nick and I put up some tarps and visqueen on my parent's house...They had some leekage in several rooms...and with Hurricane Ike looking to be on it's way here...We don't think it will be reroofed before then...

Keep my mom in your thoughts and prayers...she's having some health 'issues' right now...and I'm sure she'd appreciate it...

Days 157 and 158

So we finished up the Parish-wide damage assessment yesterday...and today the FEMA folks are coming down to see the damage...
It is pretty much widespread around the entire Parish...and with IKE looming out there preparing to head into the Gulf shortly...it's not looking too good...
We got power back Thursday night around 5:00 pm...so...we were without for about 84 hours...There are still areas of the Parish that are predicted to be without power for upwards of 2-3 more weeks...
My parent's house is leaking...so...we are heading over there this morning to help put up a blue tarp on their roof....then it's over to another friend's house to help him cut up some of the (6) 36" oaks down in his yard...

Day 156

I'm tired...These 12 hour days that start at 6:30 are just absolutely killing me...
so...the mirror story...
During the hurricane...I was going through some boxes that we moved here...trying to figure out if there was just junk in it...or actually some good stuff...so...I found a box of slides from college that I wanted to look at..While walking to the kitchen area...so I could hold the slides up to the window to see...I was passing through the living room....
For whatever reason...I glanced up at the fireplace mantle...and I realized that the mirror mounted on the wall was falling...towards the earth...
I dropped the slides and miraculously caught the mirror.....all the while Janet is sitting on the couch....mouth wide open...not believing what was happening...
We just couldn't fathom the remarkable coincidence of the whole event...
It was just bizarre...

Day 155 part 2....the cooler hours...

So...the Family of 5 has relocated to a friend's house...his entire house is running off of a Natural gas generator...we were able to salvage some of our refrigerator goods...The dogs are in the guest house in their crate...with AC and a ceiling fan...so Boudreaux is nice and happy...
Janet is going to set up her home office here for the time being and the boys will be able to play with their 3 sons (all teenagers....but it looks like they are enjoying the younger generation...for now at least...)
The area is pretty dinged up...They are evacuating the hospitals due to the duration that we might be without power...Everyone is starting to freak out...because people, generally, only prepare for 2-3 days of food and water...and if it extends to 7-14 days....this entire region is going to be in some serious trouble...

The photo is of 'the house'...The one we haven't bought yet...but are trying to....the only real damage to speak of is the fence in the backyard...and the ceiling fans on the porch lost their blades...I didn't look inside...but from the street it looked Okie Dokie...

Day 155

We lost power at about 9:45...
We are in the heat...and dark...
I went into work today to start damage assessment...and it it a pretty broad brush of damage across the whole area...
The current speculation is it could be 2 to 4 weeks before power is completely restored...100% of the area is without power...
We are going to try to relocate to a friends house who has a natural gas generator...so...we'll see...
Overall, we fared well...Remind me to tell you the mirror story...

Day 154 - 9 am

All's well...
We are getting sustained winds around 40-50 miles and hour...and some stronger gusts...
Rainfall is generally not as heavy as we were expecting...Power is still on...and the wind just got so loud that we had to turn the volume up on the TV...