Monday
No power still. Still have tree on roof. Mom evacuated to Mo-Ranch, Hunt, Texas. Some friends in the hood have A/C.
More Ike
After a nap through the end of the lingering storm, Conn and I took a walk through the neghborhood. Lots of felled trees. A variety of damage. No power anywhere.
Then we had a late lunch and started working on the yard. Most of the front yard is cleaned, but we barely made a dent in the back yard.
We worked until dark then walked over to Virginia’s. We passed a few spots of reestablished electrical service, and about 10pm Virginia got her’s too.
No such luck here, though some of the street lights were working.
Sunday morning we got more rain, which my aching body slept through. The familiar hum of chainsaws can be heard throughout the neighborhood.
Ike Damage
Got to sleep after 3am. At the time we were experiencing frequent brief losses of power. Woke at 5am with no power, quickly back to sleep. Awoke again at 8am from a phone call from my sister. The lack of power and an answering machine combined with a loud old rotary phone, forced me out of bed.
A two trunked elm in the back yard lost one trunk. A 10 foot, 4″ diameter branch is impaled more than a foot into my deck, and most of the tree is on my garage.
Another small 10 foot tree in the back is over. A sizable Red Bud along the driveway is leaning on the fence and the neighbor’s house.
Several major limbs are off a Chinese Talow in the front, and a 8 foot (small) Crepe Myrtl in the front is over.
One neighbor has lots of major Pecan limbs in his driveway. Another has a tree leaning on her garage.
The house under construction two doors down sent tar paper everywhere, including blocking the drainage which I cleared in the waning storm. It’s framed garage also collapsed.
The unlatched second story under-construction door that was banging loudly before we retired seems to have been ripped off it’s hinges.
It’s 11am as I write this, the storm is still lingering, and with the whole city without power there’s no telling when this will get posted.
Reeking of Gas
Friday night I left at 6pm on my bicycle, was out late, and returned home after midnight. The streets were mostly quiet. As I approached, a few houses from mine I smelled gas. It only got stronger as I approached, and when I went inside it was equally strong.
The Roommate was watching television, and I asked him what was up. He looked quizical. I said it reeks of gas in here! He says he doesn’t smell anything.
He does add that the neighbor called someone, and they came out and “couldn’t find anything”? I found out later from her, that she called “the city”. I’m not sure who came out.
I searched about, and could find nothing specific, and the smell started growing fainter, as it had for The Roommate. I showered, was tired, was losing the smell of it, and rationalized someone had already checked, it hadn’t blown up yet, and who was I going to call anyway. I went to bed.
New Stove and More
Recently, my friend Virginia O informed me that her sister Elizabeth was demolishing her house and had some last items for sale. Well, this sounded like a good opportunity, and I had some time, so I checked it out.
Particularly Virginia had mentioned a stove/oven. I have been needing a new one for a long time. I had wanted a gas stove, but the current connection was for an electric, and that seemed to be the easiest road to take.
So, I took the stove , it fit in the back of my Subaru no problem. When I got home, moved the old beast onto the back porch, did a 10-year cleaning of the area, and pushed the new oven into place, I found out that 220 volt plugs have changed in the last (insert correct number) decades.
I had to return to the house to pick up an entertainment center, so when I returned, I extricated the plug that was previously in use for the stove, and later installed it at my house.
It works great, and I first tested it out baking a store pizza on my long-unused pizza stone. Trés magnifique!
As mentioned, I also picked up an entertainment center. Mine works fine, but I’ve been using it for eight or so years, and it leads a bit to visual clutter, and also allowed a full cover of dust because of its openness.
The new entertainment center is actually a wardrobe from Mexico. Given that I live in an old house with a limited amount of closet space, it could actually be put to that use, if I wanted to. But, It works well as an entertainment center.
If my television was an inch less deep it would be perfect; as it is, it touches the TV when closed and doesn’t close perfectly.
I didn’t appreciate the full heft of the piece until I got Kevin and Conn over to the house to pick it up. It’s an extremely solid piece. We ran it into several things, with only colored markings to indicate what they might have been. The marks only add to its rustic charm.
Apparently the piece was hauled back from Mexico on the top of an Isuzu with great drama. I’m glad it made it and happy to have the piece now.
Heavy Trash - I’ll Be Here All Week
I made a point to drag all my heavy trash out to the curb on Sunday so that I would not have to keep it for another month. I also cut down some limbs with my new tree pruner, but not as many as were on the list.
The trashed stove/oven/microwave, the fallen ancient television antenna, and the water heater with a giant rusted hole in the bottom all disappeared from the front curb in about an hour.
The limbs on the other hand are still there this evening.
A little sleuthing leads me find out that they’ve changed the heavy trash days in my neighborhood.
Looks like I’ll have a pile of limbs for another week. Perhaps I’ll cut them up a bit; perhaps I’ll add to it.
