hurricane fun

From my sister in Houston, TX on Monday: 

Hey everyone-

 

Well physically, I am no worse for wear from the hurricane. Emotionally and spiritually - a little beat up. My apt still has no power or water, so I am now coordinating my baseball caps with my polos, jeans and work boots I will be wearing to work for at least probably the next two weeks. I am looking hot. =) Good news no damage to my home and belongings and my business suits get to go unworn for the interim.

 

The office building I manage lost its roof from the wind and opened up two giant holes that acted as sieves into the building dumping what we estimate to be 10 inches of rain early Sat morning during the hurricane. The winds were still at 90-100mph when they hit the area. I was there at 3pm and we had a restoration crew in Sat afternoon by 5pm to start the cleanup process, but they had no way of securing the roof at that time. We proceeded to then get 5-6 additional inches of rain starting at approx 4am and lasting until 8am, making all of the work on Sat for naught. I got to the building at 6am and was stranded there because the streets had then flooded. We have full loss on the top three floors of the building and minor damage on all of the floors below where the water ran down the stairwells. We will have to completely gut those areas and start fresh. Good news - I have always hated the carpet in my office and now will get to chose new stuff myself. Yay.

 

I hope my Houston people have faired as well, if not better, and perhaps even get a little paid time off from the storm. I am working like a fool. LOL

 

For all of my non Houston people - keep the area in our thoughts because there are a lot of people in desperate situations and FEMA has been acting very Katrina like with their crew of dunces and refusal to give straight answers. We can have a war in two entirely different countries and they cannot help out people in the 4th biggest city in the US. Where are all those oil revenues from Houston going?? Don't they want us to be able to keep pumping out the liquid gold?

 

Off my soapbox. Oooo I miss soap and showers. =( Maybe today??

 

Love (My big sister)

(Update: Laurie has finally showered. Yeah!) 

I didn't want your freakin' hurricane

So I went to see "Tell no one" Sunday afternoon. Bit windy on the way there, a few traffic lights were out. 10 minutes in, the theater looses power. We wait 20 minutes before they hand out passes & everyone leaves. My internet-enabled phone with itunes kept me happy during the wait. I go out to my car. Two car lengths in front of me, a tree is down across the road. Could have totalled my car, which would have sucked since I just got new shocks & struts. I think "crazy" and snap a photo.

 

The whole way home there are trees and power lines down. My car is literally rocking in the wind. The power is just coming back in my building when I get home. I make a quick meal (it was 3pm and I hadn't had lunch), then decided to run out and get food that didn't require cooking in case it goes out again. I see more trees & lines down. The brick roof has come off one building. People are out with chainsaws cutting up 100-year-old downed trees. The grocery store is closed and guarded by police.

 

I find an open gas station & run in to grab foodstuff. The power goes out, but comes right back on again. I go home. Garage door is shutting, then freezes. The power is out again. I find a spot on the street that is not near any trees. Sit in the semi-darkness. Check the internet on my phone. Then I find out that Findlay market is on fire. That's just not right (damage is now said to be minimal).

 

Later, I went to Starbucks in Rookwood Commons to charge my phone. Since that's the only spot in the city with power, everyone & their grandmother is there. No phone charging for me. I just grab my coffee & return to my dark house to read a book with 8 candles and a mini flashlight. I was very jealous of my neighbor who had an electric torch.

 

Power is still out this am, but fortunately the high is only 72. Work has power, so that's where I am now (though many of the other locations are out of power and a lot of people are not in the office).

 

There are over 600,000 people in the Cincinnati area without power. It may take up to a week to get our power back. We had gusts of up to 75mph.

 

Now, I realize that Houston is WAY worse of. But seriously, I soo did not want your freakin' hurricane, big sister.

(PS I wrote this on Monday. I had power back by that afternoon. Over a million people were out in Ohio at the hight of the storm - they've got it down to about 100,000 at this point. Crazy). 

Sidney

John McCain's middle name is Sidney. 

Sydney is a large city in Australia. 

That's UN-AMERICAN. 

Just sayin'. 

RNC day 2 peanut gallery

lieberman just called himself a democrat

liar

republicans applaud line "country matters more than party."

liars

911! terrorists!

"john mccain is his own man" [creepy chuckle]

does creepy chuckle imply "and i am his bitch?"

lieberman: i like john mccain. we enjoy war together. 

lieberman tells reps to vote for what is best for the country, not what is best for his party. doesn't that mean obama? 

was mccain putting his country first when he & cindy were having their 9-month affair? 

bush called the hurricane "gustaff" 

bush: "i read threat assessments"

i thought he only issued threats?

"the lessons of september 11th, 2001"

can republicans make speeches without mentioning 9/11?

apparently we should like mccain bc he was tortured

note to gitmo detainees: run for office when you get home

palin apparently tried to fire the wasilla (pop 5000+) librarian when she refused to remove books palin didn't like. town fought back, librarian stayed. snap!