It's Been Awhile

I haven't updated since I was able to have other distractions lately. Its been almost three months and I still haven't been able to start on the kitchen, yet. My insurance company sent me a check for $15,000, but that will scarcely cover the $30,000 worth of damage that was done.

I haven't really been able to cook a meal at home since the storm. My diet has been suffering as a result of it. I will be sharing my Post-Hurricane survival tips in the comings days and weeks.

Since the weather has finally started to turn, I have been using the wood burning stove in my shop as a primary source of heat. I haven't returned to using the interior of my home for much of anything except sleep, shower, laundry, and potty. The upside of this is that the majority of my bills have plummeted. Everything except my phone and internet. It is constant no matter how much you use.

I also learned that you can save a ton of money if you have a hot water heater. Every morning, I wake up at 6am, turn the knob on my gas water heater to on and go back to bed. In 30 minutes, at 6:30am, I get up and take a hot shower. Once I'm done, I go back and shut the knob to vacation (or down) and effectively turn it off. The water stays hot enough for my evening shower and doesn't run all day long! My gas bill went from $38-$85/mo to $7.87 last month. Of course, I can't use my stove, but still! If you have an electric water heater, you save money by having an electrician install an electric timer.

Sycamore comes DOWN!

Hey guy & gal!

The sycamore was brought down today. So sad to see it go.

Waited in line for 45 minutes at Gateway today. Got a tarp for my house and one for my shop. Its supposed to rain today. Didn't want another flood in the house.

I did get a really incredible photo of what we're guessing is a banana spider. He's taken up residence on my a/c by my back door. It hasn't been on in over a week. I guess he's safe for now. Check him out. I call it "spider love".



kevin

Hurricane Ike the next day

This video is from Saturday, but power has been intermittent here at best. This is around 10 am after Ike had passed over (for the most part). It shows some of the damage & strangeness in Beaumont, TX.

The Sycamore

I am apparently obsessed with this sycamore tree. I found out it is used in guitar veneers, furniture, butchers blocks, and flooring. I think I may try to get this machined into usable pieces.

I am figuring I can make cabinets to replace the ones I lost, a dresser for my bedroom, a matching four poster bed, and perhaps even hardwood floor to make up for the floor I will inevitably have to replace. I may continue this blog as recovery continues. Its not just a quick thing.

I got the tree off my kitchen with help from the good people at Coastal Pools and my neighbor. Its amazing what a tractor and a Stihl chainsaw can do to a huge oak tree in just a few short hours.

Here is an image of the moon Tuesday night.

Kevin's house updates

I have edited a few more photos from the tree that fell behind my house. It was around a 100' foot tall sycamore. It was beautiful and glorious with white branches that stretched toward the heavens with opening arms. Now, it resides sideways in the most unfashionable of positions.

Apparently, sycamore is a wonderful wood for interior furniture, veneers, and guitars. I would love to reduce this loss into something beautiful. I will be willing to share this incredible tree if someone can help make it into blocks for butcher blocks, sheets for furniture, tops for tables, and possibly legs for chairs and tables. I really can't bear to see this tree go to waste.

The oak that fell on my house has already been designated for firewood for the wood burning stove that heats the shop and for smoking wood for the BBQ. Yum!

I really wanted to put an incredible tree house in the sycamore. That'll never happen now. I just didn't realize that by wishing for a tree house, it might get reinterpreted as wanting a tree ON my house. Ah well...

Enjoy the fading beauty...

Here comes the calvary!

Just yesterday, I went by the house to check out how bad its become. The smell is INCREDIBLE!

Cooley went and bought a 7000 watt generator because he was tired of living without A/C. As much as I hate the Sam Walden line of stores including Wal-mart, I do appreciate the television, wireless internet, hot water, and A/C.

Entergy showed up in full force yesterday as linemen from all around the country staged at Parkdale Mall. It seems like it will only be a matter of days instead of weeks until power is restored.

I've already seen power around Roger's Park, downtown Beaumont, 105, and others. Market Basket, Kroger, and HEB have gotten back online and are servicing the area. At least in Beaumont they are. Numerous gas stations have also been open for business and gas lines have shortened dramatically. I would be really surprised if the local economy isn't kicking in just a few days.

If you are needing reconstruction, I recommend you call Herrin Homes, Inc at 409-755-0430. If you have a pool problem, contact Coastal Pools, Inc at 409-880-5723. Both companies are not interested in doing estimates, only work. In this time of crisis, estimates only slow companies and add unneccesary costs. Please keep in mind that companies do you a favor when doing a quote for free and it is customary to give this company your business when insurance money comes in. If you intend on doing the work yourself, please do the right thing and give the quoting company some money if you decide NOT to use them. Its the right and honest thing to do. Don't steal. This economy will be hard enough for all of us.

Click on the photo above to get a full view of all the activity at Parkdale

Hurricane Ike - the aftermath

You've already seen a few of the photos, here's some of our damage. Of course, it pales in the comparison to the devastation our fellow Texans in Galveston witnessed. The loss of life from refusal to evacuate will be tremendous, I fear. It is only an inability to correctly assess our own mortality that keeps us from making good decisions like leaving a storm damaged area.

Me personally? I have enough food to last for at least a week and a half. I'll be tired of peanut butter and crackers and will probably be willing to kill for a steak, but the experience will deepen my understanding of humanity and his depths. The knowledge I'll gain from this will far outweigh the agony I may suffer. This is the logic I used.

I knew there existed the possibility of damage to my home and accepted it. It turns out there was damage and I've accepted it. While not fun, I can't change it. It would have happened whether I was here or further away.

Since I have stayed, I have family and friends close to me to assist and assist me. As I'm typing this, I'm quite comfortable in a small living room with several couches, fans, an air cooler, a generator, satellite cable on an LCD TV, and DSL internet connection. You see, we also prepared.

I am grateful for the friends I have to share this hurricane fallout with. A best friend of mine for 12 years and the little sister of another of my best friends (of whom I'm going to be best man in his wedding), Cooley & Christen are offering additional support.

I hope you think not of us as lunatics as much as curiosities of the human psyche. What makes a man choose the paths he does which can prove to be a more formidable challenge than taking the easier path with less troubles? I believe these are the things that forge a man. These are the things that bind humanity. These are the horrors that define us.

Cooley has tried to prepare me for the next few weeks as rations run short, food runs out, water becomes scarce, gasoline becomes a hot commodity.... I've heard reports of gas selling at close to $5 a gallon elsewhere in the country. Is that true?

Is anyone listening?

VIDEO: Cooley shows Saturday morning Ike "aftermath" 9:00am