Putting the house back together.

Spent the day working on the roof. Put primer on the rebuilt eves and carefully pried out the damaged shingles. Cut away the decking and spliced in two pieces of plywood to rebuild the broken corner of the roof. It took a while to find shingles to match. While I was at Home Depot three people came by looking for the same shingles (weathered wood) that I was searching for. It seems that must of the woodlands must have the same roofing. The home depot was packed with people buying fence and home repair materials. Tomorrow I should be able to place the new shingles on the roof. I will post a picture of the finished work.

Now watching the OSU vs Wisconsin. First half we looked a little mediocre. It's a night game and at Wisconsin. High hopes, but a lot of fear.

Had my yearly performance report on Friday. This was assessment number 26 and one more to go before reaching age 55.

Saturday 5:52am Status

Lost cable TV about 5 minutes ago. Still have internet (how long?). Was watching a series of television spots where the storm chasers are saying that the back of the storm is stronger than the front. Looks like we won't get the eye. The eye will skirt to the east and we will be in the eye wall for the rest of the time as it passes.

House is holding together, but hear banging as things hit the roof.

Saturday 5:00am status.

I was sleeping in front of the television when I was awakened by banging as if someone was closing a door up in the attic. I am pretty sure that it was the sound of things hitting the roof. Strong winds and heavy rain. Looks from the TV as if the eye will miss us. Instead we will have the heavy winds from the eye skirt our area.

At the moment the wind has dropped and I hear heavy rain.

Saturday 1:00am Status

We have had a light rain in the last hour and it is now wet outside. We have occasional wind, but nothing alarming yet. April is snoozing on the couch. We are fine.

While waiting, I have set up the inverter running on the marine battery and I have tested running the small computer off the 120V power. It seems to be running fine.

Friday Midnight Status

Been out snoozing on the couch with the tv going in the background. Still hear the wind from time to time. No rain.

Friday 10:00pm status

Occasional periods when the wind pushes around the tall pine trees. It makes you wonder what it would be like to have one fall on your house. No rain yet. Wind noise is noticeable outside and you go to the window from time to time to see if the noise is wind or rain.

Moved the wireless router from in front of my window to an interior closet.

Friday 9:00pm status.

Occasional gusts of wind swaying the tall pines about. It is as if it were a summer afternoon with a thunderstorm on the way.

That's not too wrong. A weatherman compared the hurricane rain bands to thousands of thunderstorms. I am continuing to get ready. I have moved the wireless router to an inside closet so we can keep it going as long as we have power. Assembling flashlights with (improved) led bulbs. Measured the walls and determined once and for all that the powder room is an inside room. I am glad, because I wasn't wild about spending the night inside of the closet in the extra room. It's tool crowded.

Friday 8:00pm status.

Occasional winds outside, no rain yet.

Loading batteries in the backup radio. Loading all the flashlights. Backing up the computers. Watching the news. No excitement yet and want to keep it that way.

Friday 7:00pm status.

No action yet. Outside, it is turning to dusk with light winds but no rain.

We went out at about 5:00pm looking for frozen pizza and ice cream. Krogers was closed with a sign that they would reopen at 6:00am Sunday. Checked Walmart also but no luck. Settled for chocolate bars and chips from the Shell station at Gosling. They said that they would be open 24 hours a day all weekend. First official rain was logged at 5:15 pm with a few sprinkles on the windshield.

Talked with Lynn, Mom and Patty and Joe. Apparently, the national news and weather channel is giving the impression that Houston is under water. We are similarly watching channel 13 and the water rise at Kemah.

Waiting for Ike

As I look out of my window the sky is sunny with light and variable winds. We have done all that we can think of to prepare for the coming of Ike. We have put up the patio furniture, stashed some in the woods out front and have crammed the rest in the garage. We have made space to put the Rav in the garage. The Saturn will just have to make it through the storm as best as it can. We have said goodbye to Potluck in our minds. We have 17 gallons of water sitting in jugs and the rest of the beer cooling in the freezer. We watch the television to see the pictures of Galveston and wait.

Starting out...

We have been unable to take advantage of this beautiful day. Today was sunny and warm, unlike the cool and damp day yesterday. April has been down in the weather with what was suspected to be allergies and is now suspected to be a cold. I have been trying to keep my immunity up and avoid what she is struggling through.

Bree and Jessica dropped in yesterday on their way back from camping at Huntsville. It sounds as if the trip was a success. It reminded me of our early trip to the Delaware Water Gap where we broke in our tents and home sewn sleeping bags. We hiked, they rode mountain bikes. The more things change, the more they stay the same.