A Few More From Ike

A few more just stunning images, I had to share them. I'm hearing a great deal about how the coastline & beach front will be re-shaped after the storm. Some residents are being told it will be a year before they know the final "dune" areas and which homes will be condemned because they are now too close to the water.

A great deal of Boliver Island and areas East of Galveston Bay were agricultural in nature or swamp lands. I've heard there are dozens of square miles of debris filled with dead animals, snakes and alligators. The debris fields washed as far inland as 6 miles.

I wonder if some of these were also on the roadway, but had been cleared to the side by work crews.

This was Friday morning on the Seawall- about 12-18 hours before the storm would hit & the waters had already risen dramatically. Many people had planned to evacuate on Friday morning, but they were already trapped by high water before 7AM.

All these ships sitting out in the Gulf, waiting for Galveston Ba & the Ship Channel to re-open. My mom is responsible for the shipping logistics for one of the large oil companies in Houston. She was telling me that each day that each ship sits out there costs tens of thousands of dollars.

I think this was another pre-storm photo, I'm assuming sometime Friday afternoon before all the helicopters were grounded.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Although there have been some deaths from Hurricane Ike, the count remains surprisingly low.

Revenge of the Yearbook

While re-doing my office, I spent some time re-visiting my old year books. I have all 4 monstrosities to document my angst-filled teenage years, plus the special senior memories book filled with my own photos and moments from my final year of high school.

I've recently found a website for all the alumni of my High School, and it's been great to see where everybody is at and who they have become. This May marked the 10th anniversary of getting out of the awkward phase of my life called high school. I dug out all my yearbooks the other day and had a fun time reminiscing the trauma of my teenage years.

I played volleyball all 4 years and really enjoyed it, even if I still have recurring nightmares about our coach and practices. Although I'm serving the ball in this photo, I was the "setter" for those who are familiar with volleyball. I made some great friends playing ball, and went onto play in college for a few years in Georgia. (Please excuse the awful photos I took of the actual yearbook pages.)

Ahh...the famous "Senior Portraits" I guess it could be worse, but since everybody had the same awful pose, it's not too bad.

I played volleyball all 4 years. This is a picture of the Junior Varsity team in the fall of 1993, when I was a sophomore. I think those long-sleeved jerseys had been on their way out for at least 5 years at that point. (I'm on the back row, second from the left).

This was us the same year, sporting our much cooler short-sleeve uniforms. Too bad you can't see the giant falcon statue behind us!

I'm guessing this photo must have been the fall of 1996, when I was on the varsity team as a Junior. Bizarre stripped jerseys & spandex biker shorts, all topped off with knee pads! It was a tough year that still brings back nightmares sometimes. (That's me in the middle- #9)

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: My sister made the 7th grade volleyball team, and is carrying on the family tradition.

Voter Education & Resources

We are 36 days away from one of the most important presidential elections in the history of our country. I wanted to help out my readers by giving them some great websites to help them get involved, register to vote, learn about the issue, find the truth in all the spin and pick a candidate.

Vote Help is an incredibly useful tool to learn all about the candidates- it lists out 10 major issues with varying degrees of agreement or disagreement. It also lets you rank which issues are most important, because many people have various issues that they can agree with both candidates. It then shows you with light & dark, red & green how McCain and Obama match up with your views.

Although voter registration deadlines vary by state, we are quickly coming up on the 30 days deadline, which is common in many states. You can also register to vote by filling out the form at JustVote. You can also just Google

Snopes is also a wonderful website to debunk all those awful email forwards you get. Just about anytime something is sent in an email forward, I can guarantee you that some of it is false or misleading. Snopes is the go-to website for the truth when the rumor mill gets going. Even beyond the political season, snopes sets the record straight for many other urban legends, so be sure to bookmark it.

Want to know who is telling the truth and when they've stretched the facts? Fact Check is a great website that keeps tabs on both candidates for distortions of the truth or exaggerations. They do a great job of keeping things very current, and it is especially helpful after a debate to read their analysis. They provide a nice brief summary followed by an extensive explanation with sources & citations.

Real Clear Politics has some of the best summary of all the polls out there. The latest average of national polls can be found here. More importantly are the individual state polls, especially in the battleground states, that will determine the electoral college votes. Here's a great place to track of the state by state polls.

The next 6 weeks are going to be rowdy & wild as this campaign season has already been one for the history books. So many twists & turns every day, surprises on the evening news and such serious issues as the economy & the wars. Please make sure you are doing your civic duty & exercising your right to vote. So many people have given their life for our freedoms, making an informed, educated vote is the least we can do for our country.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: H comes home today!

Zoe and Ike

This is last and final installment of all things Hurricane Ike. Zoe was very depressed by the storm because she had to stay indoors for several days and then the princess missed her A/C.

I also got lots of shots with her while I was enjoying my rented lenses.

Zoe at 400mm.

After hanging out more with Ruby, I notice now how white/blonde Zoe's face is getting.

Oh the boredom!

Mom, I just want to go outside & play!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: We've had such awesome weather since the hurricane that Zoe's made up for her cabin fever.

Ike around Town

Saturday afternoon when the winds and rain had mostly died down, we ventured into town to check on the rental property & get out of the (non-A/C) house. This building was very near H's office, and they were totally remodeling the whole thing. Looks like they'll have a bit more work to do.

Downtown Houston received a lot of publicity for damage to some of the sky-scrapers, but many other office buildings, besides mine, received wind damage too.

It was good to see work trucks already out in force to start the clean-up. I was fascinated to see the randomness with which some buildings had damage and others were fine.

The bayou's were also very full. This is the bayou near where I lived downtown. Zoe and I would run along the jogging trail most mornings.

In the Heights area, there are many old & beautiful trees. It was no surprise that many of them were blown over and blocking roads.

Fortunately, the duplex suffered no damage! There are several large trees on the property, and we've had huge limbs fall down before.

Although there were lots of branches down, no roof damage and no large trees. I was very worried that we could possibly have major damage, but the whole Heights area looks like it faired relatively well.

We ventured downtown to see mess & enjoy the car's A/C a bit longer. I can't believe how how the water in the bayou had risen. It's normal at least 20' below the roadway.

The park where we had a lovely picnic earlier this year was also underwater.

Finally, this single light pole behind my neighborhood was broken & leaning. I was nervous to drive under it, and it was like this for about a week even after they restored power.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I slept in until 9AM today, and it rocked!

Ike Recap

Well, we were treated to a spectacularly beautiful sunset on Friday evening as we enjoyed the breeze & our last bits of electricity for a few days.

It's funny because there were so many people all around town that were just waiting, and they all enjoyed the sunset (I've seen lots of other bloggers pictures).

Most of the city was prepared for the storm- stocked up on supplies or headed for higher & dryer ground. It was eerily empty on the streets for Friday rush hour. We stayed home to cook steaks & eat some of the food in our freezer before it went bad.

We went to bed before 10, and it wasn't even very windy out. My mother-in-law called us about 3AM to say it was very bad at her house. We still had power, and I stood at the window mesmerized by the wind whipping all my bushes around the backyard. I woke up again around 7, as daylight was starting to break.

H woke up, but he and Zoe were not the least impressed by the storm. I watched for hours as the wind blew & blew, and the rain came down!

This was a radar capture of the rain and storm size when I woke up at 3AM. I'm thinking that the worst of the storm was probably in our area around 5AM.

Luckily for us, the storm eye moved North along Interstate-45, which is probably about 15 miles from us. People along I-45 definitely had more wind damage & it kept the wind blowing in generally the same direction most of the time at our house.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: H made it New York late last night & is going to a game at Shea Stadium tonight.

Ike at Work

Considering we have floor to ceiling glass windows around the entire downstairs & giant glass bay-windows upstairs, I think my office got fairly lucky by only losing 2 windows. They were both upstairs in the corner, and rain poured into our atrium down below.

The first broken window was blown in, leaving glass and huge piles of debris strewn all around the office. I can't imagine what it looked like in there with 80+ mph winds swirling around the inside.

The window adjacent to the first one in the corner was blown out of the building, so we lost quite a lot of paper and other office materials to Hurricane Ike.

This corner was our video library, where we housed all of our reference videos and crash tests. I was actually surprised they weren't totally ruined and the damage was as minimal as it was.

Now, the clean-up was another story! It was a giant mess, but we had some of our technicians in the back take care of most of the mess & put up plywood to protect the windows while we wait on the glass repairmen.

Luckily, our power came back on at the office the day after the storm. H & I would go up there to borrow the electricity, A/C and Internet. I was at work, mainly cleaning & answering phones, on Monday & back to real work on Tuesday. I'd still say that about 1/4 of our employees are without power at their house.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: The Presidential Debate is still on for Friday!

Zoe Racing the Wind

Friday before the storm was a fun day. Everybody had off work, nothing to do but prepare for the worst as the Ike barreled toward Houston. My pantry was stocked, my car was full of gas and Zoe was ready to run in the wind. Yes, this photo is very blurry, but I still think it captures her speed! :)

Sniffing for rabbits.

The wind was already starting to pick up in Houston, 18 hours before landfall. It was cool & Zoe was energized.

I also wanted to take my super-tele lens out to play with it too.

Took me a while to get my settings right & get a few decent photos.

Oh the ears!

Now we've got ears & tongue hanging out.


Still not enough running to satisfy her for the next few days where she'd have to stay in the house.

She had to settle for car rides for about a week to race the wind ;)

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Half way through the week!