Monthly Archives: August 2005

Hurricane Katrina

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Hurricane Katrina coverage on the Weather Channel is what I’ve been watching the last few days on and off, I watched it through this past night (when I was awake, as I was and have been the last several days, a pattern that I go through often enough, it’s not unusual) and so I’ve seen it all as it came through and changed into a humoungous hurricane and gained fame as the 4th strongest hurricane in the US ever recorded. Hows that for an introductory runon sentence ;)

Katrina is making her third landfall right now, in Missippippi. Jim Cantori remarked in a phoned in report not long ago that the flooding he saw where he is was “something I’ve never seen” … a big statement coming from him! He reported that they were 27 or so feet above sea level, and thought themselves safe from the surge, but had to suddenly evacuate to higher ground when the water came into the parking lot and was covering the cars in about 20 minutes … three to four feet of water, 27 feet above sea level.

The Weather Channel is remarking too that the surge forcasted is the highest surge ever, wave heights are huge too. Katrina was a Category 5 hurricane yesterday, and weakened to a Cat 4 in the night before landfall, but at landfall she was 140 mph sustained winds and that’s nothing to shirk off. Not as bad as the previous strength of 175 mph, but still … 140 is bad. 100 is bad enough.

We are in NE Georgia, and not in harms way, but will be under a flood watch later, and a wind advisory (25 mph or more sustained winds) and most likely a tornado watch. So that’s not NOT in harms way, really.

Reports of fuel problems are racking up. Gas prices will surely rise, shortages become a problem in The South, maybe nationally, that’s what I heard from Jeb Bush, Gov. of Florida, on TV a bit ago, and that’s also data that’s reported elsewhere.

Jim Cantori was talking in his phone report that I discussed above that all sorts of things were floating around, like a big garbage bin, the sort that looks like a train box, just floating around, that’s a super heavy tonage kind of thing just floating around.

The air around our house changed since yesterday. It was mild feeling yesterday, not too hot nor too humid. I walked outside this morning, and it wasn’t hot, but I could barely breathe, it was so humid, so very tropically humid. Thanks to God that we have A/C window units this part of summer! :)

Frank is flying to Florida for a short trip for work. He had to go, this was planned before Katrina was born. He’ll be there overnight and the concern is airport troubles when flying home tomorrow.

Right now, on TWC there’s another phone report coming in from where Jim Cantori is, his producer, and he is talking about the flooding problems, and that they now had to be evacuated to the second floor of the building they are in, he said the water out there earlier was literally a sudden river rushing at them, and they had to flee for their lives, and that NOW there is at least 6 inches of water on the first floor of the hotel …. the worst any of them, the crew that covers these hurricane events, has ever seen. Absolutely the worst ever.

This is a historic storm. I thought as much when I heard that Katrina was named. She lived up to her name. That hard “K” sound is feisty. Camille was feisty too. Katrina wasn’t too nasty her first landfall, but people died. That’s bad. The damage that we’ll see in the coming weeks when crews can get into the areas now under threat will be interesting. This isn’t good, but it’s stuff that I love to see. I’m very weather-fan-storm-chaser oriented. Some people have to be. I didn’t “professionally” go into weather … I could have, but didn’t. I don’t mean I had an opportunity, but I could possibly have, but didn’t pursue it. I’ve been a storm enthusiast since I was very young.

The point of this post is just to record the event, this very historic event, Hurricane Katrina. We are under her cloudy edge, the outer outer clouds associated with the monster storm. We’ll see some wind and rain most likely later, I’ll report back as to what happens.

Ode to a Lizzard

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Ode to a Lizzard

Death came quickly
to your doorstep

I tried to protect you
but all in vain

For I was the one
who wielded the weapon

I was the one who
caused you the pain

I cried with sorrow
at your passing

I cried with guilt
I cried with shame

But those around
me stared and mocked me

And will no longer
remember your name

by Marysue S.

——

I wrote the short poem above many years ago. I was still living at home (late teens, early 20′s), and some incident in my family’s living room caused this ode to form in my mind. The exact circumstances elude me. The sentiments in the poem tell the tale in full though, without recalling the exact details. I wrote it down right away.

I recall writing this. I recall the tears. The sorrow. I cannot, though, recall exactly what happened at the event. Something my mother did resulted in me dropping something is the best my fuzzy memory can recall, but it’s not surety.

Desks

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Frank got a desk for himself and a desk for me this past week. I put mine together the other day, it was easy, I just needed help with the glass for the top, carrying it over to be installed, then flipping the entire unit once built.

I’m in the torn-apart kitchen with the new desk. Last time I was “up here” at all with a comuter was with my old laptop. This is different though, I have a nice glass computer desk now. I’m behind the stove, but able to be around all the goings on in the kitchen/dining/living area. I had been relegated to the downstairs office, way out of it, for me.

The freedom came when we ditched the ethernet connection and got me a wireless pci card. :) I stayed down there in the office though after that, since I didn’t want to figure out where to put the table … the small casual dining table that’s been my ‘desk’ for a long while now.

The glass desk was a bonus for me. (Frank’s was planned moreso than mine was) So I’ll have those tables (he is using my bigger old casual dining table) back eventually for kitchen, learning, etc. use. Both new desks are from Staples. We looked at all the major office stores last week and in the weeks before. The point being we were looking for cheaper slim solutions. We saw plenty of nice big office desks, computer oriented versions and whole suites, but they are all out of our realm in this house. Pricey too. So what we saw at Staples were a few different desks in a certain product line. Mine is glass and metal, very solid, blue tempered glass, a wide desk area, keyboard drawer below, and two shelves below that to hold the computer, and other things. On the desktop is an elevated shelf to hold the monitor. In the “table” setup I’d have little room left on the surface to write, or store anything, with just a monitor, the computer, and the keyboard and mouse right there on the one surface. This new desk affords me super-duper space. It’s all open and lovely. I like the glass look. It’s very modern, moreso than our house is. Well think on that a second, our house is in torn-apart status. Modern glass furniture is sort of bizarre in here. (wall 3/4′s torn apart, moldings torn out, flooring torn out, living on subflooring, cabinets partly torn out and sitting against the other wall.)

In any case, it’s functional, and puts me back in the thick of things. I can do things on the computer and cook, and do this and that, and the other, more easily now. Before it was that I was down in the “basement” and that takes me away, and I can’t jump up and go do things and do any sort of computer work that way, I had to just sit down.

This desk is mine, but meant to eventually be the children’s computer desk. Once the kitchen is moreso underway in construction, I’ll have to move, and whenever I can get a laptop again, I’ll have the option of getting a lovely wood writing desk that will fit into a small space better. That’s no time soon, hopefully the kitchen work will be soon, and I’ll find a corner to squish into. :)

This is all just a lesson in organization. Modern computer equipment is quite unruly in how it has all those cables and needs for electricity. I good desk that can manage all that is worth it. It’s the “gadget” that helps one to organize well. Previously we had an organization attempt in a small computer armoire, and we didn’t like it much after we got it. It closed us in and was a nightmare for organization. It had doors to shut it away, and papers piled up and things got put in it, it wasn’t fun. It was a magnet for disorganization. That was a long time ago though, we haven’t used that in a very, very long time for a computer. Victoria has it now for putting things into. More suitable for that.

For me, I need to have my things out in the open to understand them. Work related things (which is kitchen, family, education, hobby) for me need to be visible and accessible. So this desk is a dream for me. Glass see through-ness, my computer is visible, but not in my way physically. I can access the buttons on it easily. If I have a problem with it, it won’t be so hard to get it up on my desktop and work on it, either.

Frank’s desk is still in it’s box. It’s a maple-laminate and metal sort of desk. It’s not the usual cheap laminate desk (what I think about when I think about put-together cheap furniture.) It has a slim appearance, but lots of horizontal space for all that active paperwork he’s involved with. With this desk he’ll be able to be more organized as well.

It’s all good.

Hens and dog again

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I just moved the Leghorn pen, the slow way, inch by inch, pull this side, pull that side, straighten that part, pull again … etc.

I checked for eggs there this morning, much earlier, and noticed dirt next to the pen, and a hole right there. There were no eggs in the pen. Victoria had said yesterday that there were 3 eggs in there. I hadn’t gotten them, they should have been there today. But they weren’t, and I can venture to say what it was. Not really a guess, just a “didn’t see it” but evidence is high enough to understand it.

Doggie ate baby bird today. Doggy must have dug next to and under the hennie pen to get those eggs. They don’t have a nest box in there right now, so they’d be available if they were near to the side of the pen. Doggy has never done this before. Dug, yes. Dug into the pen? No.

There are several white feathers all over the pen. It’s my guess that he did the deed earlier this morning, he was out loose all night. He had been in his crate all afternoon because of the thunderstorms, so I let him out last night to run free, didn’t put him in his own pen out there. I should have. He just must have scared the whities, and some lost a few feathers in fright, they all were there, and looked aright. [yes, that's it, "aright" not a mispelling!]

I just didn’t realize that the baby birds would be out of their nest so soon, or that the dog would dig to get eggs ever. Dumb me. I knew previous to yesterday that I wanted the dog put away from about then on “because of the possible mocks out of nest soon”. Kick myself a bit there.

So I finally decided it’s best to move the hens further from that hole the dog made. I moved them a bit, then more, then figured since I was doing it inch by inch and I’d done that much, it’s not much harder to just keep going and move them out to totally fresh grass. I’m bad about it when Frank’s not here and I don’t feel well. So now that I’m thinking on it I do need to give them a box again. I’ll try and get them one a bit later, the sun is brutal at this hour still.

I did get one egg from that pen this afternoon. The A-frame biddies haven’t laid a thing in a few days, and just one egg before that, and very little before that. They look fine. Nice and red combs and all that. Figuring it’s time to turn on a light for them. Already. I don’t know, and don’t feel like looking it up, how much daylight we have this week each day, or how soon it gets down to much lower. All in all, the hens have laid when they’ve wanted to, in their second year, and don’t go by conventions sake at all. God knows why, but we don’t. :)

So when it comes down to it, those three eggs the dog got *most likely* really add up to be missed at this time of the year, especially seeing as the A-Framers haven’t contributed to the pot at all recently.