Long Update...
I just entered the following into my LiveJournal, crossposting here. YatPundit and YatCuisine are down for the moment.
I had a bad feeling about this one earlier last week. When they said it was going to go into the Atlantic side of FL, I was hopeful, but when it cut through southern FL and into the Gulf, my first thought was that the track was not that different from Betsy in 1965, and that was the last storm to hit New Orleans head-on.
I resisted the idea of bailing all through Friday and Saturday, but when I looked at the sat photos of the eye of the storm, even I got worried. So, I agreed with wife that we'd head up to see Her Majesty in Shreveport on Sunday. We left Sunday morning around 8am. We went north on the Causeway, west on I-12 to I-55, north on I-55 to I-20, and ended up in Shreveport eight hours later. Sunday night was a bit festive, since the kids were wired. Her Majesty has one of her three still at home, the youngest, who is 13. He's getting along well with my two. They have two extra bedrooms that belonged to the other two boys (one is on his own, the other is at university). We're in one room, my boys in the other.
Wife's company is more-or-less still operating. They don't have many new orleans customers, and everyone got out, so they're functioning as a virtual office. That keeps wife busy during the day, which is a good thing. We haven't heard from her mom since Sunday. Her mom and her brother, along with brother's wife and her mom's husband decided to ride it out at her mom's house in Gentilly. They lost the roof of the house in the initial storm, and we're not sure what happened after that. Obviously wife is worried.
The boys are just being boys. Justin brought his gamecube and has a portable monitor for it, so the three boys are geeking. Kev finally finished HBP on Monday. Justin's also working on his college applications.
Since we've established that wife can work wherever, we're going to head down to Planet Houston. My friend Steve lives there. We've made arrangements to get Justin in the catlick high school where his son goes. They have calculus and AP physics, so hopefully they can kick his ass for a couple of months. I haven't quite figured out what to do with Kevin just yet, but it's easier to catch up a sixth grader who reads like he does. Justin is coming up on real deadlines and such. He's got to take SAT2 tests for admission to MIT in October, and we've got to keep his NROTC scholarship application on track. We've booked a room at a residence inn on Planet Houston for a few weeks. Once we're down there, I can sit with Steve and sort things out better.
We've got no real reports on our house. We've seen aerial footage of Clearview Mall, and it didn't look so bad. I spoke to a friend who lives near us but closer to the lake and he's figuring we only got a foot of water or so. That's not all that bad, both in relation to the city and in terms of actual damage. We took wife's car up here, left my Cherokee up in the driveway. No clue what shape it's in, though. When they tell us the roads are passable and such, we'll go back and see what we can salvage.
Speaking of cars, on top of everything else, wife's car developed serious trouble. Justin mentioned last week that he had problems accelerating from a dead stop, but I never noticed it, so we took wife's car rather than my cherokee when we bailed. The problem turned out to be with the transmission--estimate $1400. We both agreed that money would be better spent on a new car. We did some shopping yesterday and tuesday, so now wife is the proud owner of a Dodge Stratus.
That leave me. I'm just bloody numb. The lakeview neighborhood that's been flooded is full of so many memories and experiences for me. I'm just numb. But still, when i see the relatively dry parts of downtown and the Quarter, my spirits are lifted. I've accounted for most of my friends, so if we can just get word about my m-i-l, that will lessen a lot of anxiety.
OK, enough for now...my e-mail is back operational. I spent the better part of today setting up a FreeBSD server in Her Majesty's hubby's office. He's got fixed-IP DSL, so I transferred the domains to that I'll try to bring YatPundit up this weekend. Keeps my mind off things until i can get some new gigs.
Love to you all, I really appreciate that you guys worry about us...*HUGS*
I had a bad feeling about this one earlier last week. When they said it was going to go into the Atlantic side of FL, I was hopeful, but when it cut through southern FL and into the Gulf, my first thought was that the track was not that different from Betsy in 1965, and that was the last storm to hit New Orleans head-on.
I resisted the idea of bailing all through Friday and Saturday, but when I looked at the sat photos of the eye of the storm, even I got worried. So, I agreed with wife that we'd head up to see Her Majesty in Shreveport on Sunday. We left Sunday morning around 8am. We went north on the Causeway, west on I-12 to I-55, north on I-55 to I-20, and ended up in Shreveport eight hours later. Sunday night was a bit festive, since the kids were wired. Her Majesty has one of her three still at home, the youngest, who is 13. He's getting along well with my two. They have two extra bedrooms that belonged to the other two boys (one is on his own, the other is at university). We're in one room, my boys in the other.
Wife's company is more-or-less still operating. They don't have many new orleans customers, and everyone got out, so they're functioning as a virtual office. That keeps wife busy during the day, which is a good thing. We haven't heard from her mom since Sunday. Her mom and her brother, along with brother's wife and her mom's husband decided to ride it out at her mom's house in Gentilly. They lost the roof of the house in the initial storm, and we're not sure what happened after that. Obviously wife is worried.
The boys are just being boys. Justin brought his gamecube and has a portable monitor for it, so the three boys are geeking. Kev finally finished HBP on Monday. Justin's also working on his college applications.
Since we've established that wife can work wherever, we're going to head down to Planet Houston. My friend Steve lives there. We've made arrangements to get Justin in the catlick high school where his son goes. They have calculus and AP physics, so hopefully they can kick his ass for a couple of months. I haven't quite figured out what to do with Kevin just yet, but it's easier to catch up a sixth grader who reads like he does. Justin is coming up on real deadlines and such. He's got to take SAT2 tests for admission to MIT in October, and we've got to keep his NROTC scholarship application on track. We've booked a room at a residence inn on Planet Houston for a few weeks. Once we're down there, I can sit with Steve and sort things out better.
We've got no real reports on our house. We've seen aerial footage of Clearview Mall, and it didn't look so bad. I spoke to a friend who lives near us but closer to the lake and he's figuring we only got a foot of water or so. That's not all that bad, both in relation to the city and in terms of actual damage. We took wife's car up here, left my Cherokee up in the driveway. No clue what shape it's in, though. When they tell us the roads are passable and such, we'll go back and see what we can salvage.
Speaking of cars, on top of everything else, wife's car developed serious trouble. Justin mentioned last week that he had problems accelerating from a dead stop, but I never noticed it, so we took wife's car rather than my cherokee when we bailed. The problem turned out to be with the transmission--estimate $1400. We both agreed that money would be better spent on a new car. We did some shopping yesterday and tuesday, so now wife is the proud owner of a Dodge Stratus.
That leave me. I'm just bloody numb. The lakeview neighborhood that's been flooded is full of so many memories and experiences for me. I'm just numb. But still, when i see the relatively dry parts of downtown and the Quarter, my spirits are lifted. I've accounted for most of my friends, so if we can just get word about my m-i-l, that will lessen a lot of anxiety.
OK, enough for now...my e-mail is back operational. I spent the better part of today setting up a FreeBSD server in Her Majesty's hubby's office. He's got fixed-IP DSL, so I transferred the domains to that I'll try to bring YatPundit up this weekend. Keeps my mind off things until i can get some new gigs.
Love to you all, I really appreciate that you guys worry about us...*HUGS*
