About time....

Well I guess it is about time I gave you another update. It has been a month or so and I have not been very faithful but I will try to do better......promise.

My first rotation couldn't have come at a worst time, the day after Ike hit I flew from Dammam to Amsterdam and then re-routed through Dallas. After a short layover in Dallas and a quick trip to Love Field, Josh and Diane met me at Intercontinental airport. I retrieved my bags and my lovely wife gave me a nice welcome home kiss and hug, we were loaded into Josh's truck headed to find some food. Luckily for me, the Saltgrass on 59 North was open and serving a full menu. We had a nice quick meal and then headed to Josh's apartment where Diane, Kimberly, nine dogs, and one cat took up residency during the storm.

News, news, and more news as I caught up on the happenings around Houston and the Galveston area. Unbelievable the destruction that storm did, taking out the Historic Balinese Room and other eating establishments along the seawall. As I sat and watch Channel 2 news I was amazed at what I was seeing as Frank Billingsley gave us tours from air, car and on foot. After a very restful sleep on my air mattress, and taking all the dogs for their morning walk,we all showered and got dressed. We loaded up the car with supplies and food to endure a day in the sun in TC. Josh and Diane had gone there on Sunday to check out any damage and fortunately we were spared. In all I think Texas City was probably spared the most thanks to our 22 foot levee system that surrounds the city. The storm water pumps did what they were designed to do and Moses Lake gate held back the storm surge. Eye witness encounters during the storm, have the water lapping over the gate and levee's but no flooding occurred. So off we went with no problems in traveling the short 45 minutes. Many billboards were blown down, massive amounts of glass rained down on Houston's downtown, and the number of trees, power lines, phone and cable lines could be seen hanging in threads was astronomical.

When we arrived the power was still off and I assessed the damage myself. Both fridge's were definitely going to need to be cleaned out but not bad, the freezer was in the worst shape as it was completely thawed and had begun to smell just a little. Lost a lot of limbs on the Arizona Ash in the back yard and the big Pecan tree, could see shingles missing here and there and part of the fence down between us and the Horan's. All in all not a lot but plenty to clean up. We donned our mosquito spray, gloves, safety glasses and old tennis shoes and started to work. Kimberly and a few of her church friends had started clearing some of the tree debris on Monday and had quite a bit already on the curb. I fired up the chainsaw and started whittling away at the pile of branches. As I cut Diane, Josh and Kimberly dragged it to the front yard making the stack grow by the minute. It took about an hour and a half to cut through the piles of Ash and Pecan but when I got finished I had a nice pile of firewood that needed to be cut in smaller pieces.

Kimberly and I took a break to go deliver some items and check on some friends houses as well as pick up some lunch at Wendy's. We checked out Mom and Pop's house, the church, Griff Temple's moms house, Sue and Ed's house and then the Texas City Dike. It was an unbelievable site, nothing was there but pier posts and power line poles leaned over. What was once a hot spot of bait camps, and some small restaurants, a lighted fishing pier at the very end was now gone completely washed or blown away. As we stood there and looked at the solitude I was in fear of what laid ahead for Texas City to rebuild or not. As many others were also there to see what was left, we each took our turn to turn around and head away from the destruction.

The rest of the day Kimberly and I began digging up the fence post that was broken during the storm. We replaced and poured concrete in that one and went to the other side of the yard and dug two more for new posts. The rest of the day was making lists for Lowe's of items that were required for the continuing clean up, fence materials, cleaning supplies, etc. After reviewing what we had accomplished that day, we were all exhausted and headed back to Josh's apartment. The welcome of the dogs was heard way before Josh stuck his key in the door, as they were ready to be let out for their well needed walk. On our way home we had stopped and picked up some Chinese so we had a quick dinner and then hit the showers. It felt good to get all of the grunge off our bodies and climb into a nice comfortable bed. Sleep came quickly as we lay there watching more news about the storm and the aftermath.

On Wednesday we loaded up all the dogs and headed for Texas City. Today they would all be bathed and groomed. Stephanie our groomer was back in operation and was willing to help us with the cause. Normally the dogs get groomed once a month with exception of a couple, but all were at least going for a bath and they needed them. After dropping them off, we headed back to the house and then to Lowe's. We stood in line for about 30 minutes as they were only letting about 5 people at a time go in. Once we got in, we got the much needed supplies, which included an Ike Extension ladder, an Ike Dewalt circular saw, and an Ike Power Tree Trimmer. We loaded up the truck with everything and headed back to the house to begin another days workload.

After putting together the new wood pile holder, Kimberly and I began putting fence together. It went pretty smooth and we were just adding the last new fence boards when Carl showed up with his crew. Carl is an interesting fella, he had four, well three men and a boy and wanted to know if I wanted the trees topped in the back yard. I told him that Diane had wanted someone to top them and he gave me a price. We discussed it and he said they would get started. Well let me tell you they were cutting branches left and right, cutting up pieces for Diane's new wood stack and then hauling the rest to the street. He also gave me a price on replacing shingles and I said he could do that the next day. All in all I came out ahead as my deductible was around $3200 and there was no way that we had that much damage. Kimberly was a great help and as we were starting to work on the fence on the other side of the yard, the power came back on. Unbelievable that it had only been off 5 days and we were back in business, the rest of Houston and surrounding area was still in the dark, thanks Texas New Mexico!

Well to make a long story short, we left Josh's apartment the next morning after Diane had woken up with the dogs thinking it was around 6 and it was really around 3:30. We all loaded up the vehicles thanked Josh for his hospitality (since we were being evicted by his apartment management anyway) and headed back to TC. We cleaned as much up as possible and then we had company for a week. Anne and Allan Brasier, Christopher's in-laws moved in with Tucker their dog and two cats. Kimberly and I helped them clean up their mess in Galveston as they got nearly 12 feet of water in their house which annihilated the bottom floor including Anne's car. After cleaning up as much debris as possible, we installed new Sheetrock, hung a new front door and two interior doors so the house could be secure. After a week they moved back in with gas and water but no electricity. Their power is now on and they are getting back to some sense of normalcy. We enjoyed being able to get to know them and Kimberly and I had a great time working with them to restore their lives. Galveston is just unbelievable, the destruction is nothing like what they showed on TV it is much worse. The debris on every street corner, the destruction of the Strand and its shops, and the brown vegetation and the smell will not be forgotten for a very long time.

Now I am back in Saudi doing my day to day necessities and planning for the long awaited marriage of my lovely daughter in November. It is said that it will be the event of the season as Candy Temple, well known designer and extraordinaire is helping her with getting all the pretties made and ready. Hope everyone else survived the storm as well as we did and that it is the last for a very long time. Take care to all and I hope to see you around or at the big event!