It was a very long week

We probably aren’t going to forget the week of 21 August 2017 for a while.  In our personal little world we have several reasons for recall and everyone in the Houston area has some in common. On Monday Mrs. W. had surgery. The Doctors had found cancer and she took their advice for the recommended surgery. Post-op they told us that it looked good but that the tissue results had the final say. Presented here but out of sequence the tissue results were what we prayed for. Now the surgery can be assigned it’s rightful place in the dustbin that is history.

The second was that we had a solar eclipse the day of surgery. Sally got to see that when she was being loaded into our car to go home. While writing this we asked her if she remembered seeing the eclipse. She had to think a bit but finally said that she did. Our family was waiting for her at the exit and handed her a set of eclipse glasses before she got into the car. I am told (but do not personally remember) that parts of our area also had a burn ban in effect at the start of the week.

​Tuesday was a pretty rocky day because of post-op symptoms and Wednesday wasn’t that great. The day after surgery there is no more pain killing effect from the anesthesia and things just hurt. Doesn’t have to be a major surgery for that to be true. Luckily our oldest daughter Ginny had taken time off to be with her mom and that was certainly a relief to me. Except, that is,  for the little matter of Ben.

I generally have things set up to minimize the steps needed for a task. I figure I only have a certain amount of steps left and I don’t want to squander them. These barrels and trash bins contain feed. Take a scoop and go down a half dozen steps and you can be broadcasting feed to the birds. Walk across the driveway and you can distribute to donkeys, goats, and llama. In other words I had accounted for everything except for the undeniable fact that I am a slob.

In prior stages of this evolving faux farm operation the chickens almost fought me when I was filling the feed bucket. When I screened the porch they tended to do that a lot less. Then the goat discovered that he could get out of his pen and into the feed barrel. That required me to make a door so everything was shut off the porch except for us humans. Then the food dropped behind the barrels was left to rot.

Well, it would rot that is, except for Ben. Ben is a cute little rodent of some variety I thought perhaps some type  of ground squirrel.  I don’t know much about rodents but this one came in and did the job that nobody else was able to do. Every time I would see this cute furry little critter a curious  song just seemed to break out in my head.

Ben, the two of us need look no more
We both found what we were looking for
With a friend to call my own
I'll never be alone, and you, my friend, will see
You've got a friend in me

Well, enough of that because when I think about it my allergies flare up and my eyes tear. No matter his origin or genetics Ben or possibly Bernice (even though it doesn’t have the same ring) serves a very useful purpose and only consumes the dropped food. It was a good relationship until Ginny saw him.

i was inside having just fed the critters when she came up the steps. I first became aware that there might be a problem when she expressed her alarm. I actually didn’t know what the sound was and as usual, I had flashbacks to submarines. I actually thought it was the diving klaxon or perhaps an animal had been injured. Imagine my relief to see it was one person and one that historically has been non-threatening.

For a period of time (it seemed like hours) I was plainly told that I should not allow that creature on the porch. I discovered much to my chagrin that Ben (referred to hereafter by daughter and spouse as the rat) was legend in our family. It seems that he was the reason none of our daughters wanted to cross our porch. I was told by our daughter and her mother that I needed to set rat traps. Neither seemed to understand that Ben served as the answer to a problem. I refused to take a lethal approach to this volunteer laborer (now labeled a rat)and decided to remove his job from the area.

I knew that Ben would follow the food and it would not be an easy job but what can you do? How far would you go to spare the life and freedom of such a valued partner.

It seems to me that happened on Tuesday and Wednesday was the day I first heard that there was a storm developing in the gulf. This delayed my plans. As I write this I have replaced the roof on Ben’s new workplace and made stronger feeding stations.

When the barrels empty I can move the food. It also appears that Ben has attracted a friend. With two of them it is even more important that they move to better (more distant) quarters.

An uneasy truce developed. Ginny went home but returned after the storm blew through Houston. One of our sons and one of our granddaughters lost everything in their homes and her help was very much appreciated.
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The status quo during that time was that if Ben remained unseen he could be tolerated. I always knew if she was about to cross our porch as I would be shaken by the now familiar klaxon sound. Since I am retired it presents no difficulty but if I were still on active duty I can see it being problematic.  I probably would no longer associate the diving alarm with an actual ships evolution and would look around Sonar for a rat.

 This is an official NOAA tracking chart. It was produced after the storm was over so it doesn’t represent some uncanny ability to predict. It’s just history.

Funny thing though. If these guys had printed out their predictions about 2-3 days before the storm hit, it would have looked about the same. They were uncanny as far as I’m concerned. In 2001 we experienced tropical storm Allison here in Houston. We had record rain and flooded downtown. It developed fast and bounced back over the gulf sucking up more energy. Took less than a day to have major problems.
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This storm, Harvey went from a tropical storm to a category 4 hurricane in about 48 hours. Hurricane strength winds died quickly but the water just kept being sucked up by the storm and dumped. It stalled over the coast and just kept raining, and raining, and raining...... Landfall was in the Rockport area. They took the major wind event (with water as well) but Houston was on the dirty side (north) and took record amounts of rain. Conroe (my home) had flooding but nothing on the scale of Houston. This massive rain caused the flooding that destroyed the contents of our son’s and granddaughter’s homes. It could have been much worse with even more massive destruction if Houston had been landfall.

I believe it hit Friday but I really do not recall for sure. We never had the type winds that made a day stand out. I do know that on Saturday evening we went out for a bite to eat. We had just returned and I was sitting around fat, dumb, and happy when we received a call from our daughter Rosa. It seems that the winds had snapped a tree and caused a downed fence and a possible electrical hazard. In the driving rain Kelly our son in law and I ran barbed wire through the tree branches so that the Llama wouldn’t try to get away. The fact that the tree was laying where the fence had been served to detain him temporarily. The goat was in his shelter and well, because goats hate rain he was not going to be an escapee. The major concern was that there was a downed power line but I had reason to believe was dead.

The power cable ran from the transformer across the street to a pole in my yard. The service was for a former neighbor and had been discontinued probably over ten years ago. These power wires are wrapped around steel cable and not broken easily. The sequence was obviously that the tree had fallen on the wires and cable. The wires would not part so the weight of the tree snapped the pole.The power cable ran out of my yard and across the street.

This roll had been hanging from the pole for over ten years but I was uncertain about the condition of the other end of the wire. I knew that it needed to be separated from the transformer. To say it was dark was an understatement so I didn’t know what was across the street and felt disinclined to explore.

I called the power company and reported the problem as a traffic hazard. The roads were wet and people don’t drive slowly past our house. The road has been a hazard to the neighborhood dogs and today it was to others as well. People would come speeding up, see the power cable, and slam on brakes. Then apparently they would decide  that a solid cable was no hazard and proceed on.

I called it in. Then I waited. And waited. I finally went to bed about 4 am and got up about 8. I went outside and headed to the street where the fire department was now pulling up. In the daylight I immediately noticed that the wire was pulled loose from the transformer on the other end. Therefore, It could not possibly contain electricity. That was Sunday morning and the heavy rains had slowed in our little slice of heaven. If there had been light the night before I would never have called it in. I dragged it into my driveway and considered it done. Felt pretty stupid but I’m not a bat and can’t see in the dark.
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Saw two repairmen that morning. Both responding to last nights call and relieved to not find another job. There had been over 2000 calls the prior night. No wonder they did not respond here. We lost electricity for about 2 minutes. Others still have no power. We were blessed.

I tried to manage the situation at the front fence by cutting the limbs that were sticking past the fence line. Figured it would take a while but there were others in far worse shape and the downed tree discouraged the llama. Then Rosa caught me cutting a limb with my 18v cordless saw. She looked at me with benevolent disapproval and made a comment that there were others with chainsaws.

I am only assuming a connection but I received a text in fairly short order from our son David who told me when he would be arriving. Since you can only saw for 10 minutes or so without charging a battery I hadn’t progressed far from the point where I was discovered. I told him there was no immediate need and things were under control. He said he would be there in less than two hours. He was on time.
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He (above), Kelly until he had to go to work, and I threw tree limbs into his trailer. As limbs would disappear I would restore the fence. It isn’t quite as well done as it was the first time but, it’s up and neither the goat nor the llama appear to want to challenge it. When we put the fence back together we were able to get out and see family members with damaged homes. It's depressing but they just bore up and did what was needed. 

One frustrating thing about this is that while we working on our place and others, our church was out and about the area helping where they could. They received donations from out of state and we wanted to volunteer but couldn't be two places at once. If you are at all interested in donating something this would be the facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/WoodforestChurch/. It's not a link so just cut and paste in your browser.  I think' Sally and I have "aged out" of the generation that provides disaster relief. 

Another subplot is that Friday, our son in law got home from his work at at a local power plant. The next day the water was over the bridge leading to our home. That effectively stranded him/us for the near future. We told everyone that we did not flood and our home did not. This is our car which was parked at a fairly high spot in the driveway. You can see the water line possibly six inches above the bottom of the door. There are splash marks up to 18" and that was not done while driving. 
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At some point during the week, both Kelly and Rosa went back to work. That evening she called him and said she was stranded. He took the tow dolly to get her and pulled her car into an auto zone to have the free diagnostic check. Then he tried to get her home and the tongue snapped on the dolly. Luckily he got into the parking lot of a repair shop. As I write this,the dolly and car are still there. Evidently the computer is trash.

I do not think it is coincidence that her computer fried (probably) the week we got the highest hurricane rainfall on record and our yard took perhaps up to 18” of water on the ground. It is reported that there were over 500,000 cars damaged by the flood. I think those that were obviously damaged don’t come close to being the whole picture.

Harvey moved out of the area more than a week ago and there are major roads that are still underwater. They just released more water from a large reservoir on the west side of town. There  are lawsuits pending, and the death toll is not close to counted. Montana is burning up, and here comes Irma. Our family is still safe except for two granddaughters who live in Florida and they scare me half to death.

There are just times that make one know whats important and whats not. I think this has been a series of those times. There is a lot of stuff one could write but it sounds like there is potential for worse in Florida. I’m out.