6 Months Ago Today

Today is the 6th month anniversary of Hurricane Ike.

Still haven't seen a dime from insurance.
Still live in a 35' motorhome in our neighbor's driveway.
Still have to do laundry in my neighbor's garage.
Still have the carcass of our home on our lot in it's exact same state.
Still thinking we'll have to file a lawsuit to get any insurance money.
Still think insurance companies are criminal.
Still haven't replaced even a fraction of our personal property lost.
Still don't have heat or ac at work.
Still sharing offices/officing in the hallways at work.


Still have a job.
Still have a wonderful family and great friends.

FEMA trailer park goes in at recreation field

This trailer park is right across the street from one of Jackson's baseball team practice fields. I'll attach some photos to this article this evening when we return from practice. The site used to be the practice field for the island's youth football team. They've even poured asphalt roads and everything!



By Leigh Jones
The Daily News
Published February 22, 2009

GALVESTON — Crews working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency have about three weeks to finish installing 55 mobile homes at the island’s first temporary trailer park.

Despite delays caused by recent rains and the ensuing mud, the park should open on time, agency spokesman Dan Martinez said.

The park, at 83rd Street and Stewart Road, will be home to about 200 people, depending on how many are in each family that moves into a mobile home, he said.

But hundreds more are still looking for somewhere to live.

The agency’s mobile home waiting list includes 180 families, and while officials think that number is likely to go down, some people will still not have a place to stay when the park at Schreiber Field is full, Martinez said.

The rest may be able to move to several smaller, scattered sites. The agency has not picked those sites.

Unless the agency extends the hotel voucher program again, about 1,200 families staying in hotels will have to find somewhere else to stay March 13.

The agency originally planned to install about 150 mobile homes on two island sites, but officials decided last month that only Schreiber Field would be necessary.

The former soccer field belongs to the school district, although it was used mostly as a community league practice site.

The federal government is not paying the district for the land, compensating it instead with the improvements made to the site.

To raise the field to meet federal regulations for mobile home sites, crews trucked in fill and have been working to pack it down to avoid drainage problems. Crews are running compaction tests to measure the stability of the soil, agency Spokesman Bill Lehman said.

Before each trailer can be set in place, the pad site must pass three of the tests, he said. About 20 trailers have been installed, with construction crews now working to build stairs and decking outside the doors.

The 9-acre site also will be surrounded with a privacy fence before families are allowed to move in.

Unless the city extends the deadline, the agency must remove the trailers by April 2010.

Before & After

This is something I've been wanting to do since Sept 13th. A Before & After photo comparison.

Let's start with my garden, since that's what's on my mind this time of year:


Big J, The Princess & our friend's daughter help me plant the initial goods


With the addition of the sign given to me by Bart's Dad, the garden is beautiful!!


I love the look of the blue birdbath in the midst of all those flowers


This shot is my favorite....MAN i loved that garden!


And here it is today, March 1, 2009


This is a cute shot of Big J, but what I want you to notice is our neighbor's beautiful front yard.


Here's that same shot today...no more mailbox or palm tree, etc


Our backyard, looking up from the dock, the summer of 2006 when we moved in


Same shot today. Be sure and notice the downstairs of the house and the lack of stairs outside!


This was part of our downstairs playroom when we first moved in...


Same view today


Edge of the office area and door to the upstairs then...


and today


Piano with Beethoven & credenza with printer then


and now


The downstairs bathroom then


same view today


View of the office area from a different angle


Same angle today...and for those of you who've had the tour, you may notice the kayak is gone...we found the owner!


The downstairs close that had Big L's clothes, the freezer & the extra fridge..


Hard to recognize today


Our beautifully landscaped street before...


Not exactly beautiful now

I hope you found this little comparison as interesting as I did. Especially now, almost 6 months out, I get used to how things are now and I can hardly even remember how they were before. Makes me remember why I fell in love with our wonderful little piece of heaven in the first place.

So it's been about 5 1/2 months now since Hurricane Ike. While the island IS making amazing progress towards recovery, I'm constantly reminded of just what a sloooow process that is. As for us personally.....nothing. We are now waiting on insurance to respond to our demand. As I posted previously, they *finally* sent an adjuster out to look at the house, and we've been promised his numbers every day since. Now their latest tactic is to question whether or not our house was eligible to be insured on the ground floor. For those of you who don't have to worry about that stuff, what that means is simply whether or not the house was built before 1973 when the new codes limited building on the ground floor. Because ours was build in the late '60's, it was "Grandfathered" meaning it could be insured on the ground floor. The only way to prove that fact, however, is to go down to the County Courthouse and have them pull the property tax records. They simply go backwards until they find the first year that didn't list an improvement on the property. Then they certify it as the year your house was built. Well, wouldn't you know, that's just not good enough for this insurance company. They want something else proving that it was THIS house that was on the lot in 1973. As you can imagine, no such records exist. As far as I'm concerned, it's just another delay tactic in a long line of acts that border on criminal. Do I get 6 months to pay my premiums? I think not. In the meantime, we're submitting the paperwork fo our mortgage financing and permitting will be in place the minute we are free to demo the carcass. It's hard to believe it will ever actually happen.

So here's a look at how some people are coping (or not) with Ike and their homes:


you see lots of this...For Sale by Owner/As Is. Notice it's still boarded up from the storm. It appears that nothing has been done to it since, and due to its location on Broadway, it most definitely took on water.


These folks opted for demolition. Don't know if they took the buyout, which would mean the lot can never be built on again, or if they have enough insurance to rebuild on the same lot.


I love this....the Raising Up. This costs around $30k For a small house like this is not covered by insurance. I wonder if FEMA contributed?


This place looks totally abandoned....much like ours! I assume they, too, are waiting to hear from insurance so they can decide what to do. I wonder where they live right now?




And here are a couple of infamous FEMA trailers. I didn't do a good job of capturing how they really look....just stuck in your front yard, with your old house in the background. FEMA installs them with the steps & porch, and the connection to utilities, which consists of a very visible sewer pipe running across your yard and connecting to the cleanout. Definitely not meant to be pleasing to the eye...just a down-to-basic place to lay your head. These people have been living in hotels for 5 months while waiting on the trailers, which first appeared a couple of weeks ago.


After being in Houston last weekend, I've finally faced reality. Spring has sprung here on the Gulf Coast and any trees that still look like this (which is 95% of the trees on the island, excluding palms) have a very unsure future. Live Oaks are supposed to be covered in bright green leaves this time of year, already providing shade. Our friends in NOLA say it takes 3 years before you know for sure their fate...they *may* come back, but not until then. I just wonder how many of them will be here once June 1st rolls around. Hurricane season makes people very nervous about possibly dead trees. And I can't imagine the whole island looking like winter for 3 years!!

STORM-TATTERED SAILS

Galveston's Elissa vessel undergoing repairs after Ike
By HARVEY RICE Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 7, 2009, 5:34PM

San Diego sailmaker Jim Brink has worked on outfitting vessels for such movies as Master and Commander and Pirates of the Caribbean.


REFITTING ELISSA
The fore lower topsail on the 1877 sailing ship Elissa was shredded by Hurricane Ike. Jim Brink, one of the few traditional sailmakers in the country, is crafting a new sail for the official tall ship of Texas.

• Sail area : 630 square feet

• Top width: 47 feet

• Bottom width: 52 feet

• Height: 14 feet

Source: Sailmaker Jim Brink
The iron-hulled vessel, the pride of the Galveston Historical Foundation and the official tall ship of Texas, came through with relatively minor damage considering the forces it encountered, but the fierce winds shredded one of its most important sails.

Only about a half-dozen traditional sailmakers exist in the country with the skill to make a replacement for the Elissa’s fore lower topsail, and Jim Brink is one of them.

Brink, 54, will use the experience gained over 30 years of sailmaking to craft a new 630-square-foot fore lower topsail, also known as a storm sail and the last of the Elissa’s 19 sails to be furled in a storm.

Brink began the task a week ago by spreading panels of sailcloth over a pattern taped to the floor of the ballroom at the 1859 Ashton Villa, one of the historic homes maintained by the foundation.

The 33 sections cut from the patterns will be sewn together at the Texas Seaport Museum at Pier 21 in Galveston Harbor, where the Elissa is moored.

The entire process of making the sail takes about three weeks, Brink said.

He is doing the job at a cut-rate price of about $5,000, which was raised from donations by the Elissa’s volunteer crew.

“I’ve worked for other ships, but this has always been my favorite,” said Brink, who rates the Elissa as the best-maintained traditional sailing ship in the country.

From lark to profession
Brink stumbled into his line of work in 1974 when he was a 19-year-old freshman at Kalamazoo College in Michigan.

On a lark, he took an off-campus course that involved working on the Romance, a brigantine built in the 1930s based in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Capt. Arthur Kimberly put Brink to work on his first sail, an unfinished square sail begun by someone else.

“He said, ‘You better finish this, or it will never get done,’” Brink recalled. It took a month, but he finished it.

He had been on the Romance for 18 months when the captain offered him a berth as sailmaker on an around-the-world cruise.

“I was young, looking for adventure,” he said. Brink accepted and in doing so stepped into a profession that preserves a skill that has all but died out in the U.S.

He spent three years on the Romance, then worked on a Danish merchant training sloop before working in Great Britain for a spell.

Tradition alive in Europe
Few traditional sailmakers remain in the U.S., he said, but Europe continues to foster the skill. Unlike the U.S., the Europeans still bestow the title of master sailmaker, he said.

Modern sailmaking lofts use computer-designed sails cut with lasers.

Brink, now based in San Diego, worked for the sail loft in Maine that crafted the first set of sails for the restored Elissa about 20 years ago and has worked on her sails ever since.

The sail work needs to be completed in time for the Elissa to make its first scheduled outing for a day trip into the Gulf with a volunteer crew on March 20.

Big plans for museum
Although the damage to the Elissa was relatively light, the storm severely damaged the workshop needed to keep it in repair and wrecked the pier so badly that it must be replaced, foundation executive director Dwayne Jones said.

The museum was filled with 4 feet of water, damaging the exhibits.

Jones said the foundation wants to build a better museum as it repairs the damage.

Repairs and enhancements will cost from $2.5 million to $3 million, he estimated.

The foundation still is waiting to hear from its insurance companies and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which may or may not lend financial assistance, Jones said.

The museum won’t reopen for at least a year, he said, but when it does, it will feature a redesign by student architects at the University of Houston who donated their time.

A donor, whom Jones declined to name, has commissioned a work of public art by the Mary Miss Studio in New York to commemorate the immigrants who entered the U.S. through the port of Galveston.

The artwork, which is still being designed, will be based at the Seaport Museum but could have pieces in other parts of the island, he said.

harvey.rice@chron.com

Debris from Hurricane Ike fills Galveston Bay

Texas has a record $39 million to spend on the cleanup that could start this week
By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 8, 2009, 10:14PM

Underwater Ike debris Follow rebuilding efforts as Galveston recovers from Ike Hurricane Ike littered Galveston Bay with easy chairs, mattresses, refrigerators, motorcycles and sunken shrimp boats. They’re easy to miss from above, but the scope of the cleanup ahead is coming into focus.

The Texas General Land Office, which is responsible for protecting the coast, has pinpointed nearly 600 large pieces of underwater debris after surveying about one-fifth of the bay.

The sonar scans will continue through February, but the cleanup could begin as soon as this week, with the goal of finishing before the next hurricane season begins, on June 1.

Texas has set aside $39 million for the cleanup, the largest of its kind in the state’s history. Officials said they expect reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“On the plus side, the bay will be cleaner than before,” said Jim Suydam, spokesman for the General Land Office.

For years, hundreds of abandoned barges, shrimp boats and recreational vessels have cluttered the bayous, bays and shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

Ike’s surge deposited even more debris into the shallow waters of Galveston Bay, one of the nation’s largest and most productive estuaries.

The debris is a hazard to navigation and a potential problem for the environment. For example, the storm-tossed debris has helped destroy half of the bay’s oyster reefs, officials say.

Areas hit hardest
Surveys show that most of the debris is along the Texas City Dike and in the East Bay behind the Bolivar Peninsula, which took the brunt of the September storm.

“We’re finding a little bit of everything,” said Dan Rackard, marine operations manager for CrowderGulf, the Alabama company surveying the bay for the Texas land office.

The company is using a side-scan sonar to map the garbage in the water.

It’s methodical work, requiring specially equipped boats to trawl the bay in straight lines, as if mowing a 660-square-mile lawn.

Although the surveys will take a few more weeks to complete, there is enough information to start the cleanup, Suydam said.

Legislative action
Until recently, the Texas land office, which is responsible for draining sunken and abandoned vessels of their hazardous contents, had no authority to remove them from waterways.

The Legislature in 2005 passed a law enabling the state to help clean up the maritime trash and making it a misdemeanor to dump a boat in Texas waters. But the land office had only a couple hundred thousand dollars to start, enough to make a small dent in the problem.

The state loaned the land office the money for the Ike-related cleanup, expecting to be reimbursed by the federal government.

The intent is to clean the bay before hurricane season. Louisiana hadn’t cleaned up the marine debris from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 before Gustav added to the mess last year.

“Everyone is fighting June 1,” Rackard said. “We would like to get it all cleaned up before then, because we’ve had problems in Louisiana. We’re cleaning up Katrina, and now we’re cleaning up Gustav, too.”

Colliding with debris
Boaters and fishermen also want the underwater debris cleared before higher temperatures draw more people to the bay.

Bob Stokes, president of the Galveston Bay Foundation, an environmental advocacy group, said he has received reports of boats colliding with unseen debris from Ike. “I don’t think the bay is pockmarked,” he said, “but I think it’s enough to be a problem.”

matthew.tresaugue@chron.com

The Day I Thought Would Never Come

I still can't believe how long it took, but yes it finally happened. The adjusters for our agent's E&O policy *finally* came to look at our house today! Just 112 days after the storm, no biggie. Now we get to wait and see how bad they try to whittle down or Professional Estimator's estimate. Yee ha.

I know I've been very lax about posting and updating after all my big promises. But like I said earlier, if I'm not posting it's because I've lost my sense of humor and am really struggling. December and January were rough. Really rough.

Conditions at work have not improved. We still have no heat or A/C, are still crammed into the 2nd floor of our building, with cords taped all over the floor and sharing offices. My "office", which I share, is really a reception area outside the director's office, so it's basically Grand Central Station all day long. Not conducive for accounting. I have no place to lock up confidential documents like payroll and my normal system is all amok. If you know accountants you know they cannot function outside their own system. It's chaos and I'm helpless to change it. Thanks to Big L for keeping me focused on the big picture...that I'm helping keep an organization afloat that is crucial to the rebirth of the island. Without that I'd probably have quit months ago and just stay curled in the fetal position at the back of the RV!!

School has also been a huge stresser. Before Ike we absolutely loved our school and I had a great working relationship with our fab Principal. Since the storm, however, another elementary school (Burnet) has been combined with ours. Their whole faculty, including their Principal are now at our school. Their front staff is mixed with our front staff. All "specials" like Music and Art have 2 teachers now. Our cheer team got absorbed by their drill team, etc. And everyone knows that they are now competing for the same jobs because Burnet is closed indefinitely. We've already been told that next school year will look like this one as far as which schools are open and where students are located. That means that the Parker/Burnet faculty are in competition for one set of teaching positions and there will only be one Principal that makes the cut. This is very scary news, considering I've had my only issues with faculty members in the last couple of months, and they both happen to be Burnet faculty.

I'm going to resist the temptation to post those stories. I'd love to get some feedback on them, but now I have some friends that work at the school that read this blog so I'd better refrain.

So...until we hear the final verdict as to who is staying on at Parker and who is not, we are keeping our options for the next school year wide open. Looks like I have some visits to some other schools in my future....the kind you have to pay for. *sigh* I surely hope it doesn't come to that. I'm such a huge proponent of public education that it would be a very sad day for us for sure. But, nothing has been decided yet and there is still hope. What would we do without hope??

With that, I'm also going to start taking more photos of the island, like I did in the beginning, so you can see the progress. For those of you who don't live on the coast...have you ever seen a real live FEMA trailer? Do you know what they look like in the yard of a house? It's interesting and totally different that what I expected. Now that people are finally getting them, I'll post some pics for ya tomorrow or so.

Another blow for the Island....*sigh*

Shriners suspends repair of hospital, e-mail says

By Laura Elder
The Daily News
Published January 20, 2009

GALVESTON — Repairs of hurricane damage at Shriners Hospital for Children in Galveston have been halted, leaving in question the future of a world-renowned pediatric burn center and more than 300 jobs.

Although officials with the local hospital’s parent organization, Shriners Hospitals for Children, denied Monday they had announced mass layoffs and a possible permanent closure, employees and an e-mail obtained by The Daily News said otherwise.

In an e-mail to some University of Texas Medical Branch employees who might be affected by closure of Shriners, Dr. David N. Herndon, director of research for the Galveston hospital, said the Shriners board of trustees decided to suspend repair of the hospital damaged by Hurricane Ike and to stop operations except for maintenance work on March 31.

Herndon wrote he would this week meet with all interested parties about Shriners’ future.

The hospital faced difficulties after being damaged by Hurricane Ike on Sept. 13, but no layoffs had been announced to staff members, corporate spokeswoman Marlena Lagina-Kleine said Monday.

“The Shriners Hospital for Children suffered significant damage during Hurricane Ike that has yet to be fully remedied,” Lagina-Kleine said. “We are still investigating and assessing the damage of the hospital. Patients will continue to be treated at Shriners hospitals in other locations as appropriate.”

The island hospital has been closed since the storm.

Shriners officials have said as recently as November that the island hospital, ranked among the best pediatric burn treatment centers in the world, would reopen as soon as possible.

But four Galveston employees — some tearful — told The Daily News they were informed Monday the hospital likely would close for good and they would continue to receive pay until March 31. Those employees declined to give their names.

Officials told employees there was only a slight possibility the hospital could reopen, they said.

Should Shriners close its island hospital, which before the storm employed 325 people, it would be another blow to health care workers in the county and end a 50-year relationship between Galveston and the philanthropic group known for members who wear red fez hats.

Although the University of Texas Medical Branch does not operate the Shriners hospital, it works in concert with the facility at 815 Market St. Shriners hospital contracts with the medical branch for doctors and other medical services.

Shriners operates 22 hospitals specializing in pediatric care.

About 5,000 children from across the nation were treated each year at the Market Street hospital, which opened in 1996 and boasts an intensive care unit with 15 beds, a reconstruction and plastic surgery unit with 15 beds, three operating rooms, a multi-bed recovery room, clinics and a large outpatient population.

But Shriners’ island relationship goes back to November 1963, when the Tampa, Fla.-based philanthropic organization opened a seven-bed ward in the John Sealy Hospital to treat children with severe burns.

At the same time, Shriners began building the 30-bed pediatric burn hospital, which opened in 1966. The organization has treated about 18,000 children in Galveston since its inception.

Shriners Hospital for Children’s operating budget of about $34 million comes from an endowment.

Earlier this month, Shriners made news when it received a $120,000 donation from Devon Energy to repair storm damage.

Officials said the hospital would reopen when renovations and repairs were complete.

In November, administrators were working to get out a message that the island hospital would return and that rumors of its demise were wrong.

“The message we want to put out is that we were hurt badly, but we are not going away,” John Swartwout Jr., administrator for the hospital, told The Daily News.

At the time, its board of trustees had extended hazard pay to hospital employees until Jan. 1.

Employees have been out of work or displaced since the hurricane sent a surge of more than 2 feet into the hospital’s first floor. The hospital sustained major damage.

Hurricane Ike’s hit to health care on the island has been staggering. Storm surge flooded 750,000 square-feet in buildings on the medical branch campus, which is yards from Galveston Bay.

With hurricane expenses and lost revenues of about $710 million, the medical branch, home to research facilities, the state’s oldest medical school and John Sealy Hospital, in November began laying off 3,000 people.

After making storm repairs, John Sealy Hospital opened 200 beds to the general public in a sharply downsized facility.

John Sealy Hospital’s emergency room, however, still is operating on a treat-and-transfer or treat-and-release basis.

Mainland editor T.J. Aulds contributed to this report.

Galveston Officials Paint Bleak Picture to Lawmakers After Ike

Galveston officials paint bleak picture to lawmakers after Ike

12:20 AM CST on Thursday, January 8, 2009

Associated Press

GALVESTON, Texas -- Galveston officials pleaded with state lawmakers on Wednesday to help them rescue their island city from the dire financial straits it finds itself in nearly four months after Hurricane Ike caused devastating damage.


Galveston officials paint bleak picture after Ike
January 7, 2009 View larger E-mail Clip More Video Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas and City Manager Steve LeBlanc painted a bleak economic picture of their city for members of a legislative committee meeting on the island.

They told lawmakers that despite a hiring freeze and a 3 percent pay cut for all employees, layoffs are imminent and that property tax revenues will be down by up to 40 percent.

About 75 percent of the homes in Galveston, about 50 miles southeast of Houston, sustained some damage from Ike’s 110-mph winds, rain and 12-foot storm surge when the storm came ashore near the city on Sept. 13.

“We’re getting to the point of being desperate for help,” LeBlanc said. “If there is no help from the state, we might have to cut back on city services severely.”

Galveston, which has an annual budget of about $80 million, also needs help to pay for the $178 million in damage Ike caused to buildings, roads and other infrastructure, LeBlanc said.

Thomas and LeBlanc asked lawmakers for financial help, including letting the city temporarily keep most or all of the sales tax revenue it usually gives to the state and apply for long-term, low cost emergency loans.

“By rebating the sales tax for a set time for areas devastated by Ike you would be enabling us in the Gulf Coast to rebuild our homes and mitigate against future disasters,” Thomas told members of the House Select Committee on Hurricane Ike. Audience members applauded.

LeBlanc said the city applied for help from the Disaster Contingency Fund, created by the Legislature in 2007 to provide money and other help for local governments after a natural disaster.

But the city was turned down because lawmakers never appropriated money for the fund.

LeBlanc also implored the committee to help the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston—the area’s largest employer and a major provider of indigent care in Southeast Texas—recover from the damage it suffered during Ike.

UTMB officials originally estimated the state’s oldest medical school sustained about $710 million in damages from Ike.

On Wednesday, UTMB leaders told lawmakers damages are now estimated to be more than $1 billion. Only about $100 million of that was covered by insurance.

The massive damage at UTMB prompted the UT System Board of Regents to lay off 3,000 employees and reduce the number of beds at the medical facility’s public hospital from 550 to 200.

The downsizing has prompted some, including Thomas, to question whether UTMB and the UT regents are committed to restoring the facility.

Both UTMB President Dr. David Callender and UT System Regents Chairman H. Scott Caven Jr. told the committee they remain focused on restoring the facility.

“We want to bring UTMB back to the level of excellence it had before Ike,” Callender said.

Callender said UTMB plans to ask the Legislature during its session this year for an emergency appropriation of about $335 million to help pay for business losses as well as damaged equipment and buildings.

Callender said UTMB could eventually be a 500-bed facility but not all of these beds might be located on the island’s hospital.

Wednesday’s hearing was the final one for the committee, which plans later this month to submit its report about how local governments as well as the state responded to Ike.

Christmas Whirlwind

So the last time I posted, it was just to cut and paste and article about me and GHF in the Austin American-Statesman just after Dickens on the Strand. Since then, things have been going at a feverish pace. First of all, Dickens weekend was 2 weeks before our trip to Cali, with other friends & family Christmas parties on the weekend in between. With shopping, work, packing, PTO, etc. those 2 weeks went by in a total blur of activity. Then FINALLY we were on vacation. And so the fun began...

First off, thanks to Santa coming to Sacramento we had 8 checked bags for 6 people, plus a carry-on per person. Trying to manage all that plus my Dad in a wheelchair made the airport an adventure, but we were able to board without too much ado. When we arrived in Oakland, the weather was beautiful. I took the shuttle to get our reserved van while Big L man-handled the luggage, the kids and Dad. That's where I encountered problem numero uno. The van that National had reserved for me was NOT a full-sized van capable of handling 6 people and 11 bags, but was instead a mini-van. In fact, they didn't even HAVE full sized vans. Considering I'd have a very specific conversation about our needs with the reservationist, I was NOT happy. Not to mention my phone was dead and I actually had to call Big L COLLECT from a PAY PHONE. When's the last time you used a payphone? Do you know what happens when you call another cell phone collect? Me either. Turns out you wait on the other end while that person inputs a credit card number, billing address, zip code, phone number and DNA on the other end. Then you get to talk. Once I'd informed Big L as to the situation, I procedeeded to go to every rental car company withing walking distance begging for a van. Finally, at the Budget counter, I found one company that rented full-sized vans in the entire airport. He had one left. He was supposed to get his manager's permission before renting it. He called the manager and got no answer. My tears worked, and he rented me the van without the manager's approval, although considering the bill I doubt the manager was anything less than ecstatic!

So, finally we set off on our drive to Sacramento, which was a glorious drive. We could see San Francisco, the Golden Gate and the Oakland Bay Bridge all from our windows. When we finally checked into our hotel, we finally felt like we were on vacation. Two bedrooms, one with a king and one with 2 queens, 2 bathrooms and a Christmas tree that my sister had put up for us earlier that day. WOOHOO!!

It took me a few days to really relax, though, and not feel like i was carrying an elephant on my shoulers. We played 42, we ate (thanks to Big L's cooking!), we shopped, we went to church and we wrapped. My sister and I compared stocking stuffers down to the last piece of gum to make sure Santa was equitable to both the Texan kids and the West Coasters. We made sure to only use special Santa paper and tags, never before seen by anyone under the age of 16. And best of all....we went to the snowpark in the foothills on the way to Tahoe! All of us had an absolute BLAST sledding down the hill. At one point, the kids and Big L made snow forts in the woods and had a giant snowball fight...it was awesome.

Then we hunkered down for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which were wonderful.

On the 26th, which was my nephew's 9th birthday, we out for Sushi and Japanes food which really hit the spot after our Prime Rib dinner the night before. And all too soon, it was time to pack up the clothes and loot and head home.

At the Oakland airport, we got off the rental shuttle in the middle of a boulevard type road. We had to cross the street to get to the terminal. It took 2 carts to get all our luggage, plus each of us pulling/carrying a carry on bag. In the midst of this chaos, mom accidentally misjudged the edge of a wheelchair ramp and my Dad, who was riding on the seat of his walker while she pushed, ended up falling straight backward on his head in the street, pulling my mom over with him. Everyone ran to help, and by some miracle we got him up and back sitting on his walker seat where he stayed until we could go in and get a wheelchair. He had a strawberry on the back of his head and his right elbow was bruised....same elbow that caused his hospitalization just a few months ago. Needless to say, I was pretty rattled by that incident.

The flight home was nice...the kids and I all with our new iPods in our ears. Once we landed, though, chaos insued again. This time in the form of a broken walker, compliments of Southwest Airlines. We got down to baggage claim with Dad in a wheelchair, and Mom and Big L gathered all our bags off the belt while I filed a claim in the baggage office. Luckily they had a loaner walker right there for him to use to get home. Big L retrieved the truck and we loaded up to go home. Due to the walker issue, we were much later than planned getting home, and most importantly picking up our dogs!! Our pet loving friends had graciously hosted the little fur angels for the holidays and we were anxious to get our hands on them.

The next day, we must've been wiped out becuase the first time the kids woke up and, as a result, I woke up, it was 1pm!!! Now that's only 11am Cali time, but STILL. Finally, we started to unload the bags that Big L had stored in Bart's garage overnight, and we realized what had happened. We had a bag that belonged to someone else. And we were short a bag. One that held nothing but kids' Christmas gifts. The Wii and all components, plus a lot of other nonsense. At this point I looked at Big L and said "vacation's over!"

We loaded the bag that some poor person somewhere was probably frantic over, and we headed back to the airport. So much for all the laundry and cleaning we were going to get done! By some miracle, SWA still had our bag, and we were able to make the switch. They did, however, give me a bit of a lecture on checking names on bags before leaving. I relayed the message to Big L who said "that's easy when you're not handling 11 bags, 2 monkeys and 2 80 year olds, one of whom is in a wheelchair!!"

hmmm....good point.

And so, with that, we are back to our "normal" lives...hahaha! I *think* today is the day that our attorney files a demand letter with our insurance agent's E&O policy. I sure hope so becuase it gives them 30 days to look at the evidence (aka the carcass of our house) before we can finally bulldoze it. 30 days and counting!

Nearly three months after Hurricane Ike, Galveston's Dickens on the Strand street festival goes on

Nearly three months after Hurricane Ike, Galveston's Dickens on the Strand street festival goes on
Island residents, struggling to regain their lives, welcome visitors
By Helen Anders

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Sunday, December 07, 2008

GALVESTON — The ghost of Jacob Marley sported a wan smile as he shambled down the Strand on Saturday amid a few thousand visitors to the island's annual Dickens on the Strand street festival.

"It's sad in a way," said the ghost — actually playwright Timothy Evers of Houston, dressed, like many others, in a Charles Dickens-themed costume for the festival. He nodded toward the crowd, much thinner than the event's usual assemblage. "But it's good seeing this many people here, because this place has been just a ghost town."

"There are more people on the Strand today than in the last 89 days combined," said a broadly grinning Tom Schwenk, president of the Galveston Historical Foundation , which organizes the event. "I looked around this morning and said, 'We won.' "

It is, indeed, a dickens of a Christmas for Galveston, with costumed locals smiling gamely for visitors but not quite able to banish from their faces the strain of their struggle to regain their lives in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

Nearly three months after the storm, about a third of the city's residents still can't live in their homes. Three-fourths of the island's structures were damaged. Only the maternity ward is open at Galveston's one hospital, the University of Texas Medical Branch. Trauma patients have to be airlifted to Houston.

And in the Strand, where up to 12 feet of water coursed through stores on Sept. 13, only a handful of street-level businesses have reopened. Hardly any of the stores were insured.

"We didn't think we needed it," said Kristen Birkelbach, owner of Funky Monkey on the Strand, whose store was badly damaged and remains closed. "The Strand never floods."

On Saturday, she and her father, Roy Birkelbach, ran a vendor booth on the street, selling sock monkeys and decorative items.

The Strand did flood during Hurricane Ike, because the storm pushed water in from Galveston Bay. Birkelbach isn't sure she can reopen her store.

"I lost a lot," she said. "I'm just really struggling. But we'll see. I've already sold two picture frames today. It's really encouraging."

The two-day Dickens on the Strand, usually the island's biggest street festival of the year, going on into the night amid strings of lanterns, is seen by many Galvestonians as emblematic of their efforts to recover.

"The Strand really is the heartbeat of the community," said historical foundation executive director Dwayne Jones, who admits there's a lot of despair on the island right now.

This year's festival is scaled back. It closed at 6 p.m. Saturday and will again today because so few downtown buildings have electricity (power is restored, but many electrical systems were damaged by salt water), and the festival lanterns were damaged in the storm.

The city can't even make any money from parking; all the meters were destroyed by the flood.

The historical society, which reaps ticket money from the event, is hoping that by today's close, the festival will have attracted half of last year's 32,000 visitors.

"I hope they get more people. Right now, it's looking kind of sad," said Mecie Hardin, who drove down from Houston to attend the festival. "I think just that they put it on is a huge accomplishment."

The first Dickens on the Strand was staged 35 years ago to raise money to establish the downtown business district. This year, the intent is to bring that district back.

Nancy Kitchel, the historical foundation's comptroller, wore a Victorian costume she'd just purchased, because the one she'd worn in past years was destroyed when waves crashed through the first floor of her family's two-story home on Laguna de Oro, a few blocks from the bay.

After strolling through the festival with her family, Kitchel tallied receipts Saturday by the beam of a battery-operated lantern inside a Strand building without electricity.

The festival, she said, "is festive and happy, and the island needs it" — not just for the economy, but for morale.

That Kitchel was smiling was a testimony to that. Her family's Christmas tree is in the 35-foot motor home the family is living in. It's parked near their house, which they evacuated before the storm, never dreaming that it would be ripped apart.

"I put a few things on my bed, thinking we might get a few feet of water," she said. Instead, when she, her husband, Larry, and their two children returned, they found the bedroom walls in shreds. The bed was gone. So was her piano and a dresser, though its intact mirror rested in the backyard.

In the next room, Larry's office, was a kayak. It's still there. They have no idea whose it is.

But they had insurance, and they plan to rebuild in the same place, where they've lived for two years.

"Moving here (from Friends-

wood) was a dream come true," Kitchel said. "We love the island."

Kitchel's colleague Molly Dannenmaier, the historical society's marketing director, feels the same way. Her home, built in 1897 in the historic part of Galveston, survived the famous 1900 hurricane, and it survived this one.

"Structurally, it's absolutely fine," she says. But more than 2 feet of water flooded the first floor, which she'd just remodeled to accommodate her disabled mother. They're living in a rental property she and her family own that wasn't damaged.

Dannenmaier hasn't had time to get started on rehabilitating her house because she's been so busy working on the Dickens festival, but she said that's probably a good thing.

"If I weren't working," she said, "I can't imagine my state of mind."

Dickens on the Strand, she said, is a show of Galveston's spirit.

Galvestonians Josh and Donna Tall said that's exactly why they were attending the festival. "It's a sense of community," Donna Tall said. "That's the way Galveston's going to come back."

handers@statesman.com, 912-2590


The official town crier in Sidney by the Sea, British Columbia, Kenny Podmore was well-suited – once he donned his Victorian-era garb – to lead the parade at Dickens on the Strand on Friday. Photo by Jay Janner - Austin American Statesman


Nancy Kitchel, comptroller of the Galveston Historical Foundation, thought her home on Laguna de Oro would only see a few feet of water when Hurricane Ike struck. She and her family are planning to rebuild on the same spot. Photo by Jay Janner


Nancy Kitchel – with daughter Emma, 8, son Jackson, 7, and husband Larry – lost a costume to Ike but bought a replacement to participate in this year's Dickens on the Strand. 'The island needs it,' she said of the festival, whose organizers hope to draw half as many attendees as last year. Photo by Jay Janner


Nearly three-quarters of Galveston's buildings – like the historic Hendley Building on the Strand – were damaged by Ike, and salt water damaged many electrical systems on the island. Festival lanterns were soaked, and the city's parking meters were wiped out. Photo by Jay Janner

As copied from the Austin American-Statesman

Being Sick in an RV

is just no fun. I'll leave it at that....and hopefully be back to blogging soon. UGH!

Being Thankful

Of all the Thanksgivings I've celebrated, this one seems the most poignant. So...I'm going to list some things I'm thankful for, in no particular order, just as they pop in my head. And I'm not going to list the obvious things like God, my husband, family and friends! There, got those out of the way, now here it is:

my doggies (thank you God for making them!!)
a paying job
kids that still believe in the Magic of Christmas
wireless internet
my red fluffy robe (thanks Becky!)
online shopping
light in the laundry area (thanks Bart!)
the ability to buy plane tix/hotel room for a week in Cali for Christmas
Evanescence (a new release would be nice people)
Twilight (times like these you really appreciate a good escape)
my iPod (which I found when I cleaned out my car!)
the KBM's (I know, I said no friends on the list, but these girls...well....)
Aggie Football (yes, even this year)
beer (see above)
35 feet of warm, cozy home
Keurig coffee makers
digital photos
coconut cream pie
nail salons
satellite radio
KBM reunion trips (I *need* one in 2009!)
my blackberry (see references to KBMs)
cleaning wipes (sprays are so last decade)

It's possible that I'll edit this post and add to the list, but you have to cut it off somewhere. Happy Thanksgiving and you might try making your own list!

They're Coming to Take Me Away....Haha!

Tomorrow is the 10 week anniversary of our good buddy Ike, so I decided it's time to blog it up again! I've been absent for a bit because 1. my sister was in town from California over the weekend and 2.my *new* lappy had to be shipped to Dell to replace the CDRom drive and 3. nothing new to report :-(

Yes, we are still here, in the RV, waiting. We DID have some activity this week, though. The windstorm adjuster came out with a roofer to get an estimate on our roof (he first came 4 wks ago and we've heard nothing since). Who knows when we'll hear the results of the roofer's exam. Then, our Public Adjuster had his Estimater come out and inspect the house from top to bottom. He's supposed to have his estimate to us the week after T-giving. At that time, WE will be the holdup if we don't have our inventory of lost items ready, so I'm busy working on that.

The best part of everything is.....CHRISTMAS! The kids and I are in the Spirit and already listening to Cmas music, etc. I'm getting daily deliveries at work, thanks to online shopping, which is super fun as well. I've taken over a closet in Bart's house for my "official stash". And all of this will yield some great entertainment here on the old blog, because with the beginning of Christmas comes......THE ELVES!!

What are the elves? Funny you should ask....you'll love this. You see, Santa has this fabulous Foster Elf program, where he will actually allow his elves to spend the Holiday Season with you! Yep, the *real* elves from the North Pole! They arrive at our house sometime the weekend after T-giving (we get 2, one for each child) and they stay until Christmas Eve, when they sit by the fireplace and wait for Santa to pick them up and take them home! But that's not all...oh no. They may LOOK like little dolls, but at night, when no one is watching, they come.to.life. You heard me! The little freak shows get up in the night and commit all sorts of mischievous acts, and the kids get up every day to see what the elves have done. Every day. For 24 days. No, I'm not kidding.

One time, they actually stole my car to go on a Candy Cane run. (the little suckers are sugar freaks). When the kids woke up for school, the alarm was going off in my car. We looked out the window and my car was backed into the flower bed, with the headlights on, the wipers on full blast, and Christmas music blaring as loud as possible. One elf was on the steering wheel and the other was on the gas pedal. My purse was even dumped out in the house where they had searched for my keys!!

So....we are all very very excited about the annual arrival of the elves. And on that note, I'll leave you with some parting shots of elf antics past:

Parents of the Year!

Yes, Big L and T-bug are nominating ourselves as POTY! Remember Jackalope's Birthday? Well you know, as parents, we have that disease that motivates us to choose The Birthday Gift that will trump all birthday gifts past adn will cause our little angels to be overcome with joy. And as usual, we succeeded once again this year:


The Gift of all gifts!!!


The thrill of the First Ride!!

And we were all living the dream, I tell ya! Big L and I are looking at each other like "Man, how DO we do it?", etc.

And then the next day, Halloween, happens. After school, just before costumes and T or T'ing, Jackalope wants to squeeze in a ride....of course! And there I am, watering my little container garden when I hear a mysterious POP and then silence where there used to be a little electric motor hum. I say "That doesn't sound good" and I look around the palm tree trunk and see a sobbing 7 year old running towards me with blood running down from his forehead and in the distance, a little go-cart rammed into a curb. I run to him, pick him up cradle style in my arms and he says between sobs "Will..*sob*...I...*sob*...get to....*sob*...ride it....*sob*...again?!?!"

I race to the RV and wash his face under the water to reveal a small, but laid open cut above his right eye that will obviously need stitches. And so, we trek to West Isle Urgent Care where the dr's assistant says "What are you gonna give him next year....a hand grenade?" and Jackalope declares stitches an awesome addition to his vampire costume!

We make it home in time to get costumed all up (at least 3 of us, anyway, all vampires!) and go T or T-ing after all the drama. So here's Jackalope in all his costumed glory on Halloween, one day after his birthday...


Fake Blood + Real Blood = AWESOME!!

State of the Island....8 weeks Post Ike

Any time I try to write about how I'm feeling about Ike, or to update those off-island about what's going on here, I simply get overwhelmed. The words just jumble up in my head and I can't get out what I want to communicate. Today, my friend Lauren summed it up so eloquently, I'm just gonna let you read it straight from her.

What she said!

A Historical Day

No matter who you voted for, as an American you have to admit this is a huge day in American history. The fact that a race of people who were once slaves in this very country now have a President of the same country less than 150 years later is extraordinary. I can completely empathize with what an emotional event this must be for them. Admittedly, I do not agree with his positions, and therefore did not vote for him, but I don't regret having the first black man in this office. I'll also feel ecstatic when we have the first woman...assuming it's the right first woman for the job.

The next 2 years will be quite interesting. I don't think there's been a Congress and Whitehouse both controlled by Democrats since Clinton was in office. That time it only lasted 2 years and then Newt Gingrich had his coup to re-take the Congress, which turned out to be a bust as well. At any rate, there will be no question who is reponsible for the policies coming out of Washington over the next 2 years. The economy has hit rock bottom, so of course it will rebound during this President's term, and would have no matter who was elected.

Overall, I think the high-powered Democrats will force a more centrist government than Obama had planned because of their desire to maintain control and not experience the coup of 1994 all over again. Only time will tell, but one thing is certain....it will be an interesting ride!

Election Day!

I voted early, but today is the day I'm glued to the tv. I've had so much fun with the kids, too, because this year they want to know *all* about it....how it works, what their positions are, etc. So fun!!

So I'm anxious to see how it turns out, of course. I'll tell ya this...if my taxes go up, I'm likely to become a stay-home-mom. Right now, after taxes, childcare in the summer, work clothes, etc. I only bring home 30% of my salary. If the number goes down so that I'm bringing home less than $10K, I will declare it officially not worth the stress! Hmmmm....maybe I should've voted differently....I like sleeping in....

Road Trip!!

Details to come later, but here's the teaser:

2 senior citizens, 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs for 2 weeks in an RV! 2 CRAZY!!


It's the Griswold family Christmas, and it's all going to be happening here live starting December 19th.

For those of you who haven't followed my blog for years (come one, there's gotta be some poor soul), we've been this crazy before and the Cast of Characters hasn't changed except for the addition of 2 dogs!

Stay tuned!!

What I Lost, What I Miss

For the most part, we were very fortunate in that most of our keepsakes and heirlooms were in storage and were safe during the storm. What we lost was mostly material things that can be replaced (if and when we *ever* get any insurance money!!). But, even still, there are a few things...some replaceable, some not...that I really miss:

1. My Gap Body robe & slippers. I am sooo cold natured, and i literally *lived* in that robe from about this time of year until the spring. Even Jackalope misses it, as he's cold natured and also a cuddle bug and could not resist snuggling with me when I had it on. It was incredibly soft and cozy!! And my feet are cold in the mornings now, dang it!

2. My iPod. Anyone who knows me knows that my mood can be completely altered by music. I miss having it to clean by, to walk the dogs, for work, etc. There are several times a day that I think about it and wish I had it. Of course it's replaceable, but as long as we're paying for everything out of pocket it's just not a necessary item right now.

That's it for the replaceable items. Now for the irreplaceable:

1. Cuddles. My pink teddy bear that I've had since my 5th birthday. He went to college with me and has sat on a shelf where I could see him since he became too fragile to sleep with. He was on the top shelf of my closet, wrapped in the handmade blanket I came home from the hospital in as a newborn, both lost despite all my neighbor's efforts in looking thru debris!

2. Pictures from high school and college. This box was mistakenly brought to our house, unbeknownst to me, when we moved here, although it was clearly marked "Storage". We knew we were remodeling soon (turned out to be 2 years later!) and that kind of stuff was never supposed to be here. I only know it was here and destroyed because pieces of it are all over the place. I've found only 2 photos from my college photo album....both of me dunking my ring at the Dixie Chicken! WHOOP! But my high school memory book and yearbooks, college memories and photos from both are all gone. I found one college diary in my neighbor's yard across the street. Good thing i found it first!! Otherwise, i could *never* be president!!