Hey all you mugs. Girl Friday here. It's been a long couple of weeks here in Paradise. So far, the missing persons investigation hasn't gone quite like I planned it. I figured that finding the missing BillyBear would be duck soup, but it sure hasn't turned out that way. Even without Tracer's dead ass holding me back, I'm still not much farther along than when I started, and my client is starting to get a bad case of ants in the pants. He's a nice enough guy, but geez, does he have to call me every hour on the hour to find out where the investigation stands? He called me right in the middle of shaving my gams a few nights ago, and the phone scared me so bad I gave myself one hell of a nick. Well, at least it was on my knee, so what's another scar there, more or less?
The funny thing about this investigation is how everybody in town has clammed up tighter than Tracer's wallet. Seems like everybody knows I'm out asking questions, and I've had more doors slammed in my face in the last few weeks than Carter has pills. People see me coming and their windowshades go down faster than Goth Girl's panties. I've got a hunch that there's more here than meets the eye, and these people all seem to know something that I don't.
I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that there is power and influence at work here, even though I can't figure out how anybody would want to hide BillyBear's whereabouts. I mean c'mon... he was a perverted elf. If it was me, I'd always want him in plain sight, not sneaking around somewhere where I couldn't see him. But anyway, back to the power and influence thing. I got rousted by the bulls when I was working late at the office the other night. They roughed me up pretty good and tore the office apart looking for something, but I outsmarted them. I was expecting their visit, so I had hidden all my investigation notes in the drawer next to my perfume. I knew they wouldn't be able to keep that drawer open long enough to search through it. They threatened to haul me off to the caboose, but it was all a lot of hot air. They didn't have anything on me and I knew it. I told them that whatever dingus they were looking for, I didn't have it, and if they weren't gonna arrest me, they could just scram out and talk to my mouthpiece.
So now, I'm off to give the third degr..... errrr.. interview that Miss Tara dame. She was always a good source of information in my cases with Tracer, and she was even nice enough to give me a pair of expensive nylons and a bottle of fancy perfume for Christmas once. I could never understand how Tracer was able to get her so riled up all the time. She seems nice enough to me, and has a great set of pins to boot. She was also one of the last people to hear from BillyBear, so I'm gonna jam my roscoe in my bra and hightail it over to the LDW Club. I'll try to blend into the woodwork until she shows up. Wish me luck!
Gotta go... time is money in the P.I. business...
::Hikes my skirt up and whistles::
Hey taxi!
(to be continued)
2009-07-08
2009-06-12
Finally Friday's First Flight
Hello everybody. It's me again, Girl Friday.
Today was "The Big Day"... graduation day over at Sears... You're now looking at a genuine certified PI. If you don't know what a PI is, it stands for Private Investigator. Yep, I finished the night course, passed this big multiple choice test, and today I'm a real gumshoe. I got this framed diploma with an actual ribbon on it to hang on the wall and an ID card with an official looking gold star on it. The ID card is in this imitation leather wallet that I can flip open in peoples faces just like Tracer used to do. I used to love watching him do that. Especially when he'd catch the tip of their noses with it. He did that on purpose you know! He was so film noir!
I've been getting the old office spruced up for a couple of weeks now, and that hasn't been an easy job. It's been closed up ever since Tracer abandoned it and took off for Thailand to search for Ace. As usual, when he left he stiffed me a months pay, and I didn't hear anything more from him until I got a letter from Bangkok asking me to wire him some more money. I wrote back and told him the only wiring I'd be doing would be to wire his balls to an electric socket. After that, I didn't hear from the dick for months, and then finally I got word that Tracer had bitten the big burrito and went on to that great wanking closet in the sky. No matter how much of a dick he was, and how many times he shot me, I still learned a lot from that jerk. In between all the pain, we had a lot of good times together, even if I didn't think so at the time. I'll might even miss the cheap bastard someday.
Anyway, that's when I decided that I needed to either find a real job, or to get my act together and open up my own agency. After all, even though Tracer's name was painted on the door, I was the one who kept the business on track in spite of his best efforts to bankrupt us. I don't mean to brag, but everybody knows it was me who was the brains behind the outfit, and he was darned lucky I didn't quit that night in the LDW Chatroom, when he shot me in the knee the first time.
Even though Tracer was a deadbeat and cheapskate, I was still a little bit nervous about going out on my own without him. Then I came to my senses and realized that not only can I do this, but my knees would have a better than average chance that they wouldn't end up with more bullet holes in them. Not to mention not having to replace so many pairs of pantyhose.
So, I've been cleaning out the cobwebs and scraping that disgusting burrito residue off the walls of the bathroom, getting ready to open up shop as soon as I finished the PI course. I even cleaned out Tracer's old wanking closet, but I haven't decided what I want to do with that room yet. Besides, I need to wait until that wierd smell in there goes away.
So what's the hurry? Well, I have my first case! I couldn't officially announce it until I had my certification, but now that that's official, I can let the cat out of the bag.
The job I've been hired for is your standard missing persons case. I'm not allowed to tell you who's paying me, but I can spill the beans on who it is I'm looking for. That way, if anybody knows where this person is, you can contact me and maybe save me a lot of legwork, which in my case is usually very hard on my pantyhose.
See, I've been hired to find Billybear. Yep. Billybear of Billybear Labs has turned up missing. His Lab has been locked up tight for months now, and a certain unidentified party is pretty darned anxious to find him. Anxious enough to pay me a pretty solid advance on my expenses, and way more than I ever saw in those puny little paychecks from Tracer. I've got a couple of good leads already, and a few people in mind to interrogate, so I'm pretty sure he won't be too hard to find.
Well, I think I'll lock up now and catch a cab home for some much needed shuteye. It's been a long day and I'll be getting up with the chickens tomorrow so I can head back into the office and get started on the case. And I almost forgot, Ive gotta think of a really classy name for the agency, so I can have it painted on the glass just like that loser Spade across the hall has.
I'll keep you all posted.
Girl Friday
Today was "The Big Day"... graduation day over at Sears... You're now looking at a genuine certified PI. If you don't know what a PI is, it stands for Private Investigator. Yep, I finished the night course, passed this big multiple choice test, and today I'm a real gumshoe. I got this framed diploma with an actual ribbon on it to hang on the wall and an ID card with an official looking gold star on it. The ID card is in this imitation leather wallet that I can flip open in peoples faces just like Tracer used to do. I used to love watching him do that. Especially when he'd catch the tip of their noses with it. He did that on purpose you know! He was so film noir!
I've been getting the old office spruced up for a couple of weeks now, and that hasn't been an easy job. It's been closed up ever since Tracer abandoned it and took off for Thailand to search for Ace. As usual, when he left he stiffed me a months pay, and I didn't hear anything more from him until I got a letter from Bangkok asking me to wire him some more money. I wrote back and told him the only wiring I'd be doing would be to wire his balls to an electric socket. After that, I didn't hear from the dick for months, and then finally I got word that Tracer had bitten the big burrito and went on to that great wanking closet in the sky. No matter how much of a dick he was, and how many times he shot me, I still learned a lot from that jerk. In between all the pain, we had a lot of good times together, even if I didn't think so at the time. I'll might even miss the cheap bastard someday.
Anyway, that's when I decided that I needed to either find a real job, or to get my act together and open up my own agency. After all, even though Tracer's name was painted on the door, I was the one who kept the business on track in spite of his best efforts to bankrupt us. I don't mean to brag, but everybody knows it was me who was the brains behind the outfit, and he was darned lucky I didn't quit that night in the LDW Chatroom, when he shot me in the knee the first time.
Even though Tracer was a deadbeat and cheapskate, I was still a little bit nervous about going out on my own without him. Then I came to my senses and realized that not only can I do this, but my knees would have a better than average chance that they wouldn't end up with more bullet holes in them. Not to mention not having to replace so many pairs of pantyhose.
So, I've been cleaning out the cobwebs and scraping that disgusting burrito residue off the walls of the bathroom, getting ready to open up shop as soon as I finished the PI course. I even cleaned out Tracer's old wanking closet, but I haven't decided what I want to do with that room yet. Besides, I need to wait until that wierd smell in there goes away.
So what's the hurry? Well, I have my first case! I couldn't officially announce it until I had my certification, but now that that's official, I can let the cat out of the bag.
The job I've been hired for is your standard missing persons case. I'm not allowed to tell you who's paying me, but I can spill the beans on who it is I'm looking for. That way, if anybody knows where this person is, you can contact me and maybe save me a lot of legwork, which in my case is usually very hard on my pantyhose.
See, I've been hired to find Billybear. Yep. Billybear of Billybear Labs has turned up missing. His Lab has been locked up tight for months now, and a certain unidentified party is pretty darned anxious to find him. Anxious enough to pay me a pretty solid advance on my expenses, and way more than I ever saw in those puny little paychecks from Tracer. I've got a couple of good leads already, and a few people in mind to interrogate, so I'm pretty sure he won't be too hard to find.
Well, I think I'll lock up now and catch a cab home for some much needed shuteye. It's been a long day and I'll be getting up with the chickens tomorrow so I can head back into the office and get started on the case. And I almost forgot, Ive gotta think of a really classy name for the agency, so I can have it painted on the glass just like that loser Spade across the hall has.
I'll keep you all posted.
Girl Friday
2009-06-08
Has It Really Been Since Thanksgiving?
Geesh... I guess it has, so maybe I'd better post something. I don't have any idea what to write about, so maybe I'll start by writing about writing. How appropriate!
First let me explain a few things to any of you who might be interested. If you're not interested, then look away until I tell you to look again. See, Bitchass has been away. Not away like going somewhere on a vacation, but more like all my energy to write went away and I came down with the worst case of writers block you can imagine. For the last couple of years, it had come fairly easy. Then a couple of things happened that took the wind out of my sails, and my writing went into a funk. It became harder and harder to even sit down and expend the energy.
This is how the process used to work for me. I'd have a vague idea for a story in my head, and I'd sit down at the keyboard and try to become whatever character I was writing about. My recurring characters were easiest, because each time I wrote about them it fleshed out the character more and more and made it a lot easier to become them. New characters are the hardest, but eventually they come around and develop their personalities. The hardest part for me was keeping the characters personalities separate. If I'm not careful they tend to start blending together.
If I was really inspired and into the character, the story would flow out right from the start. But most times it was more difficult for me. I would struggle for a while to get into the flow, going back countless times to rewrite certain parts, but eventually it would come, and the rest of the story would seem to write itself. If you've read much of my stuff, you've probably noticed that I have a much harder time stopping a story once it gets going.
One of the things that made writing easier was corroborating with a small group of others in this blogspace whose writing I really admire. I think my writing improved by leaps and bounds once I began to feel pushed to get better by reading stuff by quality storytellers like Billybear, Miss Tara, Lucky, and Ace, to name just a few. I don't mean to leave anyone out, but these were the people who were most involved on a day to day basis. To this day, I am totally awed by how Billybear can make a complicated storyline come together so effortlessly. I wish it came that easy for me, but I could never do what he does. And there were times that I laughed so hard at what he wrote that I about peed my panties.
I can't put my finger on exactly when I became completely blocked, but it was sometime after Lucky detonated the 10 pounds of C4 under his blog. I don't blame him because I knew his reasons for doing it, and by that time I had lost most of my inspiration for writing anyway. I tried to keep going by forcing stories out, but that usually shows in the finished product and the Emporer soon has no clothes.
I had a good opportunity to write some true life posts when Hurricane Ike and a few other storms visited the area. I thought the Ike stories turned out pretty well, but after the storms went away, so it seems did my writing.
So anyway, I'm hoping that shining the light of day on my writers block will turn things around and get me writing again. Maybe it will, and maybe it won't. I can't say for sure. I feel especially bad for disappointing my regular readers, and Miss Tara certainly deserves to read something new instead of having to depend on the old archives for a chuckle or two. Although, I confess that I too read the archives from time to time when I need a laugh. It's a damn shame that the Real World has interfered, but since Miss Tara, Billybear and Ace have been posting the occasional post, maybe there's hope that they will get going again too. Maybe even Lucky might find a way to resurrect his blog from the ashes. We can always hope.
Well that's about it for tonight. Anybody who looked away because they weren't interested can look back now.
Hopfully it won't be so long between posts this time!
little bitchass
Geesh... I guess it has, so maybe I'd better post something. I don't have any idea what to write about, so maybe I'll start by writing about writing. How appropriate!
First let me explain a few things to any of you who might be interested. If you're not interested, then look away until I tell you to look again. See, Bitchass has been away. Not away like going somewhere on a vacation, but more like all my energy to write went away and I came down with the worst case of writers block you can imagine. For the last couple of years, it had come fairly easy. Then a couple of things happened that took the wind out of my sails, and my writing went into a funk. It became harder and harder to even sit down and expend the energy.
This is how the process used to work for me. I'd have a vague idea for a story in my head, and I'd sit down at the keyboard and try to become whatever character I was writing about. My recurring characters were easiest, because each time I wrote about them it fleshed out the character more and more and made it a lot easier to become them. New characters are the hardest, but eventually they come around and develop their personalities. The hardest part for me was keeping the characters personalities separate. If I'm not careful they tend to start blending together.
If I was really inspired and into the character, the story would flow out right from the start. But most times it was more difficult for me. I would struggle for a while to get into the flow, going back countless times to rewrite certain parts, but eventually it would come, and the rest of the story would seem to write itself. If you've read much of my stuff, you've probably noticed that I have a much harder time stopping a story once it gets going.
One of the things that made writing easier was corroborating with a small group of others in this blogspace whose writing I really admire. I think my writing improved by leaps and bounds once I began to feel pushed to get better by reading stuff by quality storytellers like Billybear, Miss Tara, Lucky, and Ace, to name just a few. I don't mean to leave anyone out, but these were the people who were most involved on a day to day basis. To this day, I am totally awed by how Billybear can make a complicated storyline come together so effortlessly. I wish it came that easy for me, but I could never do what he does. And there were times that I laughed so hard at what he wrote that I about peed my panties.
I can't put my finger on exactly when I became completely blocked, but it was sometime after Lucky detonated the 10 pounds of C4 under his blog. I don't blame him because I knew his reasons for doing it, and by that time I had lost most of my inspiration for writing anyway. I tried to keep going by forcing stories out, but that usually shows in the finished product and the Emporer soon has no clothes.
I had a good opportunity to write some true life posts when Hurricane Ike and a few other storms visited the area. I thought the Ike stories turned out pretty well, but after the storms went away, so it seems did my writing.
So anyway, I'm hoping that shining the light of day on my writers block will turn things around and get me writing again. Maybe it will, and maybe it won't. I can't say for sure. I feel especially bad for disappointing my regular readers, and Miss Tara certainly deserves to read something new instead of having to depend on the old archives for a chuckle or two. Although, I confess that I too read the archives from time to time when I need a laugh. It's a damn shame that the Real World has interfered, but since Miss Tara, Billybear and Ace have been posting the occasional post, maybe there's hope that they will get going again too. Maybe even Lucky might find a way to resurrect his blog from the ashes. We can always hope.
Well that's about it for tonight. Anybody who looked away because they weren't interested can look back now.
Hopfully it won't be so long between posts this time!
little bitchass
2008-11-26
Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!
Be sure to eat and drink too much and then crash out on the couch snoring so loudly that the neighbors complain! Then go eat some more pie!
little bitchass
Be sure to eat and drink too much and then crash out on the couch snoring so loudly that the neighbors complain! Then go eat some more pie!
little bitchass
2008-09-18
Ike... Has Left The Building... Part III Of The Series...
It was sometime after 10AM when I woke up enough to get off of the couch and take a look outside. The wind was still blowing, but not nearly as hard or as sustained as it was when I had last fallen asleep, and so I figured it was safe to go outside. I put on my old tennies because I figured they were gonna get wet, and ventured out the front door.
The first thing I saw when I scanned the front yard was leaves and small branches everywhere. Then I noticed a rather large branch had broken off of my tree and was laying in the shrubbery. That's when I remembered my car in the driveway. I walked out to the front of the garage, not even wanting to look, but when I did, there were no other large branches down, just a bunch of little ones, and there were leaves all over the sides of the car like they had been glued on. But to my relief, there was not a scratch on it.
As I looked around, I noticed much more damage to the neighbors house on my right and also across the street. There were huge branches that had broken off of the trees, any one of which would have caved the roof of my car in. Everybody in my subdivision has 6 foot wooden privacy fences, and it looked like everybody had lost huge sections out of theirs. The wierd thing is that both of my side fences that run from back to front are decrepit old things that lean and you can knock a board off of them if you bump into them, but neither of them had a single piece missing. My neighbor wasn't so lucky. The fence he had was almost new, I mean it still looked like brand new wood, and most of it was lying on the ground with big broken sections in it.
I thought I'd better look at my own property, and so I stepped back and looked at the roof, not knowing what I was gonna see. But the roof looked OK, and so I started around the house to check out the back. As I walked, I noticed pieces of shingles lying on the ground, and so I looked up a second time, but still didn't see where they might've come from. My neighbors houses didn't look like they had lost any either.
As I rounded the corner to the back yard, I was expecting to see my chimney blown down at least. But there it stood on the corner of the roof, with it's chimney cap still on and not even leaning. I scanned the back side of the roof. That's when I saw where the shingles had come from. A couple of rows of shingles had blown off right below the ridge, from the right end of the roof to about 2/3 of the way across. I know thats gonna cost me, but still, it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting.
The back yard was covered in leaves and little branches, but my two trees were still standing, pretty much intact. Then I noticed the little steel shed where I keep my lawnmower and garden stuff. The neighbor directly behind me had about a 30 foot bald cypress tree, and it had broken off and fallen right onto the top of my little shed, with all the branches covering it like it was in a little green grotto. I went over and opened the door to see how badly the roof was crushed, but there was no damage at all. I looked behind the building and found that the fence across the back of my yard was holding the tree a few inches above the roof of the shed. Talk about close calls!
The only other significant damage I saw was that a huge branch had snapped off of their tree, but it had fallen in a direction away from my house, and it was big enough to where it could've done some damage to my roof if it had fallen on it. I went back into the house took stock of a few more things.
The electricity was still off, obviously, but I was surprised to see that I still had water running at full pressure, and I still had gas. They were both great signs, because it meant that not only could I take showers and flush the toilet, but the showers wouldn't be cold ones and I could cook things on my gas range. Having the power off was not a good thing, but at least with water and gas, the house might get uncomfortably warm, and the refrigerator wouldn't keep the food cold, but the house was livable and I could survive in it until the power came back. I went to the kitchen and made myself a cup of coffee. Instant coffee never tasted so good.
I sat on the couch and drank my coffee while I listened to the radio. The news wasn't too good, especially for Gaveston and the areas. Galveston was hit really hard, but the Bolivar Peninsula and a little area called Crystal Beach were almost wiped clean, according to the newspeople. A lot of the residents who defied the evacuation order still haven't been located, and a news item just today theorized that a good number of them had been simply washed out to sea, and they will probably never be found.
Electricity was out all over a wide area, with the power company estimating the number of customers without power at about 2.25 million. The forecast for getting power back was pretty grim, anywhere up to a month, with some of the hardest hit areas maybe taking longer. That was a scary thought, and I wasn't looking forward to living without air conditioning, lights, or refrigeration for anywhere near that long. The news stories all morning were sobering, but through it all, Vash kept it light by singing away cheerily in his cage. I don't think he likes storms very much, seeing as how I had found him as a baby after he had gotten blown out of his nest, and he was probably just happy that the storm had passed.
I won't go into a lot of detail on the stuff that has been going on around Houston, because it's all been reported on the news, but there are a few other things I wanted to touch on. Trying to sleep on Saturday night was horrible, because even though I had opened all the windows, there wasn't any breeze outside and it was as steamy as a jungle on the equator. I'd drop off to sleep for an hour or so, and then would wake up sweating. I'd get up, go into the bathroom, towel down and then lay back on the bed and try to go back to sleep. This process repeated itself over and over until morning.
The hardest thing to find in the days after the storm were ice, water, and gasoline. I had stocked up on bottled water and had almost a full tank of gas, but I needed ice in the worst way. The fridge kept things cool for about a day, but I had to start looking for some to put in my coolers. On Sunday morning I listened to the radio to hear the locations that supposedly had ice, but by the time I would get to them, it would be gone. I wasted almost half a tank of gas just driving around looking for ice. I gave up and figured to get an early start the next day.
I got lucky again, and on Sunday night, a cool front came into the area, and sleeping was a lot more comfortable. I even had to get a light blanket and cover up by the time morning rolled around. It has stayed on the cool side at night ever since.
The next morning, when I got to the Krogers, they had a line in front of the ice machine, and I found out that people were waiting until it spit out some bags of ice, and then the line would wait for more to be made. A guy guarding the machine told me it took 30 minutes to make the ice, and so I mentally counted up how long it would be before I got any ice. It was way too long to wait, but I had nothing else to do, and it was better than driving around and wasting my precious gasoline looking for it. And so I resigned myself to wait.
At that point, something that I consider a small miracle happened. As I stood back near the end of the line, a guy walked in from outside and asked if we were all waiting for ice. I figured he was a customer and told him yes, and also how long he was probably going to have to wait. But he wasn't a customer... He said, "I have some ice out in my truck, and its free, so if you want some come out and get it".
He didn't have to ask me twice! I whirled the shopping cart around and followed him out to the parking lot with about 5 of my fellow back of the liners. He led us over to his pickup truck, and in the back were 2 huge coolers with bags of block ice in them. He gave me four 10 pound blocks, and away I went to get my precious cargo home. It was an odd feeling as I wheeled the cart across the lot. I was actually a bit worried that somebody might be desperate enough for ice to mug me for mine. But I got my ice home and into the coolers without any bloodshed.
All of the food in my fridge and freezer was thawed by this time, and so I had to throw out almost all of it. Two full trashbags worth... While the fridge was empty, I spent a couple of hours giving it a good cleaning, and this is the cleanest that thing has been in probably 5 years.
On Tuesday morning I went out to the Krogers for more ice, and this time they had a pallet full of cube ice sitting there. I had to pay about $3.50 for a 40 pound bag, and I got 2 of them, which almost didn't all fit into the coolers. $3.50 a bag for frozen water was a bit steep, but considering how hard it was to get, I probably would've paid $10 a bag.
After dropping off my ice, I went out to try and do some shopping. But first I had to try and find some gas for the car. Most stations I drove past had bags on the gas nozzles. Some stations were out of gas, while others had gas in the tanks, but didn't have the electricity to work the pumps. The few stations that were operating had lines of cars a block long waiting to get in. I figured I could wait another day and maybe more stations would be getting their power back. And so I stopped into the Krogers again and picked up a few things and then went back home to do some yard cleanup.
Later that afternoon, while I was cleaning up branches, I saw my porch light go back on! Holy shit! The power was back on! I worked for a little longer while I made sure the power was gonna stay on. About 10 minutes later, just as I was about to go back inside and start turning things back on, I heard the now familiar sound of power lines shorting out a couple of times, and my porch light went back out. Shit!!!!
About an hour later, I saw 2 big power company trucks down the block in the direction that the arccing sound had come from. A crew took a bunck of poles and other tools and went into a back yard, and within a half hour, the power was back on again. I waited to make sure it was gonna stay on, and when I was pretty sure it was, I started turning things back on. Lights came on... then I plugged the fridge in... that was good, so I plugged the TVs, the stereo, and the puter back in. Everything was working so far. Holding my breath, I turned the switch on the thermostat to "Cool". The air conditioning kicked on and within a minute, there was cool air coming out of the registers! Then I checked my cable, but it was still out, and so I tried doing a refresh on it, and after about 15 minutes of playing with it, I noticed the cable box resetting itself, and my picture was back. I went to the puter and did a renew and reset, and my Internet connection came back up. Bitchass was back in business!
About that time, my boss called me and said that the power and server were both back up at work, and so everybody was supposed to come back in the next day. On my way into work on Wednesday, I turned around and stopped at a gas station when I saw that the owner was taking the bags off of the pump nozzles as I was going by. He must've either just gotten the tanks filled or he just got his power back on. Whatever the reason, I didn't much care. I only had to wait for one car in front of me, and then I got my gas and left.
And so, all in all, I made out better than most. I have to file an insurance claim for my roof, but at least I have a roof to sleep under. As I write this, there's still over a million people without power in the Houston area, and a lot of families still have members missing. As good as it feels to have my air conditioning and other conveniences back, there are others who are still suffering out there. It's a really really sad situation. My heart goes out to everyone who's worse off than me, and I hope that they all get relief soon.
Well, I'm tired, so that's all for tonight...
And y'all better hope there's not gonna be any more hurricanes this year or you're gonna have to sit through another long story!
Later!
little bitchass
It was sometime after 10AM when I woke up enough to get off of the couch and take a look outside. The wind was still blowing, but not nearly as hard or as sustained as it was when I had last fallen asleep, and so I figured it was safe to go outside. I put on my old tennies because I figured they were gonna get wet, and ventured out the front door.
The first thing I saw when I scanned the front yard was leaves and small branches everywhere. Then I noticed a rather large branch had broken off of my tree and was laying in the shrubbery. That's when I remembered my car in the driveway. I walked out to the front of the garage, not even wanting to look, but when I did, there were no other large branches down, just a bunch of little ones, and there were leaves all over the sides of the car like they had been glued on. But to my relief, there was not a scratch on it.
As I looked around, I noticed much more damage to the neighbors house on my right and also across the street. There were huge branches that had broken off of the trees, any one of which would have caved the roof of my car in. Everybody in my subdivision has 6 foot wooden privacy fences, and it looked like everybody had lost huge sections out of theirs. The wierd thing is that both of my side fences that run from back to front are decrepit old things that lean and you can knock a board off of them if you bump into them, but neither of them had a single piece missing. My neighbor wasn't so lucky. The fence he had was almost new, I mean it still looked like brand new wood, and most of it was lying on the ground with big broken sections in it.
I thought I'd better look at my own property, and so I stepped back and looked at the roof, not knowing what I was gonna see. But the roof looked OK, and so I started around the house to check out the back. As I walked, I noticed pieces of shingles lying on the ground, and so I looked up a second time, but still didn't see where they might've come from. My neighbors houses didn't look like they had lost any either.
As I rounded the corner to the back yard, I was expecting to see my chimney blown down at least. But there it stood on the corner of the roof, with it's chimney cap still on and not even leaning. I scanned the back side of the roof. That's when I saw where the shingles had come from. A couple of rows of shingles had blown off right below the ridge, from the right end of the roof to about 2/3 of the way across. I know thats gonna cost me, but still, it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting.
The back yard was covered in leaves and little branches, but my two trees were still standing, pretty much intact. Then I noticed the little steel shed where I keep my lawnmower and garden stuff. The neighbor directly behind me had about a 30 foot bald cypress tree, and it had broken off and fallen right onto the top of my little shed, with all the branches covering it like it was in a little green grotto. I went over and opened the door to see how badly the roof was crushed, but there was no damage at all. I looked behind the building and found that the fence across the back of my yard was holding the tree a few inches above the roof of the shed. Talk about close calls!
The only other significant damage I saw was that a huge branch had snapped off of their tree, but it had fallen in a direction away from my house, and it was big enough to where it could've done some damage to my roof if it had fallen on it. I went back into the house took stock of a few more things.
The electricity was still off, obviously, but I was surprised to see that I still had water running at full pressure, and I still had gas. They were both great signs, because it meant that not only could I take showers and flush the toilet, but the showers wouldn't be cold ones and I could cook things on my gas range. Having the power off was not a good thing, but at least with water and gas, the house might get uncomfortably warm, and the refrigerator wouldn't keep the food cold, but the house was livable and I could survive in it until the power came back. I went to the kitchen and made myself a cup of coffee. Instant coffee never tasted so good.
I sat on the couch and drank my coffee while I listened to the radio. The news wasn't too good, especially for Gaveston and the areas. Galveston was hit really hard, but the Bolivar Peninsula and a little area called Crystal Beach were almost wiped clean, according to the newspeople. A lot of the residents who defied the evacuation order still haven't been located, and a news item just today theorized that a good number of them had been simply washed out to sea, and they will probably never be found.
Electricity was out all over a wide area, with the power company estimating the number of customers without power at about 2.25 million. The forecast for getting power back was pretty grim, anywhere up to a month, with some of the hardest hit areas maybe taking longer. That was a scary thought, and I wasn't looking forward to living without air conditioning, lights, or refrigeration for anywhere near that long. The news stories all morning were sobering, but through it all, Vash kept it light by singing away cheerily in his cage. I don't think he likes storms very much, seeing as how I had found him as a baby after he had gotten blown out of his nest, and he was probably just happy that the storm had passed.
I won't go into a lot of detail on the stuff that has been going on around Houston, because it's all been reported on the news, but there are a few other things I wanted to touch on. Trying to sleep on Saturday night was horrible, because even though I had opened all the windows, there wasn't any breeze outside and it was as steamy as a jungle on the equator. I'd drop off to sleep for an hour or so, and then would wake up sweating. I'd get up, go into the bathroom, towel down and then lay back on the bed and try to go back to sleep. This process repeated itself over and over until morning.
The hardest thing to find in the days after the storm were ice, water, and gasoline. I had stocked up on bottled water and had almost a full tank of gas, but I needed ice in the worst way. The fridge kept things cool for about a day, but I had to start looking for some to put in my coolers. On Sunday morning I listened to the radio to hear the locations that supposedly had ice, but by the time I would get to them, it would be gone. I wasted almost half a tank of gas just driving around looking for ice. I gave up and figured to get an early start the next day.
I got lucky again, and on Sunday night, a cool front came into the area, and sleeping was a lot more comfortable. I even had to get a light blanket and cover up by the time morning rolled around. It has stayed on the cool side at night ever since.
The next morning, when I got to the Krogers, they had a line in front of the ice machine, and I found out that people were waiting until it spit out some bags of ice, and then the line would wait for more to be made. A guy guarding the machine told me it took 30 minutes to make the ice, and so I mentally counted up how long it would be before I got any ice. It was way too long to wait, but I had nothing else to do, and it was better than driving around and wasting my precious gasoline looking for it. And so I resigned myself to wait.
At that point, something that I consider a small miracle happened. As I stood back near the end of the line, a guy walked in from outside and asked if we were all waiting for ice. I figured he was a customer and told him yes, and also how long he was probably going to have to wait. But he wasn't a customer... He said, "I have some ice out in my truck, and its free, so if you want some come out and get it".
He didn't have to ask me twice! I whirled the shopping cart around and followed him out to the parking lot with about 5 of my fellow back of the liners. He led us over to his pickup truck, and in the back were 2 huge coolers with bags of block ice in them. He gave me four 10 pound blocks, and away I went to get my precious cargo home. It was an odd feeling as I wheeled the cart across the lot. I was actually a bit worried that somebody might be desperate enough for ice to mug me for mine. But I got my ice home and into the coolers without any bloodshed.
All of the food in my fridge and freezer was thawed by this time, and so I had to throw out almost all of it. Two full trashbags worth... While the fridge was empty, I spent a couple of hours giving it a good cleaning, and this is the cleanest that thing has been in probably 5 years.
On Tuesday morning I went out to the Krogers for more ice, and this time they had a pallet full of cube ice sitting there. I had to pay about $3.50 for a 40 pound bag, and I got 2 of them, which almost didn't all fit into the coolers. $3.50 a bag for frozen water was a bit steep, but considering how hard it was to get, I probably would've paid $10 a bag.
After dropping off my ice, I went out to try and do some shopping. But first I had to try and find some gas for the car. Most stations I drove past had bags on the gas nozzles. Some stations were out of gas, while others had gas in the tanks, but didn't have the electricity to work the pumps. The few stations that were operating had lines of cars a block long waiting to get in. I figured I could wait another day and maybe more stations would be getting their power back. And so I stopped into the Krogers again and picked up a few things and then went back home to do some yard cleanup.
Later that afternoon, while I was cleaning up branches, I saw my porch light go back on! Holy shit! The power was back on! I worked for a little longer while I made sure the power was gonna stay on. About 10 minutes later, just as I was about to go back inside and start turning things back on, I heard the now familiar sound of power lines shorting out a couple of times, and my porch light went back out. Shit!!!!
About an hour later, I saw 2 big power company trucks down the block in the direction that the arccing sound had come from. A crew took a bunck of poles and other tools and went into a back yard, and within a half hour, the power was back on again. I waited to make sure it was gonna stay on, and when I was pretty sure it was, I started turning things back on. Lights came on... then I plugged the fridge in... that was good, so I plugged the TVs, the stereo, and the puter back in. Everything was working so far. Holding my breath, I turned the switch on the thermostat to "Cool". The air conditioning kicked on and within a minute, there was cool air coming out of the registers! Then I checked my cable, but it was still out, and so I tried doing a refresh on it, and after about 15 minutes of playing with it, I noticed the cable box resetting itself, and my picture was back. I went to the puter and did a renew and reset, and my Internet connection came back up. Bitchass was back in business!
About that time, my boss called me and said that the power and server were both back up at work, and so everybody was supposed to come back in the next day. On my way into work on Wednesday, I turned around and stopped at a gas station when I saw that the owner was taking the bags off of the pump nozzles as I was going by. He must've either just gotten the tanks filled or he just got his power back on. Whatever the reason, I didn't much care. I only had to wait for one car in front of me, and then I got my gas and left.
And so, all in all, I made out better than most. I have to file an insurance claim for my roof, but at least I have a roof to sleep under. As I write this, there's still over a million people without power in the Houston area, and a lot of families still have members missing. As good as it feels to have my air conditioning and other conveniences back, there are others who are still suffering out there. It's a really really sad situation. My heart goes out to everyone who's worse off than me, and I hope that they all get relief soon.
Well, I'm tired, so that's all for tonight...
And y'all better hope there's not gonna be any more hurricanes this year or you're gonna have to sit through another long story!
Later!
little bitchass
Don't Let The Door Hit You In The Ass, Ike...
Well, I survived the hurricane, not completely untouched, but I'm still here. If anybody is wondering, I'll relate to you what I experienced as the storm came and went. Before I start though, I want to say that I was extremely lucky compared to a whole lot of other poor souls who lost way more than I did. My heart goes out to those people and their families.
On Friday afternoon, I finished boarding up my one boardable window at the front of the house, and making sure I had my flashlights and extra batteries handy. I placed my candles where I could easily find them. I fueled up my Coleman lantern, and also screwed a new propane cylinder on my other lantern. The weather at that point was still very calm, with an occasional breeze.
The clouds started rolling in during the late afternoon, but not a drop of rain fell until much later. As evening fell, the wind started to pick up, and I decided to make dinner, using stuff from the freezer, since I knew that the power might go out during the storm and allow the frozen food to thaw out. And here's where I made my first two big mistakes. I had already gassed up the car, but I forgot to go out and fill my coolers with ice, and I also forgot to test my radio on battery power.
After dinner, I spent some time on the Internet, thinking that the storm probably wouldn't get bad until 11PM or maybe midnight. I browsed around a bit, getting periodic weather reports from Krissi, and I started to leave a few messages with people telling them that if my Internet went out, I might not be online for a few days. I never got all of my messages sent out. At around 9PM the power started to flicker, and so I decided to turn off the puter and unplug anything electronic except for the old TV in my bedroom. I busied myself by watching storm coverage on TV until I lost my cable signal at 9:40. At that point, I went out to the living room, parked myself on the couch, and turned on my radio, which worked fine as long as it was plugged into the wall.
That's how I spent the time up until about midnight... lying on the couch, listening to storm reports, and listening to the wind getting stronger and stronger outside. Then, a little past midnight, the lights went out...
I lit a couple of my candles and switched my radio over to battery power, but even though the batteries were brand new, the radio stayed silent. And so I laid there in silence, listening to the many strange noises outside. I have a fireplace with a metal firebox and metal chimney. During normal rainstorms, I use the chimney cap as an indicator of how hard the rain is falling outside, but on this night, the whole fireplace got involved, as the wind would blow down the chimney and make the damper and the metal walls of the fireplace clatter and bang. The wind was really blowing hard outside, and every so often, I'd hear the sound of electrical wires shorting together and the power transformers going out. I kept hearing the most disconcerting cracking sounds outside, and I didn't have any idea if it was from trees going down or something else. And so I laid there on the couch, wishing I could just fall asleep and when I woke up, all this would be over. Not a chance...
While I was lying there, I suddenly remembered a tiny little AM/FM/Weather radio that I had gotten sent to me as a free gift from somewhere. I searched for it using a flashlight, and fortunately found it in a drawer. I popped a couple of AAA batteries in it, and lo and behold, sounds poured forth! At the time I got it, I remember thinking how cheap and useless this little plastic toy was, but the little bastard worked like a charm, and kept me informed of what was going on around the area until the power came back on. I apologize profusely to Mr Cheapass Radio.
As I laid there, listening to the radio and the steadily increasing wind and scary noises outside, I was able to finally drift off to sleep for a while.. It couldn't have been for very long, because I woke up to see the lights were back on again, and when I checked my watch, I saw it was only about 2:15. It had really started to rain hard, and I heard them say on the radio that Ike had just come ashore on Galveston at 2:10. I knew that since I was about 40 miles from Galveston, I still had about 2 hours to go until the strongest winds got to my area. I got up and looked out of the front door, and all I could see was horizontal rain, and a ghostly image of trees and bushes bending sideways. As I watched, I saw a couple of bright green flashes of light, accompanied by the now familiar sound of wires shorting out, and out went the lights again. I closed the door and made my way back to my little oasis of candlelight.
The next couple of hours were probably the worst part of the night. I started to hear my windows flexing inside their frames, and I started to wonder if they were gonna blow into the house or some airborne objects might crash into them and send flying glass my way. I have a small house, but the entire back wall consists mostly of 3 large windows and a sliding glass door, and the wind was blowing directly at them. I was wishing that I had been able to board them up, but it was too late now... I made another big mistake here... I continued to lay on the couch, right where any broken glass would go. Luckily, the windows held, and I didn't have to pay for being stupid.
While I waited for the worst part of the storm to arrive, all I could think of was, "If this is only a Category 2 hurricane, I don't ever want to have to sit through anything stronger." I don't mind telling you that I was scared and more than a little bit worried. One thing that helped me a lot was the knowledge that I was far enough inland and at a high enough elevation where I didn't have to worry about the storm surge or any serious flooding. As I laid there wondering just how strong the wind was gonna get when the eyewall passed over me, I mercifully fell asleep. The next thing I remember is drifting awake just around 6AM and realizing that the wind didn't sound quite as strong outside as it had just a few hours ago.
I got up and grabbed a flashlight and patrolled around the house, looking for any broken windows or water leaks, but I didn't see anything. As I passed the spare bedroom, the beam of the flashlight startled poor little Vash, who had been quiet all through the storm, and he now began cheeping loudly. I talked to him for a few minutes until he quieted back down. I went back to the couch and laid back down, waiting for first light so I could see something outside. I'm not afraid of the dark by any means, but having to endure 6 to 8 hours of this crap without a break, and not being able to see anything outside, had me wishing hard for daylight to arrive.
Finally, after drifting in and out of sleep for a while longer, I became aware that it was starting to look lighter behind the closed curtains, and that there were lengthening periods of calm between the gusts of wind. As I drifted in and out, I was vaguely aware of the sound of the radio announcers periodically giving the time, and at one point I remember hearing them say it was 10 something, and so I decided to get up and take a look outside...
Lunch hour is over, so I'll tell you the rest later.
little bitchass
Well, I survived the hurricane, not completely untouched, but I'm still here. If anybody is wondering, I'll relate to you what I experienced as the storm came and went. Before I start though, I want to say that I was extremely lucky compared to a whole lot of other poor souls who lost way more than I did. My heart goes out to those people and their families.
On Friday afternoon, I finished boarding up my one boardable window at the front of the house, and making sure I had my flashlights and extra batteries handy. I placed my candles where I could easily find them. I fueled up my Coleman lantern, and also screwed a new propane cylinder on my other lantern. The weather at that point was still very calm, with an occasional breeze.
The clouds started rolling in during the late afternoon, but not a drop of rain fell until much later. As evening fell, the wind started to pick up, and I decided to make dinner, using stuff from the freezer, since I knew that the power might go out during the storm and allow the frozen food to thaw out. And here's where I made my first two big mistakes. I had already gassed up the car, but I forgot to go out and fill my coolers with ice, and I also forgot to test my radio on battery power.
After dinner, I spent some time on the Internet, thinking that the storm probably wouldn't get bad until 11PM or maybe midnight. I browsed around a bit, getting periodic weather reports from Krissi, and I started to leave a few messages with people telling them that if my Internet went out, I might not be online for a few days. I never got all of my messages sent out. At around 9PM the power started to flicker, and so I decided to turn off the puter and unplug anything electronic except for the old TV in my bedroom. I busied myself by watching storm coverage on TV until I lost my cable signal at 9:40. At that point, I went out to the living room, parked myself on the couch, and turned on my radio, which worked fine as long as it was plugged into the wall.
That's how I spent the time up until about midnight... lying on the couch, listening to storm reports, and listening to the wind getting stronger and stronger outside. Then, a little past midnight, the lights went out...
I lit a couple of my candles and switched my radio over to battery power, but even though the batteries were brand new, the radio stayed silent. And so I laid there in silence, listening to the many strange noises outside. I have a fireplace with a metal firebox and metal chimney. During normal rainstorms, I use the chimney cap as an indicator of how hard the rain is falling outside, but on this night, the whole fireplace got involved, as the wind would blow down the chimney and make the damper and the metal walls of the fireplace clatter and bang. The wind was really blowing hard outside, and every so often, I'd hear the sound of electrical wires shorting together and the power transformers going out. I kept hearing the most disconcerting cracking sounds outside, and I didn't have any idea if it was from trees going down or something else. And so I laid there on the couch, wishing I could just fall asleep and when I woke up, all this would be over. Not a chance...
While I was lying there, I suddenly remembered a tiny little AM/FM/Weather radio that I had gotten sent to me as a free gift from somewhere. I searched for it using a flashlight, and fortunately found it in a drawer. I popped a couple of AAA batteries in it, and lo and behold, sounds poured forth! At the time I got it, I remember thinking how cheap and useless this little plastic toy was, but the little bastard worked like a charm, and kept me informed of what was going on around the area until the power came back on. I apologize profusely to Mr Cheapass Radio.
As I laid there, listening to the radio and the steadily increasing wind and scary noises outside, I was able to finally drift off to sleep for a while.. It couldn't have been for very long, because I woke up to see the lights were back on again, and when I checked my watch, I saw it was only about 2:15. It had really started to rain hard, and I heard them say on the radio that Ike had just come ashore on Galveston at 2:10. I knew that since I was about 40 miles from Galveston, I still had about 2 hours to go until the strongest winds got to my area. I got up and looked out of the front door, and all I could see was horizontal rain, and a ghostly image of trees and bushes bending sideways. As I watched, I saw a couple of bright green flashes of light, accompanied by the now familiar sound of wires shorting out, and out went the lights again. I closed the door and made my way back to my little oasis of candlelight.
The next couple of hours were probably the worst part of the night. I started to hear my windows flexing inside their frames, and I started to wonder if they were gonna blow into the house or some airborne objects might crash into them and send flying glass my way. I have a small house, but the entire back wall consists mostly of 3 large windows and a sliding glass door, and the wind was blowing directly at them. I was wishing that I had been able to board them up, but it was too late now... I made another big mistake here... I continued to lay on the couch, right where any broken glass would go. Luckily, the windows held, and I didn't have to pay for being stupid.
While I waited for the worst part of the storm to arrive, all I could think of was, "If this is only a Category 2 hurricane, I don't ever want to have to sit through anything stronger." I don't mind telling you that I was scared and more than a little bit worried. One thing that helped me a lot was the knowledge that I was far enough inland and at a high enough elevation where I didn't have to worry about the storm surge or any serious flooding. As I laid there wondering just how strong the wind was gonna get when the eyewall passed over me, I mercifully fell asleep. The next thing I remember is drifting awake just around 6AM and realizing that the wind didn't sound quite as strong outside as it had just a few hours ago.
I got up and grabbed a flashlight and patrolled around the house, looking for any broken windows or water leaks, but I didn't see anything. As I passed the spare bedroom, the beam of the flashlight startled poor little Vash, who had been quiet all through the storm, and he now began cheeping loudly. I talked to him for a few minutes until he quieted back down. I went back to the couch and laid back down, waiting for first light so I could see something outside. I'm not afraid of the dark by any means, but having to endure 6 to 8 hours of this crap without a break, and not being able to see anything outside, had me wishing hard for daylight to arrive.
Finally, after drifting in and out of sleep for a while longer, I became aware that it was starting to look lighter behind the closed curtains, and that there were lengthening periods of calm between the gusts of wind. As I drifted in and out, I was vaguely aware of the sound of the radio announcers periodically giving the time, and at one point I remember hearing them say it was 10 something, and so I decided to get up and take a look outside...
Lunch hour is over, so I'll tell you the rest later.
little bitchass
2008-09-12
Ike... A View From The Crosshairs...Part I...
As Hurricane Ike gets closer and closer to Bitchassland, I'm taking a break from my preparations, and thought maybe now would be a good time to update everybody. I may not get a chance to later. This storm may not be as powerful as some have been, but it is huge, folks. As I write this, the wind has just now started to pick up and it's getting pretty breezy out there. The sun is still out but some clouds are starting to roll in. I'm not sure when I'll feel the first rain, but it's been dry so far.
I've been really fortunate for the past few years when it comes to tropical storms and hurricanes. There have been a few, including Rita, which were headed directly towards me but turned away at the last monent. It looks like I won't be as fortunate this time.
When I got up yesterday, Ike was tracking towards me and if the track held, the storm would pass almost directly over me, slightly to my west, which put me on the "dirty side" of the storm, which is where the worst conditions are usually found, including possible tornados. I got a little break yesterday when I found out that the storm track had shifted slightly to the east of me, which makes me feel slightly better because that puts me on the "clean side". But this storm is just so big that I'm in for a rough night tonight no matter what.
I got another little break in that Ike didn't strengthen much yesterday as it travelled across the Gulf of Mexico. As I write this, it's still a Category 2 storm with winds of 105 mph. I'm about an hour inland from Galveston, which seems to be Ike's latest target, so I will not get the storm surge or see wind speeds close to what Galveston will feel. But.... I'm still expecting winds of between 50-65 mph and they are predicted to last for almost 12 hours, because of the sheer size of the storm. Once it's here, all you can do is wait for it to pass through. Besides the wind, I will probably get a lot of rain, but I'm in an area that doesn't usually flood, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't this time either. My main concern is whether my roof and windows will stay intact.
I will most likely lose power at some point, and who knows how long it will be before it comes back on? I've been hearing stories that some places in other storms were without power for a couple of weeks. That would really suck, because if the power goes out to the water pumping facility that supplies me, I won't have any water until the power comes back on. I bought some water and also have some soda, whiskey, and beer, so I won't die from dehydration, but I may be drunk as a skunk when all is said and done.
This morning I made the last of the preparations that I could, and filled up my two huge trashcans with water so I could use a bucket of water to flush my toilet with if the water is off. I'll fill up my bathtub later tonight too. I've got a couple of Coleman lanterns, a couple of flashlights, a few extra batteries, and a bunch of candles, so at least I shouldn't be in the dark.
I could've done better preparations if I had put more thought into it, like I should've gotten more drinking water and batteries, and maybe another can of lantern fuel, but it's too late to worry about that now. It is what it is, and I'm as ready as I'm gonna be. All I can do now is to hope that everything will be OK.
I just remembered a few more things that I need to do, like trying to get a couple more trays of ice cubes made before tonight, so I'd better get back to it.
Thanks to all of my friends who have expressed their concern, because that really means a lot. And thanks to my weather expert sis Krissi for the great weather updates and assurances. If I can, I'll write more later tonight if I still have power. Hope to see you all later tonight, and maybe even be able to report that the storm turned away at the last moment. We can always hope, right?
Love you all!
little bitchass
As Hurricane Ike gets closer and closer to Bitchassland, I'm taking a break from my preparations, and thought maybe now would be a good time to update everybody. I may not get a chance to later. This storm may not be as powerful as some have been, but it is huge, folks. As I write this, the wind has just now started to pick up and it's getting pretty breezy out there. The sun is still out but some clouds are starting to roll in. I'm not sure when I'll feel the first rain, but it's been dry so far.
I've been really fortunate for the past few years when it comes to tropical storms and hurricanes. There have been a few, including Rita, which were headed directly towards me but turned away at the last monent. It looks like I won't be as fortunate this time.
When I got up yesterday, Ike was tracking towards me and if the track held, the storm would pass almost directly over me, slightly to my west, which put me on the "dirty side" of the storm, which is where the worst conditions are usually found, including possible tornados. I got a little break yesterday when I found out that the storm track had shifted slightly to the east of me, which makes me feel slightly better because that puts me on the "clean side". But this storm is just so big that I'm in for a rough night tonight no matter what.
I got another little break in that Ike didn't strengthen much yesterday as it travelled across the Gulf of Mexico. As I write this, it's still a Category 2 storm with winds of 105 mph. I'm about an hour inland from Galveston, which seems to be Ike's latest target, so I will not get the storm surge or see wind speeds close to what Galveston will feel. But.... I'm still expecting winds of between 50-65 mph and they are predicted to last for almost 12 hours, because of the sheer size of the storm. Once it's here, all you can do is wait for it to pass through. Besides the wind, I will probably get a lot of rain, but I'm in an area that doesn't usually flood, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't this time either. My main concern is whether my roof and windows will stay intact.
I will most likely lose power at some point, and who knows how long it will be before it comes back on? I've been hearing stories that some places in other storms were without power for a couple of weeks. That would really suck, because if the power goes out to the water pumping facility that supplies me, I won't have any water until the power comes back on. I bought some water and also have some soda, whiskey, and beer, so I won't die from dehydration, but I may be drunk as a skunk when all is said and done.
This morning I made the last of the preparations that I could, and filled up my two huge trashcans with water so I could use a bucket of water to flush my toilet with if the water is off. I'll fill up my bathtub later tonight too. I've got a couple of Coleman lanterns, a couple of flashlights, a few extra batteries, and a bunch of candles, so at least I shouldn't be in the dark.
I could've done better preparations if I had put more thought into it, like I should've gotten more drinking water and batteries, and maybe another can of lantern fuel, but it's too late to worry about that now. It is what it is, and I'm as ready as I'm gonna be. All I can do now is to hope that everything will be OK.
I just remembered a few more things that I need to do, like trying to get a couple more trays of ice cubes made before tonight, so I'd better get back to it.
Thanks to all of my friends who have expressed their concern, because that really means a lot. And thanks to my weather expert sis Krissi for the great weather updates and assurances. If I can, I'll write more later tonight if I still have power. Hope to see you all later tonight, and maybe even be able to report that the storm turned away at the last moment. We can always hope, right?
Love you all!
little bitchass
2008-09-04
Wow! September 4th Already! Wonder What Bitchass Has Been Doing For The Past Month?
Since I haven't written anything in that time, and since a few of my friends have posted a few things, maybe it's time I blew the cobwebs off of this blog and added some text to it.
And since my blog never contains anything fictional, I'll just stay with that format and tell you what I've been doing lately. This won't take long, and if you manage to stay awake through it, there will be a quiz at the end.
When I left you last, I was sitting by myself at work, waiting for the tropical storm to wash me away. Sadly for you, it didn't, and neener neener neener, I'm still here. We had another Hurricane scare last week, when there was a possiblility that Gustav might head over in Bitchass' direction. I watched the news and weather, and figured I'd be smart this time and not wait until the last minute to get extra water, batteries, and candles. So out I went, and was able to find what I needed before everything got cleaned off of the shelves. But Gustav had his evil eye fixed on the New Orleans area all along, and he headed straight there, leaving all my storm supplies still sitting in their little plastic shopping bags. I guess I'll put them away after hurricane season is over.
Remember when I had told you in a previous post that I had to replace my dead modem? Well, my Internet connection problems continued to cause me grief until 2 days ago. I could never get my Internet speed anywhere close to where it should be, and web pages were taking anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes to load. I started checking out the computer, and found some spyware and a Trojan (not the condom) hiding in there. I cleaned those things out, cleaned up my registry, and in the process caused other problems. I began to suspect that I had broken Internet Explorer when the spyware got cleaned out, and so I installed Firefox to see if it was any faster. It wasn't. Everything was still going slower than income tax reform.
That made me suspect either the new modem or some other problem with my ISP. Since I had installed the replacement modem, and remembering that I had problems doing the online setup, I decided to call Comcast while I still had my router bypassed and had a straight connection between computer and modem.
The tech I got listened (hahaha... not really) to the symptoms I described, and then told me that there was an outage in the area and that it was probably the cause of my slowdown. I pointed out to him that I had just told him that my Internet was slow for over a month, and that must be some kinda outage they had going on. I also pointed out that I still had my connection, but that it was dead slow. At any rate, he insisted that he couldn't do any troubleshooting with me until the outage was cleared. When I asked him when I should check back, he said it could be 48 hours. I figured that at least if I called back the next day, I might get a tech more interested in helping me.
Now the story gets really wierd. I checked my ISP download and upload speeds before going to work the next morning, and they were still crawling. After finishing work, I turned onto the street leading to my subdivision, and there on the side of the road, were 2 Comcast bucket trucks, and their occupants were working on an overhead wire. I got home, turned on the computer, and my Internet connection had mysteriously gotten it's speed back. It's been that way ever since, and was it just a coincidence that it got fixed the day after I called? You tell me. I'm just happy to be able to browse without cursing at the computer every time I change to a different webpage.
So needless to say, most of my past month has been spent trying to get my computer straightened out. Add that to the fact that I have been super busy at work and not able to get online to play like I used to, and you can see why I haven't been around much. Weekends have mostly been spent sweating my ass off outside while I push the lawnmower around the yard.
Well, my lunch hour is over, so this will have to do for todays post. Maybe I'll post again soon, maybe not, who knows?
One last thing. Notice the special date in the header of my blog. That date is the anniversary of my first call with Princess Grace. I was really looking forward to our 2nd Anniversary this year, but September 20th is only about 2 weeks away, and if some things don't change by then, it looks like it's not gonna be much of a celebration. I'm hoping that September 20th will stick in my memory as a happy day, and not a sad one.
See y'all next time I post.
Princess, as always, I wuv You and miss You.
little bitchass
P.S. If you're waiting for the quiz, there isn't gonna be one... I ran out of time...
Since I haven't written anything in that time, and since a few of my friends have posted a few things, maybe it's time I blew the cobwebs off of this blog and added some text to it.
And since my blog never contains anything fictional, I'll just stay with that format and tell you what I've been doing lately. This won't take long, and if you manage to stay awake through it, there will be a quiz at the end.
When I left you last, I was sitting by myself at work, waiting for the tropical storm to wash me away. Sadly for you, it didn't, and neener neener neener, I'm still here. We had another Hurricane scare last week, when there was a possiblility that Gustav might head over in Bitchass' direction. I watched the news and weather, and figured I'd be smart this time and not wait until the last minute to get extra water, batteries, and candles. So out I went, and was able to find what I needed before everything got cleaned off of the shelves. But Gustav had his evil eye fixed on the New Orleans area all along, and he headed straight there, leaving all my storm supplies still sitting in their little plastic shopping bags. I guess I'll put them away after hurricane season is over.
Remember when I had told you in a previous post that I had to replace my dead modem? Well, my Internet connection problems continued to cause me grief until 2 days ago. I could never get my Internet speed anywhere close to where it should be, and web pages were taking anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes to load. I started checking out the computer, and found some spyware and a Trojan (not the condom) hiding in there. I cleaned those things out, cleaned up my registry, and in the process caused other problems. I began to suspect that I had broken Internet Explorer when the spyware got cleaned out, and so I installed Firefox to see if it was any faster. It wasn't. Everything was still going slower than income tax reform.
That made me suspect either the new modem or some other problem with my ISP. Since I had installed the replacement modem, and remembering that I had problems doing the online setup, I decided to call Comcast while I still had my router bypassed and had a straight connection between computer and modem.
The tech I got listened (hahaha... not really) to the symptoms I described, and then told me that there was an outage in the area and that it was probably the cause of my slowdown. I pointed out to him that I had just told him that my Internet was slow for over a month, and that must be some kinda outage they had going on. I also pointed out that I still had my connection, but that it was dead slow. At any rate, he insisted that he couldn't do any troubleshooting with me until the outage was cleared. When I asked him when I should check back, he said it could be 48 hours. I figured that at least if I called back the next day, I might get a tech more interested in helping me.
Now the story gets really wierd. I checked my ISP download and upload speeds before going to work the next morning, and they were still crawling. After finishing work, I turned onto the street leading to my subdivision, and there on the side of the road, were 2 Comcast bucket trucks, and their occupants were working on an overhead wire. I got home, turned on the computer, and my Internet connection had mysteriously gotten it's speed back. It's been that way ever since, and was it just a coincidence that it got fixed the day after I called? You tell me. I'm just happy to be able to browse without cursing at the computer every time I change to a different webpage.
So needless to say, most of my past month has been spent trying to get my computer straightened out. Add that to the fact that I have been super busy at work and not able to get online to play like I used to, and you can see why I haven't been around much. Weekends have mostly been spent sweating my ass off outside while I push the lawnmower around the yard.
Well, my lunch hour is over, so this will have to do for todays post. Maybe I'll post again soon, maybe not, who knows?
One last thing. Notice the special date in the header of my blog. That date is the anniversary of my first call with Princess Grace. I was really looking forward to our 2nd Anniversary this year, but September 20th is only about 2 weeks away, and if some things don't change by then, it looks like it's not gonna be much of a celebration. I'm hoping that September 20th will stick in my memory as a happy day, and not a sad one.
See y'all next time I post.
Princess, as always, I wuv You and miss You.
little bitchass
P.S. If you're waiting for the quiz, there isn't gonna be one... I ran out of time...
2008-08-05
What In The Hell Was I Thinking?
Today's blog post has absolutely nothing to do with anything interesting. That's because I have nothing interesting to write about. So, just so I can say I wrote something, I'll tell you what is going on at this moment in time.
I'm sitting at work, staring at the computer screen, any desire to write anything meaningful is just not there these days. I just feel numb.
So I guess I'll force something.
I'm sitting here alone at work. Nobody else is here because Tropical Storm Edouard is paying Houston a visit as I write this. We were told yesterday to just watch the news and make our own judgement as to whether to come in to work or to stay home. I made the judgement to come in, but like always, my judgements seem to be 180 degrees out from everybody elses.
Really, it's not that bad outside. The storm took a slight turn to the north last night and instead of tracking right over my house like it was aiming for yesterday, it made landfall to the east of Houston, and since it's a compact storm, all we are getting is some heavy rain showers. There's not even much wind, and no lightning and thunder or spinnies... Krissi will be disappointed....
So, my main concern went from losing power, water, (Internet) for some uncertain amount of time, to whether or not the roads might flood between work and my home, trapping me here at work. Staying here overnight is not something I would want to experience. What would there be to do? There's no food, no bed, and I am restricted as to Internet access. There's nothing here to entertain myself with. Especially since I'm not supposed to be cumming and all...
Well, it's gotten a little darker, and the rain is picking back up again, so I'm gonna close down and head for home while I still can.
Catch you all next time.. whenever that might be...
little bitchass
Today's blog post has absolutely nothing to do with anything interesting. That's because I have nothing interesting to write about. So, just so I can say I wrote something, I'll tell you what is going on at this moment in time.
I'm sitting at work, staring at the computer screen, any desire to write anything meaningful is just not there these days. I just feel numb.
So I guess I'll force something.
I'm sitting here alone at work. Nobody else is here because Tropical Storm Edouard is paying Houston a visit as I write this. We were told yesterday to just watch the news and make our own judgement as to whether to come in to work or to stay home. I made the judgement to come in, but like always, my judgements seem to be 180 degrees out from everybody elses.
Really, it's not that bad outside. The storm took a slight turn to the north last night and instead of tracking right over my house like it was aiming for yesterday, it made landfall to the east of Houston, and since it's a compact storm, all we are getting is some heavy rain showers. There's not even much wind, and no lightning and thunder or spinnies... Krissi will be disappointed....
So, my main concern went from losing power, water, (Internet) for some uncertain amount of time, to whether or not the roads might flood between work and my home, trapping me here at work. Staying here overnight is not something I would want to experience. What would there be to do? There's no food, no bed, and I am restricted as to Internet access. There's nothing here to entertain myself with. Especially since I'm not supposed to be cumming and all...
Well, it's gotten a little darker, and the rain is picking back up again, so I'm gonna close down and head for home while I still can.
Catch you all next time.. whenever that might be...
little bitchass
2008-08-01
On Tease Time And Other Burning Questions...
Regarding Tease Time, I didn't go to Tease Time last night so I don't know if Princess put one on or not. Maybe somebody could enlighten me on this one.
I also thought I would save everybody some time and effort, and answer the 3 most common questions you will be asking me if you see me around the chatrooms. Here are the answers. Write them down so I don't have to keep answering them over and over again...
1. No.
2. I don't know.
3. Beats the hell outta me.
Well, have a great weekend, everybody!
Princess, as always, Your bitchass wuvs You!
little bitchass
Regarding Tease Time, I didn't go to Tease Time last night so I don't know if Princess put one on or not. Maybe somebody could enlighten me on this one.
I also thought I would save everybody some time and effort, and answer the 3 most common questions you will be asking me if you see me around the chatrooms. Here are the answers. Write them down so I don't have to keep answering them over and over again...
1. No.
2. I don't know.
3. Beats the hell outta me.
Well, have a great weekend, everybody!
Princess, as always, Your bitchass wuvs You!
little bitchass
2008-07-25
Sorry Lucky... There's Nothing For You Today...
That's because there was no Tease Time last night. Princess Grace never made it into Her chat. Everybody missed Her, and we're all hoping it was just computer problems and not anything more serious, like Bambi's surviving family members finally catching Princess out without Her bodyguards.
Well, so much for the birthday cheesecake. It went back into the freezer and I guess I'll be having it this weekend.
Hope You're OK, Princess. Your bitchass wuvs You!
little bitchass
That's because there was no Tease Time last night. Princess Grace never made it into Her chat. Everybody missed Her, and we're all hoping it was just computer problems and not anything more serious, like Bambi's surviving family members finally catching Princess out without Her bodyguards.
Well, so much for the birthday cheesecake. It went back into the freezer and I guess I'll be having it this weekend.
Hope You're OK, Princess. Your bitchass wuvs You!
little bitchass
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