When I heard that there was a storm headed for the southern Texas coast, I decided to devote that time to painting miniatures. The storm was coming in well to the south of us, so there was no worry about wind damage. I had plenty of stuff to paint, and the rain would keep me inside, so clearly it was time to catch up on painting, and several of my posts that have been in draft for a while. After all, there's nothing better for productivity than enforced idleness, right? Well, several trillion gallons of water later, I have an answer to that question. The answer is NO!
First of all, let me state that my family has been incredibly lucky/blessed/whatever you want to call it. We live in a suburban city on the east side of Houston, and that city has spent a lot of money on drainage. Consequently, we got no water in the house. It did get up to the edge of our garage, and a little bit came under the garage doors due to jerks in their pickup trucks driving through the flooded streets and forcing their wakes under the door seals. However, it wasn't enough to hurt anything and only went about 2 feet inside the garage. So, not really anything to complain about, especially when the houses across the street got water inside them.
It turns out that having a 1,000/10,000 year flood event in your general vicinity kind of distracts you from doing stuff like painting. I say 1,000/10,000 year event because no one seems to be really sure just how bad it was yet. We blew past the 500 year flood mark by Sunday, I think. One television weatherman called it "biblical," and that certainly seems to be appropriate. Instead of a relaxing bout of painting, I spent my time doing two things. While we were being rained on, I kept going to different parts of the house to make sure we weren't getting water inside. After the heaviest rains were over, I divided my time between watching the news to keep up to date, or keeping in touch via text messages with friends and family so I could see if they were OK. Now, this was not my first hurricane; far from it and I daresay that it won't be my last. However, if it's the last one for a while then I'm certainly OK with that.
I don't want it to seem like I got nothing done due to the storm. I was able to finish up some things that will be up on the blog shortly, once I get pictures taken. I've finished my star fort for land scenarios, and have had another ship done for a couple of weeks, but have taken no photos yet. So, if you read this blog, I haven't given up on it. I've just been a little distracted here lately. I promise to have some eye candy in place soon.
Glad to see that y'all are OK. Hopefully you are not downwind of Arkema...
ReplyDeleteNo, Arkema is about 20 miles away from us in a straight line. Not sure what it would be going by roads, as none of them are a straight shot from here to there.
ReplyDeleteGlad to read you and your family are okay.
ReplyDeleteThank you Victor. Like I said in the post, we were fortunate beyond all belief.
DeleteHas the water receded any yet?
ReplyDeleteThe water has gone down, and the place looks like it's back to normal. Some people on our street did get water in their homes, and the city has already picked up that debris. It's. . . kind of strange really.
DeleteWe would love some of your water. The smoke is so thick here we can't breath outside. The smell is in the house and ash is falling covering everything. Fires all around us.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a forested area and went through a couple of forest fires, but they were NOTHING like what you're dealing with up there. My parent's home burned in 1981, but that wasn't a forest fire, just a house fire. Believe me, if I could send you some water I would. Are you going to have to evacuate?
DeleteHope not. The nearest is over 100 miles away. But the smoke and falling ash is as if it was nearby. The satellite views show smoke moving north from California, picking up more smoke from fires in Oregon and Western Washington, then merging with the smoke moving south from fires in British Columbia. The jet stream is moving it east, merging with fires in eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. A friend in Minnesota tells me the smoke is really bad where he lives, though there are no fires there. The smoke is traveling all the way to the Atlantic on the jet stream.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late response, but I was away from the computer for most of the day.
DeleteI'm glad to hear that the fires are that far away from you. From what you were saying about the conditions where you are, it sounds as if they were very close. It's also a shame that the situation up there isn't getting more publicity. We just heard about the La Tuna fire on the news a few days ago, and I suspect that was because it was threatening an LA suburb.
Hope not. The nearest is over 100 miles away. But the smoke and falling ash is as if it was nearby. The satellite views show smoke moving north from California, picking up more smoke from fires in Oregon and Western Washington, then merging with the smoke moving south from fires in British Columbia. The jet stream is moving it east, merging with fires in eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. A friend in Minnesota tells me the smoke is really bad where he lives, though there are no fires there. The smoke is traveling all the way to the Atlantic on the jet stream.
ReplyDelete