Slowly Back To Normal

All is well in Houston. Or at least, all is as well as can be expected.

I finally spoke with my brother last night who lives in Houston. He lives in the general vicinity of the Gulf Freeway and the South Belt Tollway. This was near the approximate path of the eye wall of Hurricane Ike. I would say probably within 7-8 miles west of where the eye wall passed.

His family decided to stay at the house which was boarded up and sealed up as best as he could get it. The reporters at KHOU who covered the storm in the Galveston - Houston area referred to this as "hunkering down". I suppose my brother and his family were "hunkering down".

Lance said they lost power around 11:00 PM on the night (Friday, September 12, 2008) the hurricane began to approach the area. The electricity was turned on Friday night the 19th. One week. He was so excited that the cable was on he checked e-mail and watched a movie until 2:00 AM. Pam was tired and went to sleep.

Lance was looking forward to getting up early on Saturday morning in order to tend to untended business on the computer. (Read that as checking on and paying bills again.) He went to the computer; no Internet. He went to the TV; no cable. AAARGHHH! Now it was off to Kari's house with the laptop to take advantage of the Internet.

I suppose the worst thing that happened was my brothers fence blew down courtesy of the near constant hurricane force winds for several hours straight on Friday night and early Saturday morning. There were also a few lost shingles but not much else. No flooding fortunately.

My brother is now retired living a life of leisure. Pam still teaches math in Clear Creek ISD. She learned that her buildings roof was torn off and many classrooms flooded; probably her own. Clear Creek will not be ready for teachers until Friday, September 26 and students returning the next Monday. Under this situation I don't think a 12+ day vacation at the the beginning of the year is very enjoyable.

Lance said his family made the decision to stay because the storm was only a Category 2 and they did not think it would be as bad as Alicia many years ago. They stayed in Houston for Alicia and the eye wall passed over their house. He told me that he remembered walking out and looking at the calm blue sky. Didn't happen this time around.

Having said all of this all things in their world are slowly returning to normal.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Picture Day Monday, February 18

The above is a Christmas card that my parents made. I can remember my parents converting the kitchen into a dark room and cranking these things out each Christmas when I was in elementary school. I don't remember it after we moved to the house on Windsor. I'm not sure of the year but I know it was from the mid 1960's. My sister, Michal Ann is on the left. My brother, Lance is on the right. I am the happy chap in the middle.

This is another picture of Michal. This is probably when she was at Sam Houston State College. The college changed it's name to Sam Houston State University the year she graduated. Because of the name changed she received two diplomas; one with the name of each school on it. For more history on SHSU click here: SHSU HISTORY.

The pictures above are a few pictures from the mid 1980's. The picture on the left is Janna, Kari, and Meredith playing a game. Jana and Kari are the daughters of Lance and Pam Horst. Meredith is Michal's daughter. In the middle picture Meredith and Scott are sitting on my mother's lap. The picture on the right shows Meredith playing with Scott.

Here is a picture taken in Dickinson. I don't recall the occasion, but it was taken in the early to mid 1990's. Starting from the right we have Scott, Kari, Julie, Meredith, Janna, and my "Big Dogs" back. I don't know what that is on the left. Perhaps a UFO? Perhaps a thumb? I don't really know.

This is Jerry. I don't know who he is related to.

Actually, Jerry was a mannequin that my Mother picked up somewhere. Chris just told me that he came from a JC Penney that was remodeling. Maybe that explains the name, Jerry. She would sit it in her house and take it on trips in her car to make it look like she had someone in the car with her. No, not so she could drive in the HOV lane. After my father passed away my mother didn't like to take trips to Houston and other cities and have people think she might be by herself. All the grandkids liked to play with Jerry. Especially when his head fell off. Just imagine dancing with a headless Jerry.

Hmm!

No thanks!

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.