I woke up yesterday morning expecting to witness the outside edges wrath of Hurricane Ike. You know, the wind and rain thing.
I looked out the window. Just breezy; no rain.
So I sit at the computer and do a few things. I downloaded the AVS Video Editor from "Giveaway of the Day" and then paid some bills. Isn't sad how all of these businesses hound you to visit their stores and get their merchandise. Then when you finally do it, they start bugging you for money.
Since the weather wasn't too bad I decided to go to HEB and buy groceries. Apparently Ike was on the doorstep getting ready to knock. I stepped out and the wind picked up and it was starting to sprinkle. I got in the truck and headed off to the store. By the time I got to HEB the wind was blowing pretty good. It blew my truck door closed before I could jump out. Fortunately, my foot was still safely inside the truck. The rain had picked up but I was destined to shop.
I finished at HEB and decided to head to Sam's. By now we were feeling the full wrath and fury of Ike. Okay, it wasn't really "wrath and fury" it was more like "wind and rain". It never seemed like much rain though. There was a lot of wind though. On the way to Sam's I would sit at red lights and the truck would rock back and forth. That's an awkward feeling when you drive a Chevy Silverado. Anyway, by the time I got to Sam's the rain was coming down pretty hard. I don't know if it was a lot of rain or just rain driven by the strong winds. Yeah, I know. It was both.
By now it was 11:30 AM. Now I'm glad Baylor played on Friday night.
On the way home on IH 35 there was a semi that lost control and had driven up on the concrete center median thingy. His front wheels were hanging over the top. Sort of like a puppy that was standing on it's hind legs by small fence or something of the like. Only this was a "BIG PUPPY". The DPS troopers were furiously trying to get there but had a tough time because all the traffic behind the truck was a dead stop.
It turned out to be lousy weather. But it was a great time to go shopping. No traffic and hardly any customers in the stores. The sample ladies at Sam's were hoping they could go home early since they weren't busy.
I got home and checked the mail. There was a letter from Citi Bank or some such place telling me they had $5000.00 to give me. I shredded the thing. It would be just my luck that once they gave me the money they would turn right around and start wanting it back. I also got catalogue from an outfit called Stafford's in Thomasville, Georgia. I don't know why I got it. I flipped through and found a Leather Flyswatter for $55.00. Now that's what I need because that $1.00 Wal-Mart model just ain't cuttin' it.
Geez, these people must think I have money tree. I've got news for them. Ike blew all the leaves off.
© 2008 Barry T Horst
Ike has caused my brother and his family to board up their house. They are riding out the storm. I pray that they are safe and no great damage or danger shall befall them.
I also don't like Ike because he is driving up gas prices in this area. Last weekend I paid $3.40 a gallon for gas at Murphy Oil/Wal-Mart. Yesterday I put half a tank in the truck and paid $3.50 a gallon at the same station. On my way to work this morning (6:30 AM) I saw prices at $3.75 a gallon at both Pilot and the Flying J. On my way home this afternoon at 4:00 PM both stations were sitting at $3.95 a gallon. I decided to pull in to a Shell station and fill up that was selling gas at $3.63. A little higher than I would have liked but certainly better that $3.95. This turned out to be a wise decision. On my home from the Baylor football game (11:30 PM) I discovered that the Pilot station was selling at $4.19 a gallon and the Flying J was at $4.35 a gallon.
There is some good news though. Baylor was scheduled to play Washington State University here in Waco at 11:30 AM on Saturday the 13th. Because of Ike the game was moved up to Friday night with kick-off at 7:30 PM. Baylor won the game, beating Washington State 45-17. Way to go Bears and congratulations to Robert Griffin, tonight's MVP.
SIC-EM BEARS!
I was looking at last night. I began to notice the tag lines of some of the news stories; such as BBC POLL: WORLD WANTS OBAMA..., Russians like Putin and Obama, polls find..., 80% in France..., etc.
A few facts about me. I'm not a political blogger. I do happen to prefer McCain/Palin, but I'm not going to campaign on the blog. But something struck me when I saw these headlines. Since I think of myself as an America first person and I read that "...the world wants Obama", "Russians like...Obama..., and "80% in France" prefer Obama; wellll......All of that just SCREAMS that we need McCain. After all, I would think if the Russians want Obama, there must be a problem. After all they wanted Georgia and it didn't seem like Mr. Obama was too concerned.
Just a thought on my part. I hope I didn't offend!
Got to the school at 6:45 yesterday morning. I didn't get home until just before 7:00 PM. Our school had it's first PTA meeting and Open House last night so I stayed at school and made sure my room was ready and current student work was posted;..............for one parent! That's right! One parent. I stayed until 6:30 PM for one parent. The same parent that I see most mornings because she walks her child to the classroom. Oh well, at least the room is clean. Not that it was messy to begin with, but at least it is more clean.
I brought some things home to work on last night. I brought some plastic letters home to sort and bag for easier retrieval. I also brought some crayons home to sort out. I can't stand to have the crayons all mixed up. My daughter pointed out that I do teach Kindergarten and that the children are 5 years old. I told her that I knew that but it still drives me crazy to have things messy.
I mean, how many credit cards does any one person need?
Last month I received at least twenty credit card offers in the mail. These ranged from department stores, gas cards, and the all purpose cards. They came in my name, my wife's name, my daughter's name, and the occasional offer in the business name. If I responded to each offer I would have to get a larger wallet and a second or third job. Or maybe start asking for handouts here on the blog.
I have recently been getting a lot of solicitations for oil company cards. I suppose they realize that their gas too expensive and short of taking out a loan most people need to use their cards more. I am certain that if the oil companies lowered their prices and then only sold gas by credit card they would reap billions of dollars by charging interest on the charges. After all, if someone ran up $1000.00 in gas charges and the companies charged say, 14%, that would be....let's see. Yeah! A lot. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of customers and you're talking maybe, hundreds of thousands of "a lot". And that's a lot.
Oh wait. My theory just went south. Most of the gas cards are offered by companies like Citi, GE Money Bank, and the like. Oh well! I guess I'll just keep that shredder going.
