Mo' rain

[George Shirley]

We just topped 30 inches of rain according to the weather heads. I don't think I've ever seen rain like that. 20 inches several time but not this. Plus they're saying it is going to keep raining for the most of this week if not more. Looks like Harvey is stalling out and we're on the rain side. Our old home place in Louisiana seems to be getting hammered with high winds and lots of rain too.

We had about five hours of no rain today and that allowed what was in the detention pond to run on off the the creek some miles away but there is a lot of flooding in Houston proper, Spring, and a few other Texas town/cities nearby. Haven't seen anything on the news above where we are but suspect some of the low lying places are flooded.

TV news has been showing rescue of people from their homes in Houston and the close to Houston surroundings. Makes me happy that we looked for a home on high ground when we moved here. I'm happy too that our daughter and her kids bought homes on high ground. Just found out that our son and his family moved from Kingwood to Memorial area in Houston proper. He works at Texas Children's Hospital and that was a lot closer than where he lived before.

It's getting really boring being rained in, luckily I had just checked out five library books before the rain started. Plus we have electricity, TV, phones, etc. No bumps or failures up here above the coastal plain.

Having been a safety professional for many years it heartens me to see how so many people are out saving lives, etc. Texans will do whatever they can to help other people. Now I'm to old and beat up to go out rescuing folks anymore but I can surely send them Hurrahs a lot.

No grocery stores open nearby gives me thanks that we grow and preserve our own food, have two freezers, and closet full of preserved foods in jars. We were both brought up to grow, preserve, and save what we need to eat and to give to others who are without. If you believe, say a prayer for the folks along the Texas coast. Thousands are now homeless.

George

[T]

Good thing your power is still on.

We've been praying.

Can you at least swim in it? Forget I asked that.

[Frank]

Sounds like you are in good shape and can handle what comes. My wife has an old friend closer to the Gulf with at least one son in Huston and I would not want to be there.

[Pavel314]

A friend's son was supposed to start a new job in Houston this week; he's currently holed up in Dallas.

Paul

[George Shirley]

I'm so old we can't swim any more. I'm partially parallelized on my right size from strokes years ago. I feel lucky that I can still walk, on bad days I use a cane. All the kids gave me canes years ago when all that happened. My favorite is one that has a dragon running down the stick with the handle the mouth. Little kids really like to see that one. Actually bought it in Hong Kong long before the strokes because 1) it was cheap, 2) it was fancy, 3) I liked it on sight.

We're getting less rain but the hurricane is still off shore and spinning. Every TV channel here is broadcasting and walking around or boating around where the water is deep. Millions, they say, have been moved out of their homes. Since this is a heavily populated area it's probably true. Some homes flooded all the way up to the second floor. We have a lot of creeks, rivers, bayous, and reservoirs here and it seems they are all flooding. I haven't seen the rainfall lately, the weather folk are probably adding it all up but I would say six to seven feet or rain has fallen so far. Another wonder is that all of our children and grown grands are on high ground too. Mostly they just can't get to work so they're bored. Thanks for the prayers too.

[George Shirley]

We're old hands at this sort of thing, married in December 60 and still hanging in there. We've lived in three US states, six counties of Texas, two foreign countries, and on the Gulf Coast of Texas in a beach cabin for a bit. That last was my favorite, walk down the stairs, walk across the beach and catch lunch. We actually have flown around the world several times, every time we came home from overseas we took a different route. I'm very happy to be near my get and can talk to them at any time. The best part of being old, we get to keep the great grands from time to time and have lots of fun. Our eldest great granddaughter will soon be seventeen and we have one grandchild married not long ago and we will wait for more greats. I wouldn't have believed it if someone told me I would such a large family when I married at 21. It's a big, noisy time at holidays and I get tired out but go to bed with a big grin on my face. Would think it way back when.

[George Shirley]

He will probably be there a bit. The TV folk are saying we've gotten nearly six feet of rain so far. I have my doubts but I can say that all yesterday, last night, and up to around 4 PM today it has rained steadily. Just stopped a little bit ago but we have warnings of more rain. At least the gardens and the fruit trees, not to mention the grass, won't need watering for a bit.

I'm hoping everyone who lost a home has good insurance, there must be thousands of drowned homes. Luckily we have good people running the taking care of and rescuing folks. Most of the high ground schools are now hostels for folks without a home. In our climate, hot and sticky, lots of insects, lots of mold, those homes will be unfit to live in and must be rebuilt or restored.

[Frank]

Have not lived in different places much and only have 2 granddaughters age 2 1/2 and 17 but there are another 3 kids from son's wives previous marriages Three sons, furthest 10 miles away and closest 1 mile. It is nice having families around close by at our age.

[Terry Coombs]

  Depends on how close . When they move in with you ... and now we live 177 miles from them . And that's just about right . Lot left unsaid , but it wasn't a cozy situation and we were planning on moving up here anyway .   --   Snag

[Frank]

We help them now more than they help us. With both parents working my wife often has to help with the kids. All own homes and make good money so I doubt any will move back. The American dream is to have kids better off then you and they mostly are for us.

[T]

I am wondering after everything dries out, how "seed dispersal" will have affecting the area? Weeds from hell?

Keep us posted George.

[George Shirley]

No rain last night or today so far. Day started out with beautiful sunshine, right now the white clouds are turning a little dark. Weather folk haven't predicted more rain so fair.

We have lived up and down the Gulf Coast from Sulphur, LA to Corpus Christi, TX. All of that stretch of American has now been struck by high winds, lots of rain, and flooding. Thousands of people in Houston area are out of their homes and in public shelters. Some will not be able to go back to their homes at all and others will go home to houses loaded with mold and rotten furniture. If you believe say a little prayer for them and maybe send a few bucks to the folks that help them.

Miz Anne and I have always been among the lucky. In 57 years of marriage we have not lost a home to tornadoes or hurricanes and we hope to keep being lucky. We have been so lucky on this hurricane as none of our children, grands, or great grands have had a problem. So far.

George, Miz Anne, and Tilly Dawg (Tilly is snoozing on the couch behind my desk, her favorite place)

[Derald]

Same here. Lived within 35-40 miles of Tampa, FL since birth. Shacked up with the same American Dream for 16+ years and married her in

1990. Got no family news. Gotta family, just no family news. We don't garden together. "Family" and I, beyond my wife, rarely convene. No known descendants in Florida. Been through some tropical storms and hurricanes and sure-enough typhoons (aboard heavy cruiser, WESPAC, '69, hot damn, vietnam). I attended a flood in early 1960's. I have a teenager's memories of long days spent handling sandbags and the constant sound (and smell) of gasoline powered pumps. Also, that was the first time I'd been able to drink beer without question. Been caught many times on both the "right" side and the "wrong" sides of overflowing rivers covering bridges, ponds overfilling and prairies filling but no floods or tornadoes. Nowadays, I'm in the (sort of) country, well away from nbc & nbt, a few miles south of a confluence of New Yorkers AWA a smattering of other yankees. At least, I've been here long enough to know which supermarkets to avoid. We're enough distant "town" and shielded from street view as to be able to garden nekkid; for now. Not a pretty sight, no doubt, but for sure more comfy than modesty. At any rate, nowadays, we're high enough (43 feet AMSL) atop 90 feet of sand that it'd take Noah's flood to get noticed. A couple of nearby ponds still cover adjacent roadways from time to time but that doesn't persist. We've had half the rain as you, for the entirety of August to date, and for which I feel doubly fortunate: Fortunate to have received so much and fortunate to have received so little. Today is the second mostly sunny day in a while. I had become concerned about the peas and the peppers dropping blossoms but there's hope for them as long as they get an occasional sunny day. Have a computer glued to the horrifying flood coverage. About all I can do nowadays is send money, so I do.

[George Shirley]

USN 1957-1963, Texas State Guard (Militia) 1963-1976, no pay, had to buy my own uniforms used my own weapons. Not a wild militia, State of Texas ran the show starting when everyone able went to WWII, including the National Guard. So teenagers and old people protected the state until WWII ended. Ended up a Captain and the intelligence guru for the 108th Battalion out of Beaumont, TX. I was born in Beaumont, TX, raised in Orange, grew up on a ten acre somewhat farm, came home from the Navy in December 1960, married, built a house for us on that same ten acres. Stayed there for about sixteen years and then we started traveling.

Bright sunshine today and low nineties, everything up here on the high land is dry. Tomball, TX closest town, came through okay, our daughter lives there and did okay, three eldest grand kids live in this area and all stayed high and dry. I do the same as you send some money to the Red Cross(used to sleep at Red Cross Hostels when I was a traveling swabbie, five bucks and two meals.)

We, too, have had the tv on all the time and tired of seeing all the blown away or drowned homes. Have never understood why anyone would buy or build a home in a hole surrounded by water. I suspect they're all city people and don't understand how water works. My Dad taught me to only build or buy homes on the highest ground you can find. Never had any of the multitude of homes we've had flood. We set up here on our hill and watched the water run down the ditches and then we were dry again. Never lost power, TV, phones, etc. Even the local supermarket stayed open until they, literally, sold everything in the store but the walls. Dropped by there and there must have been thirty workers in there restocking. Picked up a few items and left the rest for other folks.

We have a home canning locker made from the closet in my office, a

22-cubic foot freezer, and a 16 cubic foot combination freezer and refrigerator, all completely full, mostly of stuff we grow in our small backyard. Yes, we both grew up in the backwoods and learned from our parents how to survive and live okay. We don't like cities and we have lived in some very large ones in our working days, had to be where the job was. All of our children, grands, and great grands are safe, have a roof over their heads and food at hand. Two grandsons, in their mid-thirties went back to work early on, one is an elevator mechanic, and the other drives a UPS truck. Things have to work or be delivered regardless of weather. I'm proud of all of them.