Two things happened to me today that don’t happen every day. I saw my big brother Rick and I wore long pants (I think I probably see my brother more than I wear long pants). This is a picture of him standing next to his plane and me waiting for my meeting. The major problem with the picture of me is that you can’t see my red shoes.
We went up to Tahoe this weekend to check on the construction. We got snow!!! It was only a couple of inches and it was gone by the afternoon, but it was fun none-the-less. The construction continues to move along. We got the windows for the downstairs and they are all in and mostly all trimmed. The roof has been “dryed in”. Which means it has felt down and is waterproof, but doesn’t have the shingles or the heating stuff in yet. We are still waiting for the windows for the great room and the top floor. Elizabeth and I spent a good deal of time running wire through the garage. Hopefully, it will be dry walled soon as they start really buttoning the house up.
More pictures of the house as it turns into a castle. We took all the furniture from the house next door up to Tahoe and put it in storage so that it will be there when we need it.
The cousins have been visiting while they are out of school because of Katrina. We have been showing them around here. We went to The Tech, the Exploratorium, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, and Aquarium. They were supposed to go back early this morning. Because of Rita, we had to postpone the flight through Houston and they are going back on Tuesday. The younger ones have been going to school each morning with Katy and Margaret as well.
Margaret fell Sunday night while playing on the play structure in the back yard. We took her to urgent care. The doctor said it was probably not broken, or if it was, he would just maybe put it in a splint. We went to her regular doctor the next day, he sent us for a x-ray and pretty much told us the same thing. We went to an orthopedic doctor today (didn’t actually see the doctor). They put Margaret in a cast for 4 weeks. After that, she will be in a splint for another 4 weeks.
Margaret is very excited about it and has had all of her cousins and her brother, sister, Jenna and Mama sign it. She chose the color – it glows in the dark. When I decided to take a picture of Margaret with her cast, the rest of the children decided that they needed to be in the picture as well.
This is Steve, one of two of the foremen, on the roof at Tahoe. Both Steve and Galen are terrific carpenters and highly photogenic, but Steve wanted his picture on the website, so he got front page. If you click on the photo, another 75 photos of the house and crew will show up.
I went up to the house for the day last Friday, while Rusty watched the kids and slept off his trip to the Gulf Coast. As you can see, things have come a long way. The house is big. Really big. And beautiful, too. It’s better looking (and bigger) than I had pictured it. Still a long way to go, but it finally looks like a house (or a castle, as I think the locals have taken to calling it).
I went to Mississippi to help my brother and sister deal with the flooding from the hurricane. I really don’t know how to describe it. In some ways, it was like going to a funeral. I did enjoy my time with my brother and sister, but it was not the best of circumstances. It was really hard to be down there. So many people lost so much. In my sister’s neighborhood, everyone around had piled all of their ruined possessions up on the curbside. All the piles looked pretty much the same. We were able to finish cleaning out my sister’s 1-story house that had about 7.5 feet of water in it. We got all the carpet, drywall, and insulation out. Now it can dry out for a while. I should be salvagable from this point. We created a pile of all of her possesions. It was about 8 feet tall, 20 feet wide, and 60 feet long.
We took a slight detour and went down to the ocean front. The most shocking thing was all of the clothes and other garbage that was hanging from the trees. Most of the houses on the beach front were completely destroyed. Everything except the foundation from these houses was piled up a few hundred yards from the shore where the water had dropped it. All in all, Ocean Springs was not hit as hard as anything west of there. I can’t even imagine what places like Bay St. Louis and Waveland must look like.
My parents, 200 miles from the coast, saw hurricane force winds. The entire drive down from Starkville to the coast was littered with damage from the hurricane, ots of trees down, lots of roofs damaged. In places around 100 miles from the coast, the wind was strong enough to completely destroy traffic lights. Parts of the coast weren’t hit quite as hard, but I don’t think I saw a single traffic sign that wasn’t bent in one way or another.
The military presence was intimidating. However, there were also many signs around about shooting looters. I don’t know what the looting was like immediately after the storm, but people down there seemed to be prepared to stop it.
I really thank Jonathan and Daniel for going down with me. Without them, there would have been no way that we could have gotten so much done at my sister’s. Unfortunately, I was not able to help my brother as much as I would have liked.
My sister is now living in a travel trailer in her back yard. She will probably be out of her house for well over a year. My brother is able to live in his house. He has had to replace all of his appliances and will end up removing all of the drywall and insulation below about 2 feet in his house.
I asked both of them what people should do if they wanted to help. The best answer is probably simply give to the American Red Cross. You can make an online donation here.
Sam had his first day of preschool. I missed it because I was in Mississippi helping my brother and sister. All went well.
Katy and her friend Olivia decided – all on their own – to hold a lemonade and bake sale to raise money for Katrina aid. After the neighbors spread the word, they had great attendance. Everyone had a good time hanging out outside, chatting with neighbors, and enjoying the Fall weather. More importantly, in two hours, the children raised $183.22 (a lot of people paid $10, or even $60, for a cupcake). They will divide the money between the Red Cross and Noah’s Wish, a group that rescues and shelters animals during disasters. All in all, a most successful Saturday afternoon. Photos next week.
UPDATE: Now up to $200.50.
My brother and sister went through Katrina. They all evacuated to safety. My nephew just uploaded these before and after pictures. If you look closely in the garage shots, it looks like the water level is just above the windows & doors. Basically, the water came in and floated everything around and jumbled it up. Luckily his house is a little higher than the garage. I think he had a couple feet of water in the house. My sister was not quite so lucky, she had about 8 feet of water in her house.