how i survived the weakest part of ivan
i hate waking up to bad news but it makes everything else so much more enjoyable. our football game has been moved to sunday ::joy:: and we have to perform at it ::more joy:: well at least today can't get any worse ::knocks on wood::
so getting ready for ivan we had a lot of options,
1) drive north and get a hotel up there somewhere
b) go to marshall TX and stay with friends
3) drive past marshall and go to Oklahoma and stay with dad who is TDY up there
D) or take shelter at the base should they open it up for shelter.
at first i was ready to get the hell out of dodge, but as ivan got closer i began to feel more comfortable with staying. maybe i was uber concerned for my friends and wanted to stay close by if something should happen or maybe i accepted the fact that if this thing got real bad and hit us hard, i was ok if something were to happen to me. i know others wouldn't be so calm about my getting hurt or something but i pictured myself trapped under slabs of concrete and rain pouring down my face and people running around screaming and i was a little saddened by it but i took it for what it was. i accepted that this is what could happen. luckily, it didn't happen, not even close.
so we packed up three days worth of clothes, food, and entertainment. we packed the xbox just in case but we never brought it in, wish i had though. so we get there and and we are waiting to check in and as we start bringing stuff in i ran into mr. geary, whom i hadn't seen it a long time. he helped out with bringing stuff in for people and after the storm he was in charge of calling home depot or lowes and saying, "we need to buy 300 plus pairs of gloves, 150 chain saws" and other such equipment for clean up duties after ward. we get to the room we were assigned and it was already full. there was a space just big enough for us to unfold our sleeping bags. the guy in charge was going to go around to all the rooms and do a room check to see how many rooms were crowded and what we could do to help out. i actually enjoyed our crowded room. aside from the inflatable queen size air mattresses, the floor was carpeted and the youngest kid in there was no younger then 10 or 11. well anyway, the guy comes by and us and another couple get moved to another room. there was a group of three in one corner, and family of four in another, a queen size air mattress with a woman in the third corner and we got the last corner and that was it. now we just had to deal with two problems, no carpet on the floor, which is where i was going to sleep, and the three kids, and infant, 9 months old, stayed with the woman with the queen size mattress and the other two were three years old and five years old. .....wonderful. so after a few card games zach and i decide to walk around. i noticed i had a really good cell phone signal inside the buildling, in fact, everybody did. some even said it was a better signal than at there house, and i vouche for that. i can barely hold a signal at the house, ask michelle. so i was a little more at ease knowing i'd be easy to contact. so we're walking around checking things out. one thing i didn't know about right away about the building, it's one of my father's squadron's training "school" buildling. we were staying in class rooms which explained the dry erase boards and what not. we're looking around and people are watching movies and stuff on the boards and i thought that was kind cool but didn't really think about it. we got back and told mom and she was like, "yeah, there's someone playing ps2 down the hall." so we ran over there to check it out and sure enough they had plugged the ps2 into the lcd projector hanging from the ceiling and were playing video games. we went back to our room and sure enough, we had one too!!! DAMN IT!!! i coulda played halo or ddr on a wall!!! so the night was boring, made a few calls, received a few calls. harrison called to check on us. i told him about the projectors and he's like, "you shoulda called me, i woulda told ya that!" his father and mine worked together and harrison has made many trips to the student areas and knew the ins and outs of the buildlings. then as i decide to lay down and get some rest, everybody in the room decides theyw ant to watch a movie so they're trying to figure out how to work the projector. wonderful. it took them two minutes to turn it on, another 3 to 4 minutes to figure out how to center it on the wall and once they realized the vcr worked through, we watched the end credits of the emmy's and then they put in cheaper by the dozen. i tried to sleep but it was hard because out corner was right under where the projector was projecting. i listened to my mp3 cd and tried to drown out the movie. i never really went to sleep until after it was over but it didn't make much of a difference. at any given point through the night, the three year old girl would wake up and cry and scream and then mom would tell her to shut up and then sleep. shortly there after, the 9 month old would wake up, cry twice, and sleep again. this went on for the entire night, every hour, if not every half hour. OMG!!!! the crowded room was looking real good right now. so then i hear a bunch of people in the hallway. i thought something may have happened. i had slept with my phone in my hand the entire time, case someone were to call or something and i looked at the time, it was 8:15. when it was closer to 9 i finally came around to. there was word going around that biloxi was open and we'd be released soon so we packed up our stuff and put it in the hall and waited for the go ahead. so much for our three days in the shelter.
saw a fallen transformer on the way home, got home, we had power, no windows were broken, part of something on the roof had come off. and that was it. put everything the way it was, plugged it all back in, but didn't have internet right away. i think it came on this morning some time, not sure. and that is that.
for those of you that actually read this, thanks. you are very patient.
anywho, i'm out. i need to figure out what's going on this weekend. our football game is sunday now and i may have to work saturday :( we'll just see. peace outtie ya'll
so getting ready for ivan we had a lot of options,
1) drive north and get a hotel up there somewhere
b) go to marshall TX and stay with friends
3) drive past marshall and go to Oklahoma and stay with dad who is TDY up there
D) or take shelter at the base should they open it up for shelter.
at first i was ready to get the hell out of dodge, but as ivan got closer i began to feel more comfortable with staying. maybe i was uber concerned for my friends and wanted to stay close by if something should happen or maybe i accepted the fact that if this thing got real bad and hit us hard, i was ok if something were to happen to me. i know others wouldn't be so calm about my getting hurt or something but i pictured myself trapped under slabs of concrete and rain pouring down my face and people running around screaming and i was a little saddened by it but i took it for what it was. i accepted that this is what could happen. luckily, it didn't happen, not even close.
so we packed up three days worth of clothes, food, and entertainment. we packed the xbox just in case but we never brought it in, wish i had though. so we get there and and we are waiting to check in and as we start bringing stuff in i ran into mr. geary, whom i hadn't seen it a long time. he helped out with bringing stuff in for people and after the storm he was in charge of calling home depot or lowes and saying, "we need to buy 300 plus pairs of gloves, 150 chain saws" and other such equipment for clean up duties after ward. we get to the room we were assigned and it was already full. there was a space just big enough for us to unfold our sleeping bags. the guy in charge was going to go around to all the rooms and do a room check to see how many rooms were crowded and what we could do to help out. i actually enjoyed our crowded room. aside from the inflatable queen size air mattresses, the floor was carpeted and the youngest kid in there was no younger then 10 or 11. well anyway, the guy comes by and us and another couple get moved to another room. there was a group of three in one corner, and family of four in another, a queen size air mattress with a woman in the third corner and we got the last corner and that was it. now we just had to deal with two problems, no carpet on the floor, which is where i was going to sleep, and the three kids, and infant, 9 months old, stayed with the woman with the queen size mattress and the other two were three years old and five years old. .....wonderful. so after a few card games zach and i decide to walk around. i noticed i had a really good cell phone signal inside the buildling, in fact, everybody did. some even said it was a better signal than at there house, and i vouche for that. i can barely hold a signal at the house, ask michelle. so i was a little more at ease knowing i'd be easy to contact. so we're walking around checking things out. one thing i didn't know about right away about the building, it's one of my father's squadron's training "school" buildling. we were staying in class rooms which explained the dry erase boards and what not. we're looking around and people are watching movies and stuff on the boards and i thought that was kind cool but didn't really think about it. we got back and told mom and she was like, "yeah, there's someone playing ps2 down the hall." so we ran over there to check it out and sure enough they had plugged the ps2 into the lcd projector hanging from the ceiling and were playing video games. we went back to our room and sure enough, we had one too!!! DAMN IT!!! i coulda played halo or ddr on a wall!!! so the night was boring, made a few calls, received a few calls. harrison called to check on us. i told him about the projectors and he's like, "you shoulda called me, i woulda told ya that!" his father and mine worked together and harrison has made many trips to the student areas and knew the ins and outs of the buildlings. then as i decide to lay down and get some rest, everybody in the room decides theyw ant to watch a movie so they're trying to figure out how to work the projector. wonderful. it took them two minutes to turn it on, another 3 to 4 minutes to figure out how to center it on the wall and once they realized the vcr worked through, we watched the end credits of the emmy's and then they put in cheaper by the dozen. i tried to sleep but it was hard because out corner was right under where the projector was projecting. i listened to my mp3 cd and tried to drown out the movie. i never really went to sleep until after it was over but it didn't make much of a difference. at any given point through the night, the three year old girl would wake up and cry and scream and then mom would tell her to shut up and then sleep. shortly there after, the 9 month old would wake up, cry twice, and sleep again. this went on for the entire night, every hour, if not every half hour. OMG!!!! the crowded room was looking real good right now. so then i hear a bunch of people in the hallway. i thought something may have happened. i had slept with my phone in my hand the entire time, case someone were to call or something and i looked at the time, it was 8:15. when it was closer to 9 i finally came around to. there was word going around that biloxi was open and we'd be released soon so we packed up our stuff and put it in the hall and waited for the go ahead. so much for our three days in the shelter.
saw a fallen transformer on the way home, got home, we had power, no windows were broken, part of something on the roof had come off. and that was it. put everything the way it was, plugged it all back in, but didn't have internet right away. i think it came on this morning some time, not sure. and that is that.
for those of you that actually read this, thanks. you are very patient.
anywho, i'm out. i need to figure out what's going on this weekend. our football game is sunday now and i may have to work saturday :( we'll just see. peace outtie ya'll