The GREAT HURRICANE SEASON OF DOOOOOOOOMMMMM
So, now that I've had time to sit and think objectively, I'm cool, calm and reasonably collected. I've spent the last few afternoons doing NOTHING. As a result, I'm now behind on my schedule made for Svelte's b-day pressie plan -_-; THat's ok. I'm confident I can catch up this weekend.
(And if the hurricane hits us, well, then I'll have even MORE free time >-<).
But seriously, I have figured out why Rita is so menacing. Her big sissy 'Trina has all kinds of notoriety and lil Rita wants a piece of the pie.
Anyway, here's my week so far:
Monday: Went to work but the electricity was out O.O I just sat there in the dark trying not to fall asleep and studiously ignoring Todd. He gives me the heebeegeebees like a sexual predator. He has dark beady eyes. It freaks me out cuz he STARES. BUT! Travis was there with me. I don't know Travis well. He's a trainee fresh out of slickline on the fast track training course (where you spend a few weeks in each department training to be a field hand), about my age, and really nice. I knew he would protect me if Todd started being an ass.
The power was out for about an hour then an hour after we got power back on, Candace called me to go help her out with a new project (i.e. the hellish MESS that is customer stock). I swear, inventory for customer stock is a fucking nightmare. There is hardly a paper trail and most of the junk isn't recorded anywhere so it's like, "WTF? We have 42 of this part on paper but only 3 in the field!???" And when I say customer stock I mean stuff that is OWNED by customers (like Shell, Chevron, Murphy, etc. etc.) that is housed on Halliburton property. And when I say stuff I mean like Millions of dollars worth of equipment. So, she gives me a stack of junk I had to trace which I couldn't find over half of the junk ANYWHERE in the system. What's worse, she needed a full analysis plus spreadsheet by Tuesday at 5 so I was working nonstop on that for two days, no breaks. Do you what kind of number staring at a spreadsheet for hours on end does to one's eyes?
But I'm getting ahead of myself, after the lights came back on, the announcement came that we were in Phase 1 evacuation (this means that all movement is frozen - no one comes in, no one goes out to the rigs) then about an hour later Cheryl comes on the loud speaker screaming at someone who was walking into gate C without PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) - she sounded PISSED.
When I got home I told my parents I was going to apply at Office Depot cuz they've been having a help wanted sign up for months now, and the way things are looking, I won't be getting a desk job any time soon. No matter what my dad says about Halliburton maybe creating a position JUST doing customer stock trace work (just for me). When they tried to discourage me, I told them I couldn't take the uncertainty anymore. Pride and expectation are not worth my mental health. I can't keep going like this having a nervous breakdown every week. I can't keep worrying about whether I'll be employed tomorrow. I just can't, and I won't put myself through that hell. Not anymore.
Tuesday: I started out the day on the wrong foot. Everyone was talking 'bout Rita and folks were getting on my nerves cuz I had had a restless night and my eyes were still kinda screwed up from Monday. That, and my teeth constantly hurt and throb despite the dentist saying that there is nothing wrong with them and the night guard I wear to protect them from grindage. So, I got to work right away, knowing I had a deadline at 5. I didn't want to fail Candace.
Relief (as in comic) came in the form of Jason who is on vacation this week. I was sitting in my car in front of Books-a-Million eating a box lunch from Cane's when I had this uncanny feeling of being watched so I turn my head and there's Jason standing about ten feet from my car with hands on hips, grinning. XD He comes to my door and says, "Hey, Ass hole." I returned, "Whazzup, Bitch?" <----- I already said we have a weird relationship. So we chatted for a few minutes and he made my day seem a bit better.
Then I got back to work and by 2:30 I couldnt' see straight and my head was killing me; but I couldn't stop and one minute till 5 I got down to the last item, saved the file to a public server and told Candace where I had saved it. I had never been so happy to finish something in my life!
When I got home, I had every intention of going straight to bed. Unfortunately, I had forgotten it was Paw-Paw's b-day and I walked, beer in hand, across the street where everyone did a double take and freaked cuz Saint Sandy was drinking -_-;;; I was so excited though cuz my cousin VERNE!!!!! was there XD He was telling us how it was living in the hospital and what it was like after the hurricane and all. His word, "Boring as hell." Cuz they only had about 20 patients that remained and most of their time was spent giving immunizations to emergency rescue personnel. With Rita, he has to stay in N.O. no matter what because he's part of the Hurricane Crew. I was kinda upset his boyfriend wasn't there though. I never did get to meet him yet and they've been together for years!
The kids were rowdy though which didn't make me feel any better physically, but I enjoyed playing with them nonetheless. Sarah is INSANELY energetic and Kallee's not much better! Put them together and OH MY GOD! x.x Then the adults were loud as well cuz you can't have a family gathering without the noise levels getting to 'unbearable.' What was more unbearable was the HEAT. Paw-Paw is always cold so the air condition is like on 80 or something like that. Add to this the crowded den, people talking and running around, plus heightened blood pressure due to alcohol consumption and you have a very hot and bothered person. I had to finally leave cuz I couldn't breathe. That . . . and I really just wanted to sleep. UNFORTUNATELY, my dad was cooking and he didn't finish getting dinner ready till around 9:30 and I was too hungry to sleep so - instead of getting to bed at 8 like I had planned, I had to wait till 11 so my food could at least digest a LITTLE.
Wednesday - Oi. Today was extremely busy despite the oil field being pretty much shut down due to Rita. Dad had a stack of jobs for me to write up, trace, print job packets, and search for delivery notes. Candace also sent more reports to type up, and I still haven't finished updating the MSDS book. Since the guys had virtually nothing to do, they turned to ribbing Travis who they seem to love to tease mercilessly XD He calls me Ms. Darrel <-- Dad's name >-< That's also what Barry from next door in Nitro calls me! WHAT!???? Anyway, I'm fast finding that EVERYBODY hates Todd as much as me. Whenever I meet someone knew via daddy, they always ask him, "So, has she met B--------, yet?" Then dad will go, "Ask her." Cuz dad actually respects that I'm opinionated and I do not need anyone speaking for me.
Todd still won't talk to me XD YUS!
I was pretty much engrossed in Rita's movements and FUCK!!!! It's a FIVE!!!!!!!!!!! A FIVE. When I got home, Matt looked at me all serious and said, "It's turning North." Then mom said it was just a jog north. God, I hope it's just a jog. Either way, mom's packing tonight. I'm gonna wait till tomorrow to see. We're still at Phase 2 at Halliburton, and I don't take long to pack . . . so. It's just, there's that question of where will we head to? There's no where free in Baton Rouge. One of the ladies that works with mom said she had to get a room in Arkansas! So, I dunno what's going to happen. This hurricane season has been ridiculously bad. And - if the weather folks are right - we're in for worse within the next few years ;-; I'm thinking it's time to invest in a house up North.
Anyway, KATRINA PICS which are anti-climactic in the best way. BEWARE!!! GRAPHIC INTENSIVE!!!!! Let us begin with Preparation.
Top: My grand-parent's house. You can kinda tell that one of the bands was over us at that point cuz there's a thick gray overcast. Everyone and their momma parked their cars in Maw-Maw's driveway since they are quite a bit more elevated than us over across the street. This is just with my Aunt Charlene's family's cars. By the time everyone left, there wasn't a space left open.
Bottom: Frontal shot of my house from the street. Note that my window is the only one boarded cuz there's that TREE right next to it though I have no idea how a boarded window is gonna help if the tree FALLS on my room O.o; Again, you can tell there's a band over us, and mom's truck is ready to get the hell outta dodge. My car, however, is not XD
Top: Mom in the process of moving everything from the bottom cabinets to the counters and just flat out removing all the bottom drawers. That mess you see in front of her is our island in the middle of the kitchen which is usually spotless. I remember this shot cuz mom was freaking out about not knowing what she needed to do next. (We left the beer at home).
Middle: My hurricane-ready bedroom. Yes, my bed does look like it's buckling under the weight of all that crap. I covered the tops of the stacks with garbage bags in case a leak sprung in the roof.
Bottom: I CAN SEE MY WALL!!!!! No seriously, that little space between my desk (where all my fic/art work is done) and shelf is usually packed with the boxes on the bed XD Well, some of them. Most of them usually rest under my bed. I unplugged everything and just piled it on top of my desk. Note the cleaning products. I'm insanely anal about cleanliness ^_~
The Day After - before Katrina was even PASSED us.
One of the many reasons it took so long to get the power back up: Downed power lines. The was also the cause of a few deaths - that and generators people put in their houses only to die or nearly die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Our yard looked like our pine trees decided to have a huge brawl. You can't see them really well (except for little dots of dark brown every now and then) but there were well over a thousand pine cones lodged in the ground that I had to dig our while raking the branches. there wasn't a clear FOOT of land without at least one pine cone stuck in the mud. Note how our pine trees look a little . . . bare. I think God has something against me cuz that branch is right over my room O.o;
The backyard (by comparison) was pretty clear . . . mostly - until you got behind the shed.
Top: That pile of scrap metal was our neighbors' boat shed the day before. You can see the boat peaking out from the aluminum sheets.
Middle: Our weeping willow (which was destroyed by Andrew - this one grew from one of the salvaged branches) was very nearly uprooted. Dad propped it up as best he could Sunday.
Bottom: Chewy's grave was miraculously untouched save for a tiny bit of pine branch that had gotten caught in the hibiscus. All the blooms were lost but the buds remained.
After we got settled back into the house, we decided to go see how everyone down the bayou faired.
Top: The public park was covered with fallen trees.
Middle and Bottom: And folks property was damaged by more fallen trees.
Katrina was a bitch all around.
Left: Matthew indulges in the great past time of "puddling" while trying to catch a breeze with the fan. The other one isn't on because we had to sacrifice it to the radio which was on when I took this. (You won't see me in any of these pictures since I was the one behind the camera). I still don't get how he could wear such heavy clothes and SHOES! In such heat (see how the pic is kinda foggy? Yeah, that's because of the heat and humidity man)!!!!! What in hell was he thinking???? That be my laptop charging at his feet.
Right: It started with one main wire coming from the generator . . .
. . . and then we needed to wash clothes . . . and hook up a light to bathe by and then we got a bigger, better generator to power mom and dad's bedroom A/C unit . . . and so the wires multiplied over the long dog days of summer . . .
Heh. Yeah.
- Kysra
(And if the hurricane hits us, well, then I'll have even MORE free time >-<).
But seriously, I have figured out why Rita is so menacing. Her big sissy 'Trina has all kinds of notoriety and lil Rita wants a piece of the pie.
Anyway, here's my week so far:
Monday: Went to work but the electricity was out O.O I just sat there in the dark trying not to fall asleep and studiously ignoring Todd. He gives me the heebeegeebees like a sexual predator. He has dark beady eyes. It freaks me out cuz he STARES. BUT! Travis was there with me. I don't know Travis well. He's a trainee fresh out of slickline on the fast track training course (where you spend a few weeks in each department training to be a field hand), about my age, and really nice. I knew he would protect me if Todd started being an ass.
The power was out for about an hour then an hour after we got power back on, Candace called me to go help her out with a new project (i.e. the hellish MESS that is customer stock). I swear, inventory for customer stock is a fucking nightmare. There is hardly a paper trail and most of the junk isn't recorded anywhere so it's like, "WTF? We have 42 of this part on paper but only 3 in the field!???" And when I say customer stock I mean stuff that is OWNED by customers (like Shell, Chevron, Murphy, etc. etc.) that is housed on Halliburton property. And when I say stuff I mean like Millions of dollars worth of equipment. So, she gives me a stack of junk I had to trace which I couldn't find over half of the junk ANYWHERE in the system. What's worse, she needed a full analysis plus spreadsheet by Tuesday at 5 so I was working nonstop on that for two days, no breaks. Do you what kind of number staring at a spreadsheet for hours on end does to one's eyes?
But I'm getting ahead of myself, after the lights came back on, the announcement came that we were in Phase 1 evacuation (this means that all movement is frozen - no one comes in, no one goes out to the rigs) then about an hour later Cheryl comes on the loud speaker screaming at someone who was walking into gate C without PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) - she sounded PISSED.
When I got home I told my parents I was going to apply at Office Depot cuz they've been having a help wanted sign up for months now, and the way things are looking, I won't be getting a desk job any time soon. No matter what my dad says about Halliburton maybe creating a position JUST doing customer stock trace work (just for me). When they tried to discourage me, I told them I couldn't take the uncertainty anymore. Pride and expectation are not worth my mental health. I can't keep going like this having a nervous breakdown every week. I can't keep worrying about whether I'll be employed tomorrow. I just can't, and I won't put myself through that hell. Not anymore.
Tuesday: I started out the day on the wrong foot. Everyone was talking 'bout Rita and folks were getting on my nerves cuz I had had a restless night and my eyes were still kinda screwed up from Monday. That, and my teeth constantly hurt and throb despite the dentist saying that there is nothing wrong with them and the night guard I wear to protect them from grindage. So, I got to work right away, knowing I had a deadline at 5. I didn't want to fail Candace.
Relief (as in comic) came in the form of Jason who is on vacation this week. I was sitting in my car in front of Books-a-Million eating a box lunch from Cane's when I had this uncanny feeling of being watched so I turn my head and there's Jason standing about ten feet from my car with hands on hips, grinning. XD He comes to my door and says, "Hey, Ass hole." I returned, "Whazzup, Bitch?" <----- I already said we have a weird relationship. So we chatted for a few minutes and he made my day seem a bit better.
Then I got back to work and by 2:30 I couldnt' see straight and my head was killing me; but I couldn't stop and one minute till 5 I got down to the last item, saved the file to a public server and told Candace where I had saved it. I had never been so happy to finish something in my life!
When I got home, I had every intention of going straight to bed. Unfortunately, I had forgotten it was Paw-Paw's b-day and I walked, beer in hand, across the street where everyone did a double take and freaked cuz Saint Sandy was drinking -_-;;; I was so excited though cuz my cousin VERNE!!!!! was there XD He was telling us how it was living in the hospital and what it was like after the hurricane and all. His word, "Boring as hell." Cuz they only had about 20 patients that remained and most of their time was spent giving immunizations to emergency rescue personnel. With Rita, he has to stay in N.O. no matter what because he's part of the Hurricane Crew. I was kinda upset his boyfriend wasn't there though. I never did get to meet him yet and they've been together for years!
The kids were rowdy though which didn't make me feel any better physically, but I enjoyed playing with them nonetheless. Sarah is INSANELY energetic and Kallee's not much better! Put them together and OH MY GOD! x.x Then the adults were loud as well cuz you can't have a family gathering without the noise levels getting to 'unbearable.' What was more unbearable was the HEAT. Paw-Paw is always cold so the air condition is like on 80 or something like that. Add to this the crowded den, people talking and running around, plus heightened blood pressure due to alcohol consumption and you have a very hot and bothered person. I had to finally leave cuz I couldn't breathe. That . . . and I really just wanted to sleep. UNFORTUNATELY, my dad was cooking and he didn't finish getting dinner ready till around 9:30 and I was too hungry to sleep so - instead of getting to bed at 8 like I had planned, I had to wait till 11 so my food could at least digest a LITTLE.
Wednesday - Oi. Today was extremely busy despite the oil field being pretty much shut down due to Rita. Dad had a stack of jobs for me to write up, trace, print job packets, and search for delivery notes. Candace also sent more reports to type up, and I still haven't finished updating the MSDS book. Since the guys had virtually nothing to do, they turned to ribbing Travis who they seem to love to tease mercilessly XD He calls me Ms. Darrel <-- Dad's name >-< That's also what Barry from next door in Nitro calls me! WHAT!???? Anyway, I'm fast finding that EVERYBODY hates Todd as much as me. Whenever I meet someone knew via daddy, they always ask him, "So, has she met B--------, yet?" Then dad will go, "Ask her." Cuz dad actually respects that I'm opinionated and I do not need anyone speaking for me.
Todd still won't talk to me XD YUS!
I was pretty much engrossed in Rita's movements and FUCK!!!! It's a FIVE!!!!!!!!!!! A FIVE. When I got home, Matt looked at me all serious and said, "It's turning North." Then mom said it was just a jog north. God, I hope it's just a jog. Either way, mom's packing tonight. I'm gonna wait till tomorrow to see. We're still at Phase 2 at Halliburton, and I don't take long to pack . . . so. It's just, there's that question of where will we head to? There's no where free in Baton Rouge. One of the ladies that works with mom said she had to get a room in Arkansas! So, I dunno what's going to happen. This hurricane season has been ridiculously bad. And - if the weather folks are right - we're in for worse within the next few years ;-; I'm thinking it's time to invest in a house up North.
Anyway, KATRINA PICS which are anti-climactic in the best way. BEWARE!!! GRAPHIC INTENSIVE!!!!! Let us begin with Preparation.
Top: My grand-parent's house. You can kinda tell that one of the bands was over us at that point cuz there's a thick gray overcast. Everyone and their momma parked their cars in Maw-Maw's driveway since they are quite a bit more elevated than us over across the street. This is just with my Aunt Charlene's family's cars. By the time everyone left, there wasn't a space left open.
Bottom: Frontal shot of my house from the street. Note that my window is the only one boarded cuz there's that TREE right next to it though I have no idea how a boarded window is gonna help if the tree FALLS on my room O.o; Again, you can tell there's a band over us, and mom's truck is ready to get the hell outta dodge. My car, however, is not XD
Top: Mom in the process of moving everything from the bottom cabinets to the counters and just flat out removing all the bottom drawers. That mess you see in front of her is our island in the middle of the kitchen which is usually spotless. I remember this shot cuz mom was freaking out about not knowing what she needed to do next. (We left the beer at home).
Middle: My hurricane-ready bedroom. Yes, my bed does look like it's buckling under the weight of all that crap. I covered the tops of the stacks with garbage bags in case a leak sprung in the roof.
Bottom: I CAN SEE MY WALL!!!!! No seriously, that little space between my desk (where all my fic/art work is done) and shelf is usually packed with the boxes on the bed XD Well, some of them. Most of them usually rest under my bed. I unplugged everything and just piled it on top of my desk. Note the cleaning products. I'm insanely anal about cleanliness ^_~
The Day After - before Katrina was even PASSED us.
One of the many reasons it took so long to get the power back up: Downed power lines. The was also the cause of a few deaths - that and generators people put in their houses only to die or nearly die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Our yard looked like our pine trees decided to have a huge brawl. You can't see them really well (except for little dots of dark brown every now and then) but there were well over a thousand pine cones lodged in the ground that I had to dig our while raking the branches. there wasn't a clear FOOT of land without at least one pine cone stuck in the mud. Note how our pine trees look a little . . . bare. I think God has something against me cuz that branch is right over my room O.o;
The backyard (by comparison) was pretty clear . . . mostly - until you got behind the shed.
Top: That pile of scrap metal was our neighbors' boat shed the day before. You can see the boat peaking out from the aluminum sheets.
Middle: Our weeping willow (which was destroyed by Andrew - this one grew from one of the salvaged branches) was very nearly uprooted. Dad propped it up as best he could Sunday.
Bottom: Chewy's grave was miraculously untouched save for a tiny bit of pine branch that had gotten caught in the hibiscus. All the blooms were lost but the buds remained.
After we got settled back into the house, we decided to go see how everyone down the bayou faired.
Top: The public park was covered with fallen trees.
Middle and Bottom: And folks property was damaged by more fallen trees.
Katrina was a bitch all around.
Left: Matthew indulges in the great past time of "puddling" while trying to catch a breeze with the fan. The other one isn't on because we had to sacrifice it to the radio which was on when I took this. (You won't see me in any of these pictures since I was the one behind the camera). I still don't get how he could wear such heavy clothes and SHOES! In such heat (see how the pic is kinda foggy? Yeah, that's because of the heat and humidity man)!!!!! What in hell was he thinking???? That be my laptop charging at his feet.
Right: It started with one main wire coming from the generator . . .
. . . and then we needed to wash clothes . . . and hook up a light to bathe by and then we got a bigger, better generator to power mom and dad's bedroom A/C unit . . . and so the wires multiplied over the long dog days of summer . . .
Heh. Yeah.
- Kysra