Mandatory Vacation.
Well, that was some pretty crazy stuff. Since I wasn't able to elaborate in my last post, I'll start from the beginning this time.
Heard about that crazy hurricane coming in, to be honest I didn't think much of it at first; just media hype after what happened in New Orleans. (i.e. like what happened with the terrorist attack, etc. just media suddenly hypes up everything remotely related to such to get ratings/and or spread paranoia) but when the sucker started getting much bigger and poised this-a-way we decided to get our butts in gear.
I still went to work the last day that I could though and at the end of the shift we were bagging the phones and computers in garbage bags and putting them up as high as we could on the desks with all the cords as they expected the call center to flood. Luckily my team lead let me off early; pretty much told me to get my butt outta here ASAP. So that was cool that they were more concerned about us than the contract/call center.
A little late however.
Since by time we were ready to ship out I-45 was absolutely positively clogged we decided to wait until the contra-lanes (I-45 going North in both directions) and the heat was down a bit. We got about to The Woodlands before the AC went out and the car overheated. (cats were NOT happy about super hot car)
Thus began the next 4 hours of pushing the car in (slooooooooowly) moving traffic while it tried to cool down some.
We were joined in the pushing endevour by a pair of druggies hitching their way around. They were pretty nice, the one next to me though about every 10 minutes kept asking me if I 'smoked' (which he meant pot obviously), so each time I politely told him no. At least his friend was a bit more comprehensible.
After me and Jennifer stopped for an hour to rest and cool the car down they left to find a trailer to hitch-hike on, so we repaid them with some water.
I think about then is when I started driving about 30 mins with the heater on high blowing in the car (to take the hot air out of the engine) and resting the car for 15 mins, and repeating the process until about 6am when the car finally just overheated itself out and we knew it needed to cool for a few hours.
Luckily by then we were in Huntsville near a Comfort Inn that had its lights on (as well as a McDonalds). I went into the Comfort Inn and I must have just looked like hell. As my blue jeans were barely blue anymore and more of a dust color, my tank top about the same and covered in sweat and dirt, and my hair was in all directions and dirty as could be. Just a total mess. The manager didn't bat an eye at that and let me use the bathroom to clean up and fill my water jug (as at that point we were out of bottled water and down to 1/3 of a jug. Most of the water we had drank and we had brought -alot-) and when I came out I asked if me and Jennifer could rest in the lobby some and bring my cats in a carrier so they could cool (the poor things had been riding loose in the car as I knew putting them in the carrier for the trip would have fried them; and as is they were constantly panting and overheated with the heater on like that.) she didn't mind that either. I know one manager who's gonna get a Christmas card/ham this year.
So we rested for a couple hours, Jennifer went over to the McDonalds to get food while I rested with the cats (the McDonalds had a 45+ min wait but luckily Jennifer just walked by a Sonic's that had opened within the minute of her stepping by it so she managed to get food but quick.). We awoke to the fun fun news of that bus fire right outside of Dallas (which scared the $*@( out of me) thus we decided to change our route as that clogged traffic even more up.
Our route changed to when we got out of Huntsville to go up to Centerville and hop on 84 W to I-35 which apparently was much more clear on traffic and had gas. (On the plus side with gas I had thought to fill up the night before we left at a little corner out-of-the-way gas station and we had an extra full 5 gallon can in the car) Since my car gets freaking great milage on stop and go traffic (it just overheats after six hours...heh.) we were able to make it to Buffalo okay and go our alternate route.
We coasted into a little town named Mexia on fumes practically and filled up there. And the rest of the trip was happily uneventful as I drove as fast as I could to get to Dallas. Heh, Jennifer said for what little she was awake in Dallas (as we perfectly arrived in rush hour traffic) I was driving like a mad man. *grin* But I got us there alive.
Now, when we got to Kari's I gotta say I was totally exhausted. To boot I was dehydrated. As the only thing that kept me going that last oh...12 or so hours was caffinee and will power. I remember laying my head against the couch or the floor matress, I can't remember which and it was like someone turned off a switch in me, I was out.
I woke up a few hours later with Kari's parents basically asking if I was alive. Which is when I went to the bathroom and peeeeeeled off my clothes and took a most refreshing shower. Then while falling asleep between putting on clothes I stumbled back to bed and slept like the dead again until Kari woke me up for us to go get something to eat. We ate at IHOP and came back to sleep 12 more hours.
Staying at Kari's was nice. THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH KARI, they were so nice to us. And wouldn't let us pay for anything. (=p) And her dad was nice enough to look at and help me fix my car and get replacement parts/fluids. (needs more oil, drained and changed out coolant, and needed new air filter and coolant cap)
The trip back was pretty good, took the normal amount of time to get home. (about 5 hours) The only slowdown in traffic was at Conroe, and its ALWAYS slowed down, no matter what time of day or night. Only annoyance was freaking Kuri constantly whining the whole trip.
But we are back now, have power and water and just need to reassemble the apartment. Thank goodness nothing terrible happened. Phew.
Now I sleep like the dead as I have work tomorrow.
Heard about that crazy hurricane coming in, to be honest I didn't think much of it at first; just media hype after what happened in New Orleans. (i.e. like what happened with the terrorist attack, etc. just media suddenly hypes up everything remotely related to such to get ratings/and or spread paranoia) but when the sucker started getting much bigger and poised this-a-way we decided to get our butts in gear.
I still went to work the last day that I could though and at the end of the shift we were bagging the phones and computers in garbage bags and putting them up as high as we could on the desks with all the cords as they expected the call center to flood. Luckily my team lead let me off early; pretty much told me to get my butt outta here ASAP. So that was cool that they were more concerned about us than the contract/call center.
A little late however.
Since by time we were ready to ship out I-45 was absolutely positively clogged we decided to wait until the contra-lanes (I-45 going North in both directions) and the heat was down a bit. We got about to The Woodlands before the AC went out and the car overheated. (cats were NOT happy about super hot car)
Thus began the next 4 hours of pushing the car in (slooooooooowly) moving traffic while it tried to cool down some.
We were joined in the pushing endevour by a pair of druggies hitching their way around. They were pretty nice, the one next to me though about every 10 minutes kept asking me if I 'smoked' (which he meant pot obviously), so each time I politely told him no. At least his friend was a bit more comprehensible.
After me and Jennifer stopped for an hour to rest and cool the car down they left to find a trailer to hitch-hike on, so we repaid them with some water.
I think about then is when I started driving about 30 mins with the heater on high blowing in the car (to take the hot air out of the engine) and resting the car for 15 mins, and repeating the process until about 6am when the car finally just overheated itself out and we knew it needed to cool for a few hours.
Luckily by then we were in Huntsville near a Comfort Inn that had its lights on (as well as a McDonalds). I went into the Comfort Inn and I must have just looked like hell. As my blue jeans were barely blue anymore and more of a dust color, my tank top about the same and covered in sweat and dirt, and my hair was in all directions and dirty as could be. Just a total mess. The manager didn't bat an eye at that and let me use the bathroom to clean up and fill my water jug (as at that point we were out of bottled water and down to 1/3 of a jug. Most of the water we had drank and we had brought -alot-) and when I came out I asked if me and Jennifer could rest in the lobby some and bring my cats in a carrier so they could cool (the poor things had been riding loose in the car as I knew putting them in the carrier for the trip would have fried them; and as is they were constantly panting and overheated with the heater on like that.) she didn't mind that either. I know one manager who's gonna get a Christmas card/ham this year.
So we rested for a couple hours, Jennifer went over to the McDonalds to get food while I rested with the cats (the McDonalds had a 45+ min wait but luckily Jennifer just walked by a Sonic's that had opened within the minute of her stepping by it so she managed to get food but quick.). We awoke to the fun fun news of that bus fire right outside of Dallas (which scared the $*@( out of me) thus we decided to change our route as that clogged traffic even more up.
Our route changed to when we got out of Huntsville to go up to Centerville and hop on 84 W to I-35 which apparently was much more clear on traffic and had gas. (On the plus side with gas I had thought to fill up the night before we left at a little corner out-of-the-way gas station and we had an extra full 5 gallon can in the car) Since my car gets freaking great milage on stop and go traffic (it just overheats after six hours...heh.) we were able to make it to Buffalo okay and go our alternate route.
We coasted into a little town named Mexia on fumes practically and filled up there. And the rest of the trip was happily uneventful as I drove as fast as I could to get to Dallas. Heh, Jennifer said for what little she was awake in Dallas (as we perfectly arrived in rush hour traffic) I was driving like a mad man. *grin* But I got us there alive.
Now, when we got to Kari's I gotta say I was totally exhausted. To boot I was dehydrated. As the only thing that kept me going that last oh...12 or so hours was caffinee and will power. I remember laying my head against the couch or the floor matress, I can't remember which and it was like someone turned off a switch in me, I was out.
I woke up a few hours later with Kari's parents basically asking if I was alive. Which is when I went to the bathroom and peeeeeeled off my clothes and took a most refreshing shower. Then while falling asleep between putting on clothes I stumbled back to bed and slept like the dead again until Kari woke me up for us to go get something to eat. We ate at IHOP and came back to sleep 12 more hours.
Staying at Kari's was nice. THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH KARI, they were so nice to us. And wouldn't let us pay for anything. (=p) And her dad was nice enough to look at and help me fix my car and get replacement parts/fluids. (needs more oil, drained and changed out coolant, and needed new air filter and coolant cap)
The trip back was pretty good, took the normal amount of time to get home. (about 5 hours) The only slowdown in traffic was at Conroe, and its ALWAYS slowed down, no matter what time of day or night. Only annoyance was freaking Kuri constantly whining the whole trip.
But we are back now, have power and water and just need to reassemble the apartment. Thank goodness nothing terrible happened. Phew.
Now I sleep like the dead as I have work tomorrow.