over the hump

I think I turned a corner Sunday. I did not start the tomato sauce but I did get the biggest room in the house vacuumed…all good. Cleaned up after breakfast…all good. Drank lots of water, got up and moved around between episodes of GoT, picked up four more handfuls of sticks, did some yoga before bedtime…all good. I did still have some episodes but they were low key, infrequent, and ended fairly quickly.  

Monday was even better. I had one episode in the morning when I received a message from the neurosurgeon’s patient portal addressing a message I had sent two weeks ago when I was worried about whether or not my insurance would cover my appointment or any procedures by him, an issue I resolved that same week so I called their office and was reassured that all was well, they already had approval for my appointment next Monday. And then the afib stopped and I don’t think I had any other episodes besides maybe a blip or two all day.

And so I put myself to the test and cleaned the bathtub and the three walls that surround it. It was really horrible and really needed to be done and even after that vigorous activity, all was well. And I drove to El Campo for yoga class Monday night. The restriction on not lifting anything heavier than 10 pounds has passed and so I am back to my regular activity, which now that it’s summer does not include doing anything out in the yard for most of the day, basically an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.

So, a month or so ago, little moths started showing up in the house, more and more as the days went on. Could not figure out where the fuck they were coming from. Checked the pantry, nope. Could not think of any other possible source. Well, when I vacuumed the big room, my office/workplace in the house, I found the source. Right before the place that buys/sells/cracks pecans closed towards the end of February I took one last bucket of pecans from the box I withheld when I sold mine and had them cracked but I never shelled them. I was so over shelling pecans by that time so they have just been sitting under the small work table. When I bumped the bucket with the vacuum cleaner a flurry of little moths rose up. Damn. Carried it outside and dumped it under the bird feeder for the birds and squirrels. Later I saw a young squirrel very timidly approach the pile and finally pick one up and started eating. I still have a bunch of moths in the house but at least they’re a declining population now.

My grandson was here when I got back from yoga last night. He’s coming back this evening after he gets off work to fix our truck which has been dead since a pulley that has something to do with the power steering, I think, fell off. I’ll be glad to have my truck back so I can move all those piles of sticks over to the burn pile at one time instead of multiple trips with the garden cart. I gave him my canoe a couple of weeks ago finally putting the last nail in the coffin of my guide and river running days even though it’s been maybe two decades since I’ve been on the water. It’s been leaning against the side of the barn for most of that time and the thwarts rotted and one of the supports for the seats as well. He’s going to make a trade with a woodworker to replace all that in exchange for mechanic work. Once he gets the canoe back in shape I’m going to get him to take me out in it this fall on a nearby lake. 

Since Mikey has it now, this is a picture off the Old Town website of what my boat looked like new only mine had cane seats, not webbing.

I don’t know where all my river days pictures are. I found one folder with a few. This is on the Pecos River and that's me running a rapid. 

This one is hiking in Boquillas Canyon on the Rio Grande in Big Bend.

Marc and I on a different trip on the Pecos River.

Oh, those were the days.

crying won't help you, praying won't do you no good

fair warning...this is long.

timeline:

Thursday Aug. 24^th – prepare for the hurricane

Friday Aug. 25^th – rain off and on with wind and gusts

Saturday Aug. 26^th - light rain off and on during the day

Sunday Aug. 27^th – light rain off and on during the day

Monday Aug.28^th – heavy rain and high wind all day and into the night

Tuesday Aug. 29^th – clear sky by sunset

Wednesday Aug. 30^th

The Colorado River crested at about 5 AM at an historic 50 1/2' but the day dawned with a clear blue sky. Our grandson who had been staying with us while he worked on his truck getting it street legal asked if he could take our truck to Houston to help with rescue and clean up efforts and so he did and my sister and I went to look at the river about 10 AM.

Riverside Park completely underwater as well as Elm St. that runs along the park, and the next block towards town.

Around noon our neighborhood lost power and word on the street was that it was a shut off by the power company rather than damage to lines somewhere but it came back on around 3 PM. By that time we were watching as our neighborhood started taking on water.

There are 6 streets in our neighborhood and our house is on the most southern street. About the time we lost power one of the neighbors told us the most northern street, Engbrock, was flooded and the water was coming our way. By the time it was halfway to us and people were packing up and leaving, the neighborhood was already surrounded by water we didn't think we would be able to get out in the car and didn't know where we could go even if we could have. My sister's house in town was surrounded by water though with about 12” before it flooded her. I moved the car over the shop which is on higher ground than our house and hoped for the best. At some point after the water started coming into the neighborhood we learned that Peach Creek and Boughman's Slough, into which the Colorado River drains into during flood stage, banks failed or were just overpowered by 50.5' of water and a wall of water engulfed the Peach Creek neighborhood flooding houses up to the roof line and then moved on into Peach Acres, our neighborhood.

I'm standing on the corner of our street and the road on the east end looking north. Our shop is on the northeast corner and our house is across the street from the shop.

The west end of our street (that's Richmond Rd. at the end where we were dropped off a little further up later) was underwater while we were still dry but the ditch completely full.

By about 4 PM, the water had circled around from the west and the field behind us was filling fast coming at us from the south and from the north. 

Water was just starting to come in the house. If I had had any sense AT ALL, I would have closed the garage door.

By 4:30 PM we had 5” in the part of the house on a slab. I waded through the knee/thigh deep water in the yard and street to check on the car which was sitting in about 3” of water. Tripped on debris I couldn't see on my way back and lost my prescription glasses that I had tucked in my shirt front because sometimes I can see better without them. Luckily I still had a pair of readers from before I got my glasses.

I made sandbags with wet towels in plastic bags and put them against the door into the lower part of the house and also against the front door but we knew we had to get out as the water was still rising and was now even deeper in the lower part of house. I went back out to get the canoe and paddles when the water was about 3” from coming in the upper house but Marc was afraid the strong current would sweep us away so about 6 PM he called the sheriff's department for a water rescue as we could hear the airboats somewhere in the neighborhood. “OK”, they said, “we'll put you on the list” so we packed up some clothes, dog and cat food, the cat in her carrier and the dog on her leash and waited.

About an hour later the sun set and it was almost full dark when we heard an airboat with a light shining our direction and Marc shined our flashlight back through the dining room window (we had lost power again around 5:30) and the airboat came right up to our front door where the water was about an inch from coming in under the door. These two men, an ex-Marine and his helper, got us into the boat and then went back to the other end of the street to pick up our neighbors and their two young granddaughters and dropped us off on a high spot surrounded by water on the road at the end of our street that takes you into town where there were already a bunch of people, telling us that there were other rescuers in high water trucks ferrying people from this spot to the shelter and in fact, a loaded truck was just then leaving for the shelter, while he went out to rescue more people in our neighborhood.

While all this was happening we learned that the official rescue operation stopped at dark and this man and other private citizens were out in their own boats rescuing the people the official authorities had abandoned til the next morning. I wish I had gotten this man's name. He was so angry that the official operations quit at dark and that the game warden even tried to prevent him from going out. He was having none of it.

Anyway, eventually he was satisfied that he had found as many as he could and loaded up his boat and headed into town. So 23 of us including old people and very young children were stranded on this spot of dry ground surrounded by water that we didn't know if it had stopped rising or not. Us and mosquitoes and about a million fire ants. Someone had parked their SUV and left it on this high spot so I put the cat carrier on the hood and climbed up with the dog and one of my friend's grandgirls but everyone else was standing in the road.

And we waited and we waited and we waited and no one came back for us. We had been there about an hour and a half when we finally saw lights approaching from the north and from town in the south and they basically arrived at the same time. The lights from the north was a National Guard troop carrier that is stationed in Katy (about 60 miles away). They had received a call that they were needed to rescue some people, took them about two minutes to get on the road but an hour to get to us. The lights from the south, from town, was our same rescuer, even more pissed. He had learned that they were not coming back for us and so he returned to cram us all in his truck and boat to get us to a shelter. “This ex-Marine is not leaving anyone behind”, he told us.

So the National Guards helped all 23 of us along with our dogs, of which there were many, and a few cats and all our baggage into the troop carrier and drove us through water to dry land on one of the main roads in town, the road to Boling. It was an eerie drive as there was water in every direction as far as we could see. When we got to dry land, they stopped and conferred with someone about where to take us. The one and only shelter, the Catholic Church, was already full and they were refusing to take animals anyway. The city had tried to open the junior high school and the civic center but both had taken on water. Fortunately, a new shelter, the American Legion Hall, had just opened and were accepting animals and they took us there. 

We were dropped off and they went out to continue to bring people in and that is where we spent Wednesday night.  Wish I had thought to grab a couple of pillows and a blanket.  It was a long sleepless night.

The way this shelter opened was totally a citizen effort. The husband and wife, who own the building that the American Legion rents, had flooding in their house and they got out with their two young grandchildren and their disabled son and their dogs and went to the official shelter at the Catholic Church who turned them away because they weren't accepting animals and this couple refused to abandon their dogs. They knew the American Legion Hall was dry and so since they own the building they went there and opened it up to people and their pets and then throughout the night continued to accept people and animals and got with the city and the Red Cross to become an official shelter. During the night, they called everyone they knew that was dry and could get there to bring whatever food they could and they cooked it there to feed the 70 some odd people that were eventually brought in until the Red Cross could get there the next morning and take over, which they did just about the time we were leaving.

Next: another rescue of sorts

a few things happened

There was the flood, which I went and checked on at Riverside Park for the last time Thursday about noon when the river was at 47.81 feet, creeping up to the sidewalk along Elm St., and then lost interest. The SW side of town did flood and I gather some people did get water in their homes this time. I don't know how many or if those troop carriers carried anyone anywhere. The Buckee's and the Nan-Ya plastic pipe plant and the Los Cukos Mexican restaurant on the river bank got water on their grounds but not in any of the buildings. It did not ever spill over into Elm which runs parallel. It crested at some time at some height and is now receding.

Besides that and obsessing over the yard all week, I went to get a bone density scan. Now that I have Medicare, I can do things like that. Not that it matters since I'm not planning to take the medication but it is good to stay on top of things. It's probably been 10 years since I last had one and yes, they say I have osteoporosis, then and still. I don't take the meds because they don't work and have heinous side effects. What those drugs do is prevent your body from breaking down old weak bone which prevents it from building up new strong bone. I'd rather have strong porous bones than weak dense ones and I do yoga for strength and flexibility. I got the results and again declined the medication. I asked for a copy of the report which said I was at high risk of a fracture but the summary further down gave a 12.5% chance of having an osteoporotic fracture in the next 10 years with a 3.1% chance of it being a hip. I'll take those odds especially since almost two years ago I fell hard on the concrete on my hip and wrist with no fractures.

And it was Earth Day on Friday. This is the first year I've missed posting on Earth Day. The theme this year (I hadn't realized it had themes) was trees. We need more trees. They are the breath of the planet. They are sentient, just like all life on Earth. I may do a belated post.

And I finally pulled out all the tomatoes and squash and beans I had planted one week before that frost in March. They stopped growing and never recovered. Five weeks in the ground after the frost, the root ball had not grown one iota. In fact the zucchini was smaller than when I planted it. I left in the peppers and the Japanese eggplant because they seemed to be recovering but now I think not. I replanted the tomatoes and the squash and beans.

And, of course, Prince died. When asked how it felt to be the greatest guitar player in the world, Eric Clapton supposedly replied, I don't know, you'll have to ask Prince.  Below:  Prince plays the blues

And a squirrel knocked the tea cup off the hanger...again and broke the saucer...again. I haven't fixed it yet since I need to find a new saucer.

And I hauled everything over to the shop and set up to photograph the magnolia leaves.  

And finally, tired of waiting on this job (yes still waiting again after having just gotten started, it's been a week and a half now), I got out my model making stuff and am making another stab at the little leaflet for the pink flower, you know, the one that turned into the alien geode. I'm making it a little different this time, flat and more stylized. I also started getting the bark waxes set up for casting.

    

here we go again

Once again Houston and environs got hammered with copious amounts of rain in a short period of time and the city is flooded due to urban sprawl and gentrification of all the old inner city neighborhoods. It's all wall to wall concrete now, a veritable sea of concrete. All the farm and ranch land is being bought up for more subdivisions as Houston spreads outward covering it all in concrete. There is no where for the water to go, no land to soak it up, the bayous can only hold so much. Areas are flooding that never flooded before during the same type of events. It's becoming a yearly thing.

just one of many parts of the city under water

Last year over Memorial Day weekend, the Colorado River flooded and crested here in Wharton at just over 44'. Low lying areas where the banks of the river are not steep and/or deep got flooded but it did not exceed it's banks at Riverside Park downtown. I posted about that here and here. Now we are facing a similar flood.

This year the powers that be have decided that the river's going to flood and we're all going to die so they have eight army troop carriers, a truck mounted crane, and several jeeps waiting in the Civic Center parking lot for rescue operations.

When I took these pictures at 2 PM Tuesday, the river was at about 35'.

Noon today it was almost 42' and they expect it to rise another 6+ feet cresting tomorrow.

Might be time to pull out the canoe and locate the paddles.

Just kidding. While we are technically in the flood plain, we are high enough so that if the river does spill over it's banks, it shouldn't affect us surrounded as we are by farm land, though the old timers here say this area has flooded in the past.

flood stage

I went down to Riverside Park to check out the river in flood Wednesday afternoon. Riverside Park is pretty high up from the river with long fairly steep banks and switchback walkways down to a fishing deck. But unfortunately no good canoe ramp. I wasn't the only one. There were quite a few of the townspeople coming and going doing the same thing as me.

I took a few pictures and my first video ever which I have managed to embed in this post (I think. I followed all the instructions and it appears to be here but I won't know for sure til I hit publish. edit I guess you need Adobe Flash plug-in to see the video. It shows up fine on my screen but Marc can't see it on his). The pictures don't really convey the immensity of the amount of water here, and more to come, partially because you don't have a before picture to compare it to but also because, as I found after being a river guide for a few years in a majestic canyon, pictures of power often fall flat. At least they do when I take them.

Anyway... Here's some photos of the high water and my video which I made so you could see how fast the water is moving.

Water is powerful stuff. A person can drown in a foot of water if the force of the moving water is strong enough. I saw lots of examples of the power of water during my years as a river guide and not only it's effects on the physical world.

When I realized I hadn't seen the last, sweep boat in too long, I stopped and waited. When I saw a bailer and a water bottle float past me I started back upstream to find one of the most capable among us had gotten his boat wrapped around a boulder in two feet of water and he and his paddling partner had not been able to free it even after they unloaded it.

It's a great metaphor for life I think. The stone age cultures certainly thought so.