Highs and Lows with Ivan... Mostly Highs

My parents now have full water pressure. My Mom says she screams when she gets in the shower its so cold. The good part is, she’s still laughing about it. I hope she’s still laughing at the end of the week!

I’ve been logging onto a forum located on their newspaper’s website that lists every neighborhood and people can log in and ask questions. The questions are coming from people who live there part time and are not in town or who have evacuated. My parents drive around the neighborhood and get out and check the properties and then I e-mail back. For the most part its been stuff like a tree is down in your backyard, your balcony is missing, or there’s a tree in your pool. Nothing that would freak people out… at least not a lot. Today I had to e-mail someone that an oak tree was resting on the roof of their front porch. Basically a ‘there’s a tree on your house’ report. That sucked. Now here is what The Great Omnipotent One reported and here is what my Mom added, on the same house:

TGOO, “There is an oak tree that has uprooted and fallen at an angle and is resting on the roof of their front porch. I can’t tell the extent of the damage, but the shingles are crumpled from what looks like the rubbing of the tree on the roof.”

Mom, “The porcelain pot on the front porch with the plant in it is intact.”

My sister and I are laughing. At one point, TGOO is on the cell telling me about a fallen tree from a neighbor’s yard grazing these people’s home and I hear him say, “Wait a minute. No. They don’t care about that stuff. No. Don’t worry about that.” Heh heh heh. I really wanted to ask what she was noticing. Mars and Venus. Gotta love it.

Meanwhile TGOO spent most of his day trying to bolt cut his riding lawnmower out of the crushed shed. Remember when I said the shed was crushed by a tree and he was able to rescue his chainsaw? Well, he thinks his mower didn’t get crushed, I guess the tree only crushed half the shed. So he can see the mower and it’s making him nuts not being able to get to it. I said, “Dad. You said the mower was crushed.” TGOO, “Oh, I think only the leaf catcher got caught. I can hammer that back in place.” Then he proceeds to tell me what hard work it is to cut this riding mower out of his crushed shed.

Really? Who woulda thunk.

I have no idea if he was successful. He’s so hell bent that he’s going to get that thing out. Let me see if I can remember all he’s going to do with it, “I can chop some of this shit up and put it in bags and take it to the front. And I can attach ropes to the back of it haul logs to the front. And…” Wow. I’m hoping he gets to it. He’s a pretty determined guy. I just hope he doesn’t have a damn heart attack while doing it. I mean, the tree service guy is supposed come on Monday. This is Sunday. Just ONE day! ONE!

Tomorrow’s post is great things about Home Depot.

They recovered the body of the truck driver that was on I-10 when the bridge broke. It was a full 18 wheeler semi. If you look at the pix linked below, you'll eventually get to the aerials of the truck and bridge. So what makes someone take a big ass bridge during a Hurricane? At first I figured he was worried about his family (people do stupid things when it comes to worrying about family) and I figured they lived in Milton, but it turns out he's a trucker from TX. I don't get it.

And to end this post, new pix of the area can be found HERE. I’m not belittling the suffering of anyone from any storm, but let me say that Ivan is being compared to Andrew by the experts now as far as vast destruction. The problem they have now is that there is such major road damage, they can’t get stuff there. FEMA has been forced to use C-130s to get supplies in as there is so much damage to the bridges and road infrastructure. As someone put it, when Punta Gorda got hit, help came in a flood. With Ivan, it is trickling in because they just cannot get there.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.