Oops! Look What Floated Into My Yard

Yes, that is a 2006 Cadillac CTS. Some fool came driving down our street during our last major rain event. That was on Saturday, April 18, 2009. He was apparrently trying to avoid the flooded streets. As he came down the street the water continued to get deeper. He first jumped up onto the curb and then came up onto the sidewalk trying to avoid high water. The car sank down into the mud in the middle of our yard and his tires were simply spinning. He was going no further until a tow truck was able to get to him out.

I snapped a number of pictures to document this 'Stupity Event'. I also took all the pertinent information including name, address, and phone number and the insurance of the driver as well as VIN#, license#, and registration# of the vehicle. I have filed a claim for the damage to my yard with his insurance company.

This fool apparently thinks he can drive through yards in an attempt to avoid deep water. Well he is trying to avoid more than the high water. He never returned calls to the insurance adjuster working on the case. They first indicated that they could not settle unless they could get his side of the story. They were unable to verify a policy for this particular car. The insurance adjuster called me back for more information on the car. Since the car had a paper plate from a dealership in our neighborhood, she called them for more information. Well it turns out that the dealership is also looking for this guy. He had apparently made purchase from them for this vehicle only a few days prior to the flood. When he had the car towed from my yard he had it returned to the dealership. He was apparently going to try and back out of the deal on the car. The dealership was trying to make a claim on his insurance and he was avoiding calls not only from his own insurance company and from me. He was not returning calls from the dealership.

I am still waiting for a decision from the insurance company. I get call every few days to update me. They are now waiting for details of the sale from the dealership to their client. If they don't pay off I may file a police report and sue for damages in small claims court. Pam originally called the police. They never came to give a ticket or make a report. They do have a record of her call and I can go to a police substation to file a report and get a case number. Hopefully his insurance company will make some kind of settlement. Well, come back later for any future update on 'the fool and his Cadillac'!

Hello Dolly

Oops! Wrong Dolly.

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Tropical Storm Dolly has been upgraded to Hurricane Dolly. At this point the storm seems to be coming ashore well south of our location. We will continue to monitor the situation and remain vigilant to any changing conditions. Pam and I have weathered a number of these storms and we always try to prepare in advance with supplies of food, water, batteries, and other emergency items. Our most notable hurricane experiences were with Alicia in 1983 and Rita in 2005. We rode out Hurricane Alicia in our home and the eye of the storm passed directly over our house in the early morning hours of August 18. With visions of that event in our mind we decided to evacuate on Wednesday, September 21 for Hurricane Rita. The hurricane itself was pretty much a "non-event" but, the evacuation became the most grueling and tiring experience I can remember. What would have been a 3 or 4 hour drive in normal circumstances turned into a 28 hour driving ordeal with a caravan of 4 cars full of our valuables and each member of the family, including 2 friends of the family and their dog as well as our own 3 dogs, 6 cats, 2 chinchillas, and 2 cockatiels. Our only stops were for gas until we reached our destination. We are still thankful to my brother and his family and to Pam's brother and his family for putting us up in their homes for the few days we stayed away before returning home.

ISP - Internet Service Provider (or Problem?)

Ah, this technical age. Ain't it Wonderful? We have all been led down this merry path about how wonderful this New Technological Age is today. Why with cell phones, computers, the internet; what else could you want or need? All these new gadgets are supposed to bring us closer together, save us time, and expand our opportunities to learn from and interact with each other. Hey, all this is fine and good, as long as it is all working. Last week I was having a variety of problems with my computer and the internet. The computer kept "crashing" by shutting down and rebooting with that little message that I could restart in "safe mode" and find and fix this problem. Easier said than done. No I don't have an IT or programming degree. I must muddle through the process the best I can with the Help screens provided along with the computer and the software and most of them are now internet based. They want to go off onto the internet for connection to some server where all that information is conveniontly stored for instant access. Yeh right, as long as your internet connection is working properly! That is when I began to notice that the internet didn't seem to be working properly. Now I am not only trying to figure out the problem with the computer, but I have to check my wireless router and the cable modem as well. I know what happens when you call the Internet Service Provider, they go through this whole set of questions about whether you have rebooted your computer, if you have reset your wireless router, and if you have checked your power supply to your modem. Heaven forbid that I insinuate the problem may be at their end. Well I go through the "safe mode" scenario and restore a previous setting for the computer and all seems well. Next I unplug the wireless router, and then the modem. I wait a few mintes and plug them back in according to previous instructions given when I went through this process in the past. Still no go! I repeat this process again and while I have everything unplugged I go back and check my computer. I also turned on another computer which I sometimes use which has a direct wired connection to the router. After reconnecting all the cables and power supplies I get the computer connection to the wireless router established and all seems well. Whoa, not too fast. There is still no internet connection. Now it's time to call the ISP. Well you probably now how this works. You listen to one of those recorded messages, you make your selections and after a number of overlapping menus you finally get told "your call will be answered by the service technicians in the order in which it is received". I always get ideas of banks of telephone switchboards with a number of operators sitting and waiting to switch your call to the proper technician to handle your own particular problem. When I was a kid my mother worked as a telephone operator for Bell Telephone and later for a large retail store, Montgomery Wards, and after that she worked for a large insurance and service provider in Texas. I remember seeing pictures of her sitting at one of those switchboards with a half dozen or so other operators answering and switching calls to their proper destination. I know it doesn't work that way any more, but I still get that picture in my mind when I call a large company with some problem, a complaint, or even to just get some information about their products or services. Well anyway I finally spoke with someone who seemed knowledgable, pleasant and most helpful. I explained my problem and the steps I had taken to solve it. He politely explained that a number of other people in my area have been having similar problems because of a recent series of thunderstoms we had been having. Before returning the modem for replacement he suggested that I do as I had done previously except that I wait approximately 30 mintes before replugging power supplies to each part of my system. I thought 'sure, like the modem and the router can tell the difference between 2 or 3 minutes and 30 minutes'. I am skeptical but I try it as he has suggested. Success! The internet is restored and the computer seems to be working for now. Now I can finally do that Blog which I wanted to get posted for this weekend. Now, what was I going to write about? I can't remember! One of the principals I have worked with called this "Old Timers Disease" but that is another topic for another day. I find that sometimes I have to get away from something for a while and then I will remember what I was doing before I started working on that other ISProblem.

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P. S. I can't find that picture of my mother at the switchboard. If I can find it I will post it for all to see. Perhaps my brother has that picture in his photo album. He regularly posts old family photos. See his Blog, Horst Household Happeninmgs.

Picture Frenzy

My wife, Pam, recently went into a picture taking frenzy. Several years ago I gave her a digital camera for Christmas. Of course there was a liberal dose of Christmas pictures that year. Then as special occasions came up we would have a new set of birthday pictures and an occasional picture for Mother's Day, Father's Day, a set of vacation pictures, or whatever the occasion might be. Then the camera seemed to go dormant for a while. It came out ocassionaly and was shoved into my hands to snap a few pictures. Recently I got my own digital camera as well as a one of those inexpensive HD video cameras. Pam's camera seemed to have disappeared for a while. Then, with the Grandaughter, Kira, growing and changing so fast the camera has recently been resurrected from the closet. Here follows some of Pam's recent photographic endeavors:

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Here is a really good picture of Kira taken recently.

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Next is a picture of Kira with . . . ?

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Kira with . . . ?














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Wait a minute! What happened to the grandbaby? These are pictures of clouds.












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I'm looking through pictures from Pam's camera and all of the sudden I come across a whole set of pictures of clouds. It seems Pam has a particular fascination with clouds. One recent afternoon, just before sunset Pam went out and saw these clouds. She came back in for her camera and went out taking pictures of every cloud in sight. She tells me these are Mammatus Clouds and are usually seen after a severe thunderstorm has passed. Earlier that day we had experienced a set of passing thunderstorms, which is a usual weather occurence for this part of Texas at this time of year. For more information on Mammatus Clouds you may follow the links to the Department of Atmospheric Sciences (DAS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Egg Hunt

Here is one for the books: An Easter Egg Hunt in a wading pool.

Since Kira is so young Kari was concerned about having the Egg Hunt outside. As it turns out she and her dad, Thomas, were both a little 'under the weather' so the Egg Hunt inside turned out quite alright. Check out the following family photos for the Easter Egg Hunt in a wading pool.

Relatively speaking it all went real well with all of the Houston family together for Easter.

Egg Hunt in a wading pool. Wasn't that an ingenious idea!

Janna watches on for all the festivities. Grandparents are in their usual place behind the camera.