26 September 2008
Astros beat Braves and power returns, all in one night
Two weeks after Hurricane Ike took out the power to 97% of CenterPoint Energy’s customers in Houston we returned home to find electric lights on at last. Without power blog updates were tricky here so I’ll recap with the following picture: As you can see the last two weeks was divided into four distinct phases: -The “water, crisps and donuts” phase - with no supplies in the house (as we had just moved in that day) and only a handful of gas stations open food was strictly limited to these new food groups. -The “Quizno’s subs” phase -…
22 September 2008
You know when things are back to normal when...
As Hurricane Ike left us just over a week ago, its no surprise that it is no longer big news here. However, tell that to the 1 million customers still without power or those people in Galveston who can’t move back to their homes yet (or worse, those whose homes disappeared in the storm last week). Anyway, it is still in the news but now features below such stories as “Is Britney’s label pushing her too hard” after news that her 6th studio album in 10 years is due out soon (by comparison the finest band of musicians ever, Rush,…
17 September 2008
It's Gonna Work Out Fine
Another Ike and Tina Turner track reminds us that Hurricane Ike is long gone from Houston now. So more and more shops and businesses are getting back on line now. Sadly, as the picture above shows, this doesn’t really help if the shelves are empty. It also doesn’t help if, like us, you’re waiting for deliveries of things like furniture and the store is either still closed or the delivery has been rescheduled to next week. Schools are closed here in Spring until next week now, but are opening in some areas of the Houston area day by day. CenterPoint…
16 September 2008
Of Bushes and Trees
The turning point in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike came today, when George Bush arrived in Houston. Surely all will return to normal now that the ex Texas Governor (1995-2000) raised in Houston is back? Well maybe not, but things are still slowly returning to normal. The airports (Bush International and Hobby) both have power and are open again which means a lot of stuff around them has power again. Some nice men turned up today to cut up our fallen tree. As you can see above they had to engage the power of their truck to remove the last…
15 September 2008
This Heaven
Rick Wright, keyboard player and songwriter with Pink Floyd, died today. Sadly the Live8 reunion was to be the last time that the four members of the definitive line up (unless you are a Syd Barrett fan) would ever play together again: It was too easy to choose “Great Gig In The Sky” as the title for this entry (as did Neil McCormick of the Daily Telegraph), although this was one of Rick’s most famous pieces of songwriting (there’s also “Wish You Were Here” that could be used although he didn’t write that). Instead I chose a song from Dave…
14 September 2008
Goodbye, So Long
ke has long gone now but the aftermath is going to be felt for a while yet. CenterPoint Energy are working to fix all the faults and have drafted in 7,000 extra people (on top of the regular 3,000) to do this as quickly as possible. This doesn’t affect the worst case estimate of being without power for 4 weeks. Here are some things to do if you don’t have power: -Try new diets. We have been trying the water-donut-potato chip diet, which is ideal if you haven’t tried scurvy -Play dodgems on roads without traffic lights, which…
13 September 2008
Here comes the story of the hurricane
Early this morning Hurricane Ike reached us in The Woodlands where we were “hunkered down” in the Drury Inn Hotel along with what seemed like half of Galveston. Last night an 8pm curfew saw everyone locked in (presumably hoping there wouldn’t be a fire) until 10am today. At 5am we lost power so it was just a case of sitting it out, watching the wind and rain batter the trees and signs outside and waiting for it to pass. By 12 today we were ready to leave the hotel and travel to our new…
12 September 2008
There’s a Killer on the Road
We first mentioned Hurricane Ike on 1st September when it was so far off no-one knew what would happen. At that time everyone was focused on Hurricane Gustav.Well Gustav is long gone and Ike is now in the Gulf of Mexico. Actually it pretty much fills the Gulf of Mexico, as you can see below: Yesterday the path was predicted to be as shown here: So the eye of the storm to the west of Houston.This morning, the forecast path has changed: Now the eye of the storm is to the east of Houston and its still changing. However, because…
08 September 2008
How to fill your spare time in America
If you’re ever bored whilst living in America, try filling your days getting car insurance. In order to get car insurance you need two things: -A US driving licence -A car registered in the state you are living in Now in order to get a US driving licence you have to a)Pass a three-part written test covering rules, signs and vision. Examples of questions asked include “what effect does the use of marijuana and amphetamine have on driving?” (possible answer: “depends on the quality of marijuana and amphetamine”) and “how should you react to a flashing red…
04 September 2008
A tale of two cities
After a few days without traveling I thought it was time to start again, so I’m now in Durham. This is Durham, North Carolina, USA, not Durham, County Durham, UK. Now the Durham in the UK is the older one, but unlike some other places with similar names, Durham, USA, doesn’t seem to be named after its older cousin (Durham, UK can be traced back to at least 995AD and Durham, USA back only to 1853AD). See if you can spot the difference between the skyline above and this one: Durham, UK was named after the old English “dun-holm” which…