September 2008 Archives

It's hard to believe that Lauryn is now 8 years old. Today is her birthday (Friday night we'll have a big sleepover with all her friends. Yeah, not going to be fun for ol' Dad). Seeing the girls grow up is getting harder (my parents keep trying to pressure us into having another child, but I am getting ready to make the appointment so I won't have to worry about this anymore).

Kids grow up so fast, I wasn't around much when Lauryn was younger and now I feel like most of her childhood is gone. Alyson is starting to blossom into a young woman (dealing with all the hormones that it entails) and seeing the kids grow older just brings home that I am getting older.

Now I know how my parents felt each birthday. It's not so much a reminder that your kids are getting older, rather it is a reminder that YOU are getting older.

Still I am excited for her. She wanted a electric scooter for her birthday which she now has, but can't use it until she gets a new helmet. The scooter is really fast (frightening fast to be honest), but she loves it.

That's all from me. Happy Birthday Lauryn, Dad loves you.

Michael, out.

Well i had a good few days off and now I am back to the grind.

I have been saving lots of links for the next LINK MADNESS!

D&D Dead? (yeah I know its old)

Very interesting story of asassins in Columbia

The rise of American incompetence.

10 Shows that changed TV history

If your a tekkie, this site shows all the Star Trek bridges.

How to "fight back" against the corp titans.

Top 15 Sci-Fi book series.

10 harmless geek pranks

6 ways to spend less while dining out

Interesting "Last Supper" remakes.

Top 100 April fool's hoaxes.

Da Nag 1975. The last flight out.

Interesting graphic on forclosures.

10 myths on saving gas

Very Funny "Billy Letters"

Top 10 Tech workspaces.

Get paid 5k to stay in bed for a month?

Yes, things are costing more across the board.

8 smart kids that will make you sick.

99 uses for really ordinary things.

How to start a fire without matches.

Well. Thats all from me. Enjoy!

Michael, out.

On Monday/Tuesday I am taking two well deserved days off. I am looking forward to hanging out at home, doing some Gustav repair and generally not working.

Things are going well here. Tara is enjoying teaching, the girls are doing well in school and my project seems to be progressing well. Keyser is also a big part of the family as well. He is always getting into things (I guess it is a boy thing).

I bought Spore (in spite of their repressive DRM). I have been wondering if the game is as good as the reviews. I'll let you know.

I am not sure if I have mentioned, but I recently signed up with mint.com. I have to say, I am really impressed. If you want free online software to help manage your investment/budget, mint.com is the way to go.

The recent problems in the US market and overall economy has me a bit worried, but I personally think it is a great buying opportunity. I buy GE stock monthly and also am thinking of Altria and maybe adding Coke to my DRIP program. DRIP's are a great way to invest small amounts monthly. It should be a part of your overall investment package ( Money markets, IRA's, 401k, etc).

Anyway, that is all from me.

Michael, out.

A co-worker sent me this today.

Gustav's Guide to Hurricane Survival

Lessons Learned During and After the Storm

The hurricane grouch quotient can be calculated by adding the number of children and pets in a home without power, multiplied by the number of days quoted on the Entergy telephone recording, divided by the number of fans or portable air conditioners powered by your home generator, (however if you were last in line at Home Depot and have no generator then multiply by the daily high for that day reported by either Pat Shingleton or Jay Grymes), then add the number of trips to the washateria and the days left until school opens. Discount by the percentage of time spent at neighbors who have power. Recalculate as often as necessary No matter how many times you flick the switch, lights don't work without electricity.

Vienna sausages only appear on the food pyramid during hurricane season.

Gas mileage is recalculated based on miles per fume.

Lovebugs do not disappear in 80mph wind gusts.

Disasters can cancel one LSU football game but there will be even bigger casualties if we cancel two.

Despite protests, kids can re-live their parents' youth when there were only 3 tv channels!

Cats are even more irritating without power.

Baton Rouge without traffic lights resembles Mexico City, Rome, Los Angeles and New York City all rolled into a single snarl.

A 7 lb bag of ice will chill 6-12 oz beers to a drinkable temperature in 11 minutes, and still keep a 14 lb. turkey frozen for 8 more hours.

There are/were a lot of really big trees around here!

Just because you're 18 doesn't mean you can stay out as late as you want. Mayor Holden meant business when he said curfew.

People will get into a line that has already formed without having any idea what the line is for.

Calories consumed during a hurricane or power outage do not count.

Telemarketers function no matter what the weather is doing. New Delhi does not check the weather report in Baton Rouge.

Most popular text message after September 1: do u hve pwr Twenty-seven of your neighbors are fed from a different transformer than you, and they are quick to point that out!

Crickets and cicadas can increase their volume to overcome the sound of 14 generators.

Dirty clothes in an unsupervised hamper multiply at an exponential rate.

Coffee, spaghetti and frozen pizzas can be made on a grill.

He who has the biggest generator wins.

Tree service companies are under-appreciated, except after hurricanes.

Our Lady of the Lake never closes. Really.

Water will fill the Acadian Thruway underpass, even sometimes when it is not raining.

There are a lot more stars in the sky than most people thought.

If you owned a store that sold only ice, chain saws, gas and generators, you would be rich

With only a small amount of guilt South Louisiana can collectively pray a second hurricane to landfall in another state or country.

And so to our friends and families, some who are still without power and others who have endured great personal loss, you are in our prayers.

Hang in there, we are making progress.

Thank you to all our first responders, healthcare professionals, service technicians, teachers, police officers, small business owners, and more who join with the thousands of individuals sharing their time and talent to help restore our community to wholeness.

The most important lesson of all learned from Gustav in the last week is that the human spirit has an amazing resilience that even a hurricane cannot bend. Through God's love and amazing grace we can endure all things.

Our thoughts are with those who are ready for Ike to hit in Texas. Here is a link to one of the best hurricane sites I have seen.

Well we have power now.

For those of you who have never experienced a hurricane. It was a pretty surreal experience. I have learned some lessons.

Myth #1: You only need enough fuel for a few days to run your generator.

If you would have told me that I would be without power for more than 2-3 days, I would have said, "your nuts". Now however I am thinking that 5-7 days is more realistic. I had 20 gal of gas and went through most of it in 2 days. Also, at the end, we had to start rationing. I have a John Deer 6200 generator. In 12 hours it will burn at least 5 gallons. So in a 24 hour period you can expect to burn 10+ gal of gas. If you leave off for a few hours you can squeeze out a bit more, but then your family is miserable. Also, after the storm, people were waiting for 4-8 hours to get gas. It was crazy.

Lesson #1: Have 3-4 cans always full. Then purchase 8+ 5 gal cans and 4 days before the storm, fill them up.

Myth #2: You don't have to wire your house. You can just run extension cords.

This is where I messed up.I figured I could just run cables to what I need. This worked, but it was a mess. First the door jam is messed up because of the cables. Also kids are running over cables and tripping all the time. Also, having overhead fans is a MUST and they have to be powered from the house. The box fans are ok, but they cant move air like your ceiling fans can.

Lesson #2: Purchase a 240 plug for your generator and a extra dryer cable. Get 6 gage wire and have a electrician wire up the cable for you. If you do it correctly and with the right breaker settings, you can power your whole house (minus the central A/C).

Myth #3: You only need one fan

Next time I am going to get 3 of these suckers. Nothing is worse than having one fan and having to move it around.

Lesson #3: Get more fans

Myth #4: You wont need sandbags

Although we didn't get any flooding, our house did see water in the form of wind borne water. It was so powerful that it came through the door and ruined some of our wood floor.

Lesson #4: Get sandbags in front of the door in front of the door jam to seal it from water.

Myth #5: During a storm, you are on your own

We have the best neighbors in the world. We all shared our food, gas and ideas on how to make things work (like drying clothes without a dryer). One neighbor let me siphon 10 gal of gas out of his boat. Another neighbor helped get gas from his work.They are awesome.We had dinner with the neighbors almost every night (in 80-90 degree heat in the house) and had a good time. We all shared food and drinks.

Lesson #5: Become close with your neighbors. They will really help you.

Myth #6: Get any generator you can

I have a John Deer generator that I bought a while ago. It was around 800 bucks (it is a 6200 which is bigger than most) but was better than most of the 600 dollar generators I saw. In the neighborhood, no less than 3 generators went out. The generators that lasted were all Briggs and Stratton (Thats who makes the John Deer generators).

Lesson #6: Purchase a generator that can run your house (except central A/C) and make sure it is a really good one.

Myth #7: If you stock up on canned food you will be ok.

We did this and although we didn't use much, I would say produce, meat and milk is what you want to stock up on.

Lesson #7: Purchase more meats, etc and freeze it. Make sure the generator has enough power for the fridge.

Myth #8: If you have a generator hooked up to your fridge, you wont need ice.

Wow, big miss here. It takes forever for our fridge to make ice. We never had enough. When you would power down the generator, it would stop making ice.

Lesson #8: Get as many bags of ice as your freezer will hold.

Myth #9: A hand siphon will work fine for getting gas out of your car

Two big misses here. First, most new cars have "anti-siphon" technology. Basically a mesh screen that blocks a hose from going down into the tank. Second, a hand siphon takes FOREVER. You can get battery powered pumps to get gas out of boats, etc. Also if you know something about cars, you can get it from your fuel line.

Lesson #9: Learn how to get gas from a car. If you can, get a battery powered siphon pump.

Myth #10: You will be fine if you get a natural gas generator

Well, for the most part this is true. But do you want to spend 6k for this? If you would have talked to me yesterday, I would have paid it gladly. Now, just having more gas would have been better.

Lesson #10: If you can blow 6k+ and willing to pay 100-200 day to run these home natural gas generators, then good luck to you.

Myth #11: You cable/Internet will work without power

Well, this might be true. Our neighbors have Eatel which uses fiber and I have Cox which is copper. We lost our Internet and cable while they didn't.

Lesson #11: Get a provider that uses fiber which doesn't short out during a storm.

Myth #12: You can just use regular radios that use batteries to get the news

We had two radios that were battery fed. Neither one worked.

Lesson #12: I am going to get a NOAA, hand cranked weather radio next time.

I am sure there are more lessons here, but these are the big ones. Hopefully you wont have to go through a storm like we did, but if you live on the gulf coast, it is more likley that you will.Hopefully this info will get you by.

Michael, glad the power is back on, out.