Ida Video: Don't expect much

Because I have a camera and the will to use it - I figured I would share these completely uneventful videos with the world. Oh what I would have given to have had a video-capable camera during Katrina....

TS Ida @ 10:27 am, Pascagoula: Not a lot to look at, I know.

TS Ida @ 3:35 pm, Pascagoula: Still not a lot to look at, I know.

Now that I have that out of my system - I promise not to post any more video until there is something to actually record. Forgive me. Thanks.

Twitter updates ... Will be updating... something.

I just added Twitter updates to the sidebar here and will updating via Twitter throughout the day as absolutely nothing worth blogging about is happening here re: Ida.

Waiting....

A view of the sound from Beach Boulevard in Pascagoula - 3pm November 8th

We received our WeatherBug alert a little under an hour ago with the news that Jackson County, Mississippi is now under a Hurricane Wind Warning. These things sure can sneak up on us, can't they?

We already have enough bottled water to float a barge and our emergency equipment is all safely tucked away upstairs. Food is always a completely different story with a house full of kids... The more we buy the more they eat. It is completely impossible to keep an emergency supply of food in the house when your two eldest sons consider every hour that passes without a sandwich to be an emergency. We sighed a heavy sigh this afternoon and took a trip out to pick up lots of granola bars and tuna fish and snack foods just in case we will need them this week.

Pelicans fishing at the jetty.

Tomorrow morning I'll start moving all of those annoying potential projectiles out of the yard and into the garage.

Now I'm wishing we had somehow managed to acquire the funds to buy some of those cool kevlar hurricane screens I've always wanted. Alas - we'll have to find time somewhere on our shortened schedule to lug out the plywood shutters and get them in place.

For now I'm going to get some rest -- just in case I won't be getting any tomorrow night.

Hurricane Watch Issued for Louisiana, Mississippi as Ida Moves North - FOXNews.com

Hurricane Watch Issued for Louisiana, Mississippi as Ida Moves North FOXNews.com: "A hurricane watch has been issued for parts of the southern U.S., covering coastal Louisiana and Mississippi as Hurricane Ida begins making its way through the Gulf of Mexico toward the U.S."

We'll be gearing up for live-blogging if she continues to head this way.

Four years, three hours, and forty-six minutes ago.

Our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow Hurricane Katrina survivors today on this anniversary. For all those whom we have lost along the way - requiescant in pace.

Four years later: NYT Still doesn't know where Katrina hit

The famous headline-accompanying Katrina photo: Taken here in Pascagoula, MS

The City Submerged - Josh Neufeld Tells Katrina Stories in a Graphic Novel - NYTimes.com: "Thousands upon thousands were affected by Hurricane Katrina, which struck Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005. The magnitude of the catastrophe is depicted on a personal level in the new graphic novel “A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge,” written and illustrated by Josh Neufeld and published by Pantheon."

As another anniversary approaches - Katrina memories are whirling around in my head with greater frequency and intensity... Almost like a - yeah - hurricane. I wonder how much of that is due to the lingering post-traumatic stress disorder related to the event itself.... rather than PTSD related to the really lousy, disingenuous, politically-motivated, and infuriating news coverage which followed.

I've mentioned many times before that the most devastating feeling post-Katrina was that of total isolation. I don't blame the hurricane for that feeling. I blame the national news media. For solid months they reported from, on, about, in, within, above, and in spite of New Orleans, Louisiana. Every now and then they would mention the state of Louisiana in general. In the meantime, we listened from our rotting homes in Mississippi... Saved only by those volunteers who couldn't get into New Orleans right away and ended up on our shores completely by accident. (It was rather common for volunteers to be quite surprised when we told them they were not, in fact, in Louisiana... Often they seemed a bit worried - as if they realized they were supposed to be in Louisiana and there must have been some mistake.)

From the article linked above:

"The winding road leading to the New Orleans novel began when Mr. Neufeld signed up to work with the Red Cross after the hurricane hit, serving as a disaster response worker in Biloxi, Miss., for almost a month. He said the catalyst for volunteering was 9/11. “Having been in New York when the towers fell, I remember that overwhelming feeling of helplessness and displaced anger,” he said. “When Katrina hit, I saw what was happening, and I realized that I, as a single person, could somehow help.” Mr. Neufeld blogged about his experience and self-published a collection of his dispatches called “Katrina Came Calling.”" (my emphasis)

It's got to be downright confusing to people fed a steady diet of MSM coverage for the last few years when the NYT throws in Biloxi, MS in an article which refers to the disaster exclusively in relation to New Orleans, LA.

OH but this almost clears it up:

"Together Mr. Neufeld and Mr. Smith decided to focus on New Orleans rather than on the whole Gulf Coast and to look for a broad range of people with different experiences."

Hey - wouldn't it be easier to 'look for a broad range of people with different experiences' on the whole Gulf Coast? These guys just made it harder on themselves, eh?

Let's see what else the news has for us as we approach the fourth anniversary.

From the Washington Post this week - we have this nice weather chap who tells the story of coming down to see Katrina make landfall... moving east toward Pascagoula out of concern for safety.. and having to evacuate through flooded roads as the surge came in.

Other than that, well, just see for yourself - I can't read anymore.

UPDATE: My link stopped working for the 'see for yourself' section and I'm feeling a bit under the weather.. My apologies. If you're interested... I am quite sure that any internet news search for keywords: Hurricane Katrina will produce the same results.

On the pegboard

I forgot to include a picture of the pegboard side of the garage with my previous update - so before I begin with our updated to-do list - here's a taste:

Before

After

Now on to the tentative to-do list for 2009 -- sure, we're getting a late start but... well - we just don't care anymore! *cackle*

Lingering Hurricane Katrina repairs in blue.

1. Replace main circuit breakers on outside of house (DONE.)
2. Brace kitchen sink in some manner other than that which was used by the 'professionals' to brace it. (DONE.)
3. Install threshold/transition between William's closet and his bedroom.
4. Replace light fixtures throughout upstairs.
5. Install ceiling light fixtures in game room/library.
6. Have skylights tinted to prevent upstairs hallway from melting.
7. Build a rabbit hutch.
8. Install dimmer switches on various light fixtures throughout the house (because we despise overhead lighting otherwise).
9. Replace rusted french doors on back porch.
10. Replace rusted ceiling fans on back porch.
11. Install ceiling fans on front porch.
12. Repair rotten column trim.
13. Repaint living room.
14. Reinstall a door for the guest bathroom.
15. Install a/c registers upstairs where the last crew not only failed to do so but also lost at least one register in question and all of the screws. Ugh.
16. Replace windows. All of them.
17. Paint the ceilings. All of them. House-wide. Ugh.
18. Make the roughed-in horrible storage room into the bathroom it was intended to be.
19. Remove broken grout and replace with caulk in all of those areas where some bonehead grouted up to dissimilar surfaces.
    
20. Touch up kitchen grout with stain (No - we never actually finished the kitchen floor. The kitchen floor made us insane. I don't want to touch up the kitchen grout with stain. Ever. But I'm putting it on this list because it just seems like I should.)
21. Replace disintegrated chandelier in foyer.
22. Paint stair rails and banisters.

Of course there's more to add to this list when everything is checked off. There's always something to add to the list when everything is checked off.... This is the nature - the very essence - of homeownership, is it not? It has certainly defined our homeownership experience thus far.... And if we're doing it wrong - it's too late to tell us now.

More to come.

It didn't actually take three months to do this....

Click here for before

But we did finish the garage.

If you can really call it finished ever. There are plenty of somedays out there -- just as there are around the house. Someday we would like to do something snazzy with the garage floor. Someday we'd like to devise a better storage system for the seven (!) bikes out there. But for now we are done with an honestly massive overhaul of our car-storage area.... The proof that we've accomplished something amazing: We can now regularly store at least one car in our two-car garage.

Sooo.. If it didn't actually take three months to finish up - how long did it take? One more day. We were literally finished the night after my previous post and supremely happy with our results. We actually spent a good chunk of the next evening sitting in the garage in lawn chairs like complete lunatics just so we could enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Updating the blog is where we ran into problems.

Immediately following our garage-redo triumph I became sick again. Yes, again. I recall a couple of weeks of pain (and pain killers) and frantic trips to doctors offices and ultrasound technicians and labs - but the exact order and nature of all of that is lost to me now. I eventually ended up having a very hastily scheduled surgery to remove a chronically inflamed gall bladder and a wayward lymph node. The last few months have been recovery... not from the surgery as much as from the drama (not trauma) of the whole thing.

And now.. we're back.

Tiny, teeny, pathetic projects are on the horizon! A post with our updated to-do list is to follow.

In the meantime, hello DWSHKON readers! Nice to be back.

The Hutch

Not a very clever title, I know - but it's late and we just spent a couple hours putting boxed cabinets together.


It's been years since I've been prompt about posting follow-up pictures, but Dave insisted. Besides, it gives me yet another opportunity to post a gratuitous photo of my car.

Putting the hutch component together was a snap. Mounting it to the base cabinets as instructed was impossible. Somehow we were to line up the 3/4 inch wide boards (and the pre-drilled holes at the end of the boards) with pre-drilled holes in the base cabinet tops which are hidden beneath the rubber mat work surface of the base cabinets. We actually tried it a few times before we gave up and used the provided L-bracket to attach the top to the nearest stud -- and a couple of our own L-brackets to secure the hutch to the base cabinets.

Tomorrow we plan to mount the remaining base cabinets (the ones with the drawers on the left side in the above picture). Then we'll purchase two wall cabinets and (hopefully) mount those above the drawers. Considering our experience with the rest of the components in this line -- coupled with online reviews I've read regarding the mounting system provided with the wall cabinets -- I think we'll be doing a lot of improvising before we'll be ready to unpack boxes and actually put stuff in our new fancy cabinets.

We'll let you know how that turns out.

Attach side panel AB to front panel CF. (Note: You may need a friend for this step)

Throughout the blog silence we have been quietly working on the garden & the garage... Trying to plan our work around the weather. If you live in southern Mississippi you understand what a ridiculous endeavor that is.... Therefore - we have a little done on the garage and a little done on the garden -- and a lot more to do.


At least we're happy with the gray we picked for the garage walls -- at least it looks alright on the one wall we've painted so far.

How did we ever get so much done over the previous three years? We just don't seem to have it in us anymore. If the garage had been last spring's project we would have had the whole thing finished in under three weeks.... But this project has been dragging on since Christmas now. The only thing motivating us tonight is the fact that we've been driven certifiably insane by the mountain of boxes out there and have reached the breaking point.

By the way -- it's pretty hard to paint and install cabinets when all of your paint supplies and tools are packed in boxes somewhere in the garage. We really need to finish this so we can find our tools again... and we really need our tools so we can finish this. Bwahahaha! See? Insane.

Side note: About those cabinets... They look nice enough, yes. However, despite the Coleman name being used - they're actually Sauder cabinets. They're unbelievably heavy and awkward. The instructions are less clear than we'd like. But our big complaint so far is the adjustable legs on these things.... Made of plastic. Yes. Plastic. Little plastic legs to hold up this cabinetry that is almost too heavy for Dave and I to move while EMPTY. The same little plastic legs are expected to hold up when the shelves are full? Needless to say - we already snapped a dainty plastic leg off of one of the larger cabinets when moving it into place.... Therefore - we're foregoing the ease of installation promised on the box (with reference to those adjustable legs for leveling) and attaching all of our cabinets to the wall.

We're not going for a clean and shimmed kitchen cabinet installation here -- we just want to make sure nothing is going to collapse or fall over onto children or cars. (In other words: We're tired.)

We're installing the hutch component tonight. Pictures to follow.

At last!

We have managed to make our garage look even worse than it did when we started. I admit - I didn't think it could be done.

We've picked a nice gray for the walls to go with the cabinets that we will eventually purchase and install... and once we get past the minor sheetrock problems we'll be ready to paint the whole place.

Ah. Progress.

Hargrove identifies final Katrina victim - Breaking News - SunHerald.com

Hargrove identifies final Katrina victim: "Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove today identified the last unknown victim of Hurricane Katrina in Harrison County.

The victim is 20-year-old Frank Jones of Gulfport. He found in the canal near Garden Park Hospital in Orange Grove. Drowning is the official cause of death."

We received a comment the other night on the blog that really touched us. I would hate for it to end up buried at the end of a miscellaneous post here -- and think it deserves a post of its own. It follows below with my emphases and comments.

I too lost a home in Katrina. Our house was built in the 1860's (yes eighteen sixties)and we truly loved living there in Bay St. Louis Ms. [The first two sentences took my breath away and then all the old Katrina-emotions flooded in. We were lucky - though it doesn't always feel like it - to have been left with a good chunk of our original home when the water receded. We grieve right along with you for the loss of a precious piece of our history. Well over 100 years -- gone in a few hours.]

We also took refuge on the second floor however when the water got chest deep on the second floor we took refuge in a pine tree. My wife and I were in the tree for three hours and later when we measured there was nearly thirty (30) feet of water below us. [I've often written here that our survival story was not very dramatic. This is what I'm talking about.]

We managed to get back on the roof as the water began to go down but the storm raged on. At dusk we walked a block to the beach across neighbors property that had been wiped clean of homes. We looked back to see the pile of rubble that was once our stately home, but we had our lives and we had each other. [Yes!]

I commend you for writing this to tell the world that the "Hurricane" did not end the night of August 29th, it is still going on.

We were driving on the beach (Hwy 90) today and commenting that some of the scars are beginning to fade. The beautiful homes are gone but our spirit remains. We will start over with our heads held high. [Amen!!]

Before I end this rant I would like to thank all the people that volunteered and continue to volunteer to help us rebuild. Without them where would we be? Families like yours dug out, ripped out and gutted, endured the heat and the mess, and can now hold your head high and be proud of what you have accomplished. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share your recovery effort.

Rich C

On the real meaning of "during Katrina"

There's been a lot of hype around the internet about a certain public official making a widely-televised speech which included an anecdotal Hurricane Katrina story. Said official referred to an incident which took place a few days after Katrina made landfall as having occurred "during Katrina". This, they say, is tantamount to telling a lie: He couldn't mean 'during Katrina' when he was talking about days after the storm, could he?

Now I can't speak for this man.... But I can (and often do) speak for myself on such matters.

In my world -- there's Hurricane Katrina.. and then there's just 'Katrina'.

Hurricane Katrina lasted for about 10 hours once it made its way to our shores.

Plain ol' Katrina went on for months... years... Heck - in some ways it's still happening.

I guess our public official should have laid it all out more clearly for his national viewers: "And when I say 'during Katrina' I'm referring to the ongoing event which left people in the awkward position of still needing to be rescued from rooftops days after the actual hurricane of the same name."

Garage Redo: The saga begins

After a couple of weeks of recovery - and a totally unrelated trip to the emergency room for me this past weekend... We are ready to officially begin making our garage less of an unholy mess.

In order to motivate (read: publicly humiliate) us to really roll up our sleeves on this one and get going... I present the following 'before' pictures:

The pictures only get worse from here. The patchwork look on the pictured wall represents where a pegboard once hung... where wire shelves were once anchored to the studs with thoroughly stripped 2" screws... and where the sheetrock was cut out and replaced at 4 feet following Hurricane Katrina. The clutter is just our life.

More sheer ugliness. The bench in the left-hand corner of the garage pictured here was removed by Dave just yesterday. There are no pictures of the gaping holes in the wall where said bench was once attached -- yet.

Somewhere under that pile of stuff you would find two neatly-stacked rows of packed moving boxes which represent our original plan to redo the garage in an orderly fashion.

(Yes. That is a Christmas reindeer. Yes. It's February. I know.)
This is our most-used entrance to our house. Luckily, we've grown so accustomed to conditions out in the garage that we barely notice it -- that is until we take pictures of it and publish it on the internet for all to see.

And just to lift the spirits a little -- here's a little progress. Dave has officially installed two Hyloft hanging shelves in the space above our garage door for storage. We have room for at least two more of these nifty units -- and intend to use it.

If you've ever read this blog before then you're probably aware that our first step in any project is to make an even bigger mess of the area than what we were originally trying to correct.... As you can see from these pictures -- we have completed step one.

I'm currently doing a little sheetrock repair here and there while we save up money and sell possessions so that we can afford some halfway decent cabinetry for the long (west) wall of the garage. We had originally planned on wall repairs and painting before we got started on storage - because of the budget constraints... However - the fact is that putting in the cabinets first will a) give us somewhere to store the unholy mess while we paint and b) considerably cut down on the amount of wall that needs to be painted.

As always -- more to come...

Yo, George - Happy Birthday

Our eldest turned 12 this past Saturday. We have spent the last several days convincing him that it's still too early for him to move out.

Love ya, Geo.

You mean you haven't missed us?!

Just in case anyone out there was wondering what happened to us ...

We survived Christmas. Not only that - it was fantastic.

But then - then - we decided we would do something ridiculous and started taking the garage completely apart in preparation for remodeling it. (We haven't touched the garage since Katrina other than to have some sheetrock hung where walls were removed. However, Dave's Christmas present to me was a major motivating factor in having a finished garage.) We bought U-Haul boxes and removed everything from the wire shelves on the east wall. We then packed all that stuff into said U-Haul boxes and stacked them against the west wall. The plan was to move everything to one side of the garage -- fix walls, install cabinets, and paint -- then move it all back to the other side -- repeat. That was the plan.

We got as far as removing the old wire shelves. We even managed to use those old shelves to install some much-needed shelving at Mom's house.

Since about that time we have been sick as proverbial dogs.

This morning - after days of sleep and rest and never feeling any better... after days of wondering where on earth we contracted this mystery illness - I finally realized what a truly STUPID thing we had done. Did you catch it?

"We haven't touched the garage since Katrina other than to have some sheetrock hung where walls were removed."

You don't think we were smart enough to wear masks while we were disturbing all that three- and-a-half-year-old Katrina dust do you? Ugh. We never learn.

We'll be back when our bodies stop draining green goo and we're able to stand up for at least 10 minutes at a time.

Happy home-improving in the meantime... Oh - and wear your dust masks, people.

From now on ...

Our troubles will be out of sight

In keeping with tradition our little big family exchanged gifts this Christmas Eve in anticipation of the celebration to come. More pictures from the day can be found here. In the meantime - wishing you all the most peaceful and joyous of nights.

Not yet federally banned.....

A palm tree near a previously bulldozed restaurant in Biloxi, MS: 2006

When the unthinkable happens - catastrophe strikes - it is apparently instinctual to slip into what they call 'survival mode'. All of the regular thought processes of the day come to a grinding halt and all you can manage is the brainpower to find clean water, a food source, and shelter from the elements. We are intimately familiar with 'survival mode'.

There were various dangers and hazards in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that either never crossed our minds at all or which were instinctually dismissed as secondary given our relative mental states. It was only well after it was too late before we considered the chemicals washed in from refineries and chemical plants (and our own garages & storage rooms) that swirled through our homes. Likewise, it took almost a year for us to start to consider the danger of unfortunately inevitable (for us) asbestos exposure.

Our own home was built in 1998 and the risk of exposure from older materials was low - however, consider the hundreds and thousands of older homes and businesses demolished in the aftermath of Katrina. There were days in those first months following Katrina when large particle pollution was so thick in our air that it reduced visibility like a winter's night fog. Debris trucks rumbled through neighborhoods and city streets packed with insulation - leaving mysterious moldy residue on our cars and windows.

The following is an article from the Mesothelioma Cancer Center (www.asbestos.com) published here in the hopes that it will be a starting point for many to make themselves aware now of the circumstances and dangers of asbestos exposure.

With a force only nature could create, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the morning of August 29th and railed through Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and destroyed everything in its path on the Mississippi Gulf Coast area. Although most media coverage surrounded Louisiana, the devastation was widespread through various states.

Responsible for $81.2 billion in damage, Hurricane Katrina is by far the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States.



Due to the extreme nature of the storm, one of the major contaminants of concern was asbestos. The threat of asbestos exposure was everywhere, and became a serious problem for those who did not evacuate and those assisting in the cleanup. The storm destroyed buildings in two, allowing many asbestos-containing substances flow freely into air and water. These buildings had to be demolished in the cleanup process (many have yet to be demolished still) which makes the risk for asbestos exposure much greater.



Regarded as the “silent killer,” exposure to asbestos fibers can be a real problem for home and business owners. Homes built prior to 1980 maintain a strong potential of harboring asbestos products. It is important to make sure the location has been tested for asbestos levels. Citizens need to be aware that inhalation of asbestos levels can pose severe health risks.



A fatal lung ailment known as mesothelioma is obtained through asbestos exposure and takes the lives of thousands each year. Asbestos manufacturers were aware of the corrosive effects of the substance, but continued manufacturing it anyways. Due to the amount of victims being plagued by the debilitating illness, it has lead to a variety of mesothelioma attorneys advocating for individual rights.

Although not yet federally banned, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has placed strict regulations in regards to the use and handling of asbestos. The removal of asbestos in public facilities and homes must be completed by a professional asbestos abatement contractor. Once the removal is complete, green alternatives should be considered, such as: cotton fiber, Lcynene and Cellulose.

The United States Environmental Program states that the use of recycled building materials such as cotton fiber insulation can reduce energy use by 25 to 35 percent. The numbers continue to improve as more eco-friendly options become available. These asbestos alternatives will not only reduce energy costs, but allow for a clean, healthy home, free of health damaging materials.

This post is dedicated in memory of Father Patrick Hayes - the priest who performed my baptism in 1971 - taken from us by mesothelioma in the summer of 2007. Requiscat in pace.

At home

For the first time in three years it looks like we'll be celebrating Christmas in a (mostly) finished house. Not since 2004 have we had Christmas in the house without missing walls or cabinets or half-completed baths. No washing dishes in the bathroom sink this year. No daily dusting of the ornaments to remove sheetrock dust. Finished flooring in every room... painted walls... no missing doorknobs (or doors). Bliss.


It isn't that all of our projects are finished... It's just that some projects take precedence. The latest? Christmas. :) It's time for trees and cookies and prayers and lights - along with happy kids and exhausted parents. Merry Christmas, blogosphere.