whoze bin messin' wif da weather ?

[jetmex]

It's been an interesting few days.  Weather is back to normal for early September, still humid but not as hot as it has been.  There are airliners flying over the house again - we're supposed to be back to full schedule tomorrow.

I spent yesterday afternoon with son David at his friend's house in Kingwood, which is about 8 miles north of us.  Driving into the neighborhood was one of the most heartbreaking things I've done in a long while.  The piles of stuff along the side of the road were astounding, a mix of trash, broken or soaked furniture, rolls of wet carpet and padding and all sorts of mud covered kick knacks, toys, old kitchen appliances and the like.  The house we went to yesterday flooded six feet deep on the ground floor.  We spent the afternoon tearing out sheetrock, carpeting on the stairs and the hardwood floors.  I can't even begin to describe the smell, a mix of stale water, rotting vegetation, wet wood and carpet. The Powells had a beautiful house, and by all accounts should have been bitter and angry, but they told me it was just stuff and the most important thing was that their family was all ok.  The thing I will remember most is the hugs and the thank yous I got from Mrs. Powell.....every 20 minutes! Neighbors were all out helping one another and what I heard most was, "If y'all need any help...."

Spent today with my best friend Wally at Hooks airport, where his hangar had ten inches of water in it.  He was still cleaning up from the last flood last May, so a lot the stuff we moved then got flooded again.  It is amazing to me how much mud there was to clean up.  The three airplanes in the hangar (one is his and two are tenants) and his cars were coated with it from the slurry that leaked in from the roof and we'll need to go back in later and inspect all the landing gear parts that were submerged.  We had tarped all the RC models in the loft upstairs, so only the models that happened to be on the floor were damaged.  A lot of his personal items in boxes - photos, etc, were in the office and are now just piles of soaked cardboard.  Didn't take long to fill the dumpster outside.  I got a few pics, when I figure out how to get them off the phone, I'll post them here,

I have to admit to some guilt at having come through all this high and dry, but I feel better now having been out to help.  I'll go again in a heartbeat if asked.  And I talked to Roger yesterday on the phone - he and Joyce are just fine.

Best moment of the week for me - seeing a photo of the white house press secretary wearing a ball cap that read "Make America Texas"...

   

[Onepoint]

I watched a video on facebook of someone driving down the street and huge piles of household stuff  along the curb block after block.  I wonder though, some of it looked like solid wood stuff and things that would not necessarily be damaged or beyond repair, and the were just piling it up with the the rest, makes you wonder if some are just trashing everything and not sorting much.    Which is understandable when you start having to haul out everything to the studs and subfloor.

Glad you guys missed the worst personally.

[Onepoint]

Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum,  most people are watching TX dry out and clean up, but the whole northwest is burning up it seems, most of western MT is within sight of a fire, as well and northern ID, with some scattered fires in UT and WY as well.  We don't have any close, but we are getting the smoke,  visibility right now is about a mile, and the eyes, they buurrrn.   

[stetto]

Good on ya, Jaime, that is Fubar Spirit in Texas!

Eric, even we are getting smoky skies. No smell or burning eyes yet, but some spectacular sunsets.

Not to worry, Jellystone is fixin' to take care of all of us with one big POP......

[jetmex]

Hope those fires don't get close to any of you.  Those are even nastier than floods.  My mom, brothers and sister are all in the southern PRC just outside Los Angeles and I always get antsy when there are fires there.

I couldn't even to begin to explain what gets thrown out or why, but I think if I had to rip out a room like that I wouldn't be saving a whole lot.  What got me was the refrigerators and freezers.  A lot of people had meat from hunting trips stored away and that's all out on the street with the rest of it. 

[stetto]

To change the subject, first frost here this am. I got the sprinkler going on the 8th acre, haven't got any ripe peppers yet.....

[Frazz]

41 degrees this morning in Western Kansas.  Couple of days ago we had the smoke pretty bad here too.

[Onepoint]

Yeah, we hit 101 Saturday, set a record in torrington and tied one from 1899 in scottsbluff,  today I get up and its 38 degrees.  , I don't see any frost, but have not been out and about yet.  I know Alliance NE and the Sandhills were under a frost warning for the next couple days still.

[balsum fractus]

To change the subject, first frost here this am.

Booooooo! I haven't finished my summer yet!

[balsum fractus]

......aaaaand we got snow today! It didn't stick, but it still snowed......👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

[Onepoint]

Uhg, we have not,  but I see its creeping closer, snow between Laramie and Cheyenne yesterday, and still around this morning

[stetto]

Ah, Vedauwoo. Many a good times had there.

We had an inch and three quarter of rain last night. Would have made for a mighty snowstorm. I saw Nony's radar, all blue-mixed-with-green. I hate those mixed storms, inpossible to keep windshields clear.

[balsum fractus]

Supposed to get rain snow rain today....  driving will be fun!

[Onepoint]

We had snow a couple days ago, I can't say I really missed it that much.   Had to get new tires so I could get up the dirt mud road.  Appareantly they don't give them away either.   

[balsum fractus]

Tell me about it....had to buy 10 tires for various vehicles this year!