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NEAL |
ANN |
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Saturday |
9/6 |
Prepare for trip to West Virginia. Long before Ike entered the Gulf of Mexico, I had arranged to assist my friend Lew Chandler in an effort to salvage a warehouse full of old cable television equipment located in Warwood, West Virginia, a suburb of Wheeling. Lew and I operate The Old CATV Equipment Museum website, and we're always on the lookout for old equipment, especially historically-significant items from the 1950s and 60s.
The equipment is owned by Centre TV, one of two cable television systems operating in Warwood. Centre TV's owner, Kaz Majiewski, has donated the equipment to the museum.
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Monitor Ike's progress. |
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Sunday |
9/7 |
Drive to Houston; overnight at Sarah and Clint's. |
Monitor Ike's progress. |
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Monday |
9/8 |
Drive to airport; park at Parking Spot, in an "uncovered" space (Parking Spot also offers "covered" parking under a plastic awning). Fly to Pittsburgh via Charlotte. Meet Lew (who flew in from Salt Lake City); rent car; drive to Wheeling; rent truck; return car. |
Continue monitoring Ike's progress. Continuing usual gardening, but rather than
tackle a multi-day project, did things that might save some plants if
we have to go. |
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Tuesday |
9/9 |
Meet Kaz and Ed at Uncle Pete's (photo).
Visit Centre TV office and warehouse (photos). |
Usual trip to Angleton for BCMGA work day. A second trip to
Angleton for monthly meeting in evening. Still not sure this is our
storm. After meeting check news - storm track moving north and
getting closer. I think it is going to be ours; I'll have to go.
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Wednesday |
9/10 |
Sort and load stuff from warehouse (photos).
Take Kaz for dinner (photo). |
Up early, news worse. Coastal zip codes evacuating. Start on the indoor chores: packing up heirlooms to be safe here, packing the photos, etc to go. Getting a bit panicky about boarding the windows by myself. Many phone calls back and forth with Sarah. Get the most precious stuff up onto counters, into/under sturdy cupboards and drawers, grouped onto beds, etc. After work Clint and his brother Shawn head down after work to board us up. It's after 8 pm by the time they get here, and completely dark. Clint gets back home about midnight. Mandatory evacuation
order now in effect for all of Brazoria Co. I can't remember when I ate last.
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Thursday |
9/11 |
Sort and load stuff from headend building.(photos). Drive around Wheeling to do a bit of sightseeing (photos)
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Up early again, watch news. Get all boxes packed and into
van. Next step is moving all the potted plants (more than there
should be, because of the many delays in two new gardens) into
bunches under the eaves and tying them down. Dripping wet after that
- why is it always so hot before hurricanes? Pack best of what's in
freezers/fridges into coolers. Load Neal's computer and my
laptop. Pack a few clothes. Load box turtle and dogs, and we were
finally on our way to Houston by 1:30. Take back road route, arrived
by 3:30.
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Friday |
9/12 |
Leave Wheeling, drive west on I-70. Lew drops me Columbus, and continues west to Utah. I rent a car; drive to Ann Arbor. Dinner at Metzger's with Eric and Sherry. |
Ike now Cat 2, winds 110 mph, moving NW at 10 mph. No work today for Clint and Sarah. Watch a lot of TV, watching the
water rise on the coast way before the storm arrived. Afternoon,
winds pick up, we finish stowing Sarah's plants, all the outdoor
stuff. Bedtime - we're hearing about disasters near the coast, but
all we have so far is wind, no rain.
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Saturday |
9/13 |
Visit McLain Cemetery to take photos; raining so hard that I couldn't get out of the car.
Visit Lenawee County Historical Museum. Evening dinner with friends hosted by Eric and Sherry (photos). |
Ike still Cat 2, winds 110 mph, moving NW at 15 mph.
About 1:30 wake up to very strong winds and heavy rain
blowing sideways.
Creaks and moans all around.
Get the dogs up and
moved back out to the living room.
Sounds got louder and
scarier.
Winds screaming.
Put harnesses and leashes on the dogs so
we won't be separated.
Build a cave between some heavy furniture and
internal walls.
Crawl in with the dogs, who won't let me get far
from them.
Sarah, Clint, and their dogs bed down in the interior
hallway.
Heavy thunks periodically - I think it was a big branch of
their pecan tree banging the roof.
About 3 am we lose power.
Nobody can sleep, except maybe Lucy who was wedged under
the two upholstered chairs that made one wall of our cave.
7 am - storm seems to be passing, but still some rain, and many
strong wind gusts until nearly noon.
Everyone exhausted and sleepy,
but it's so hot and sticky we can barely breath, let alone nap.
All
day phone calls coming in as everyone checked in.
Sarah and Ann made
plan to use the fridge contents as efficiently as possible.
Clint
rigs up connection between his truck and the TV, so we can get some
news intermittently.
Trees and branches are down all over the
neighborhood, but no structural damage. All day water pressure is
extremely low.
Dinner about 6:30 pm, already getting dark inside.
Cooking by
flashlight not great - Sarah cooks a defrosted package of ground
sirloin and serves it with canned refried beans in tortillas.
Early
to bed - not much else to do in the dark, and we're all so tired.
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Sunday |
9/14 |
Drive around Ann Arbor and UM Campus with Eric and Sherry. Numerous changes (old TV Center is now a sports bar; Frieze Building is gone; Medical Center has doubled in size). Depart mid-afternoon; drive to Columbus. |
Violent thunderstorms move through Houston about 4-6 am,
dropping more rain that Ike did. A lot of heavy thunder and
lightening. All sleep late, once we can. Heat unbearable. 10 am -
rain over, but the heat and humidity continue. Not a breath of
wind. The thawing in the fridge is proceeding. This time we cook
dinner in the afternoon, so we can see to cut up the thawed whole
chicken and fry it. And did you know that you don't really need to
put milk in boxed mac/cheese? All other meals since Friday evening
have been trail mix and granola bars, washed down with tepid
water. At least we have some jugs of water. By late in the day,
water pressure is getting better, although the city is warning people
to boil water. Everyone is sticky, dirty, and smelly. Clint makes a
trip out - no gas, no ice.
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Monday |
9/15 |
Fly to Houston, retrieve car ("covered" parking is now largely uncovered, thanks to Ike). Drove to Sarah and Clint's; got the last hamburger from the still-slightly-warm grill.
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Overnight a cold front comes through, so we wake up to
wonderful coolish breezes coming in all our open windows and
doors. Neither Clint's nor Sarah's workplaces are opening, so we rake
up the debris from the yard and stack it along the curb. Phone
service very patchy for days. Worked great on Saturday, but since
then, calls don't go out, incoming calls go directly to mailbox
without ever ringing, and then messages appear 6-8 hours
later. We're running the truck/TV combo a lot less; Clint will need
gas to get to work the rest of the week. Another trip out in late
afternoon - no gas, half a bag of melty ice. Dinner - last meat for
awhile: hamburger patties from my freezer, which miraculously still
had a few ice crystals; therefore considered "safe" to eat by the
Texas A&M guidelines. |
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Tuesday |
9/16 |
Drive to Brazoria to check house. Minor roof damage, but power is on. Yard a mess, littered with sticks, branches, Spanish moss, shingles. Head back to Houston. |
While Neal goes to Brazoria and Sarah and Clint goes to
work, I work out a list for the grocery and wash accumulated dishes. Dogs have a good day, as a horse is camping out
on the front lawn across the street, apparently while his stable is
being repaired. Much better behaved than most of the dogs in the
neighborhood. Late afternoon horse disappears again, perhaps back to
his pasture, or perhaps on a mission. Horse and owner are part of a
search and rescue team. When Neal returns from Brazoria, we hit the
nearest grocery, where, thankfully, we are allowed two bags of
ice. No perishables, but we pick up more canned goods for Clint and
Sarah. We all go out to dinner at the only restaurant open, since we
will be heading home on Wednesday.
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Wednesday |
9/17 |
Return to Brazoria. Begin cleanup: move containered plants, unboard windows, burn fallen branches (photos). Went shopping (Wal-Mart still recovering from Ike; no meat).
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Thursday |
9/18 |
Continue cleanup... Sarah says the power is still off in their corner of Houston.
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Friday |
9/19 |
Message from Lew: It is incredible what we found and retrieved. Although there were many duplicates which will be hard to store I took it all. I sort of figure its like looking for a Model T ford and finding ten. How could one leave the other nine behind? So we filled a 16-foot Penske truck. Way too much to list until I can do a better inventory. I think it will take a year at least to get it all categorized and photographed.
A short list would include:
- Channel Commander processors – at least 11
- Teletrol modulators – 2 with one new in the box
- Cascader trunk and distribution tube amps
- Delta tube amps
- Benco tube amps
- Tube ALC units
- Pole mount enclosures for tube and original transistorized amps
- Pole mount power supplies – from 30 to 60 volts
- Original Jerrold transistorized amps, distribution amps and power supplies, I could only get 2 sets as they are solid copper and he wants to sell them.
- TLE modules, but only one housing
- Starline 1 series amplifiers and LE’s – series 1 through 5 amps, SX-1 and Ranger LE’s and 2 pilot generators.
- Antenna pre amps, power supplies and mast mount UHF to VHF oscillators
- Wavetek sweep system with all the parts
- Complete SS-300 sweep setup
- Too many connectors, pressure taps, cables, etc to list here
And that’s a short list. All in all we rescued a complete history of Jerrold equipment from about 1953 to 1970. Thank goodness we were able to retrieve it before it all went to the salvage yard. Kaz was ready to clean it out.
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We were very lucky. We were nowhere near the coast, and thus safe
from the surge, which caught so many people when it came in so
early. The eye passed just to our east, so we were on the clean
side. Sarah and Clint have a gas cook top, so at least stuff in cans
can be made hot, and they have a gas water heater, so once the water
pressure problems were solved they can shower. But they're still in
Houston, still without power. Which means no AC (and the temps are
starting to rise again), no lights for cooking and eating, no TV or computer
to get news, no refrigeration except when they can get some ice, and
no clean clothes.
Now that we're home in Brazoria, we have power and water, thus the
ability to cook, watch TV, wash clothes, be cool. What we don't have
here is anything perishable to buy in the grocery store, so we're
also eating stuff out of cans. Maybe tomorrow.
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Saturday |
9/20 |
Sarah says the power is still off in their corner of Houston.
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