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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Rita's Wrath
I don't know why I titled it this way, but it sounds cool, in an alliterative kind of way, but I bet that all the news shows are using it too.
I got home Sunday night, expecting problems in just making my way home, but the freeways were clear. I guess the folks who were in Houston weren't driving much, and that was enough to make the traffic even less than normal on a Sunday evening. Our power had gone out, briefly, I think, and some small branches were down in the yard, but no other damage. There were some stop lights hanging from their posts, so it must have blown pretty good for a while.
I still intend to evacuate next time as soon as they start talking about it. I figure that there'll be 3 or 4 false alarms for every serious problem, and it's the ones you don't expect to be bad that really hurt.
Brian Camfield sucks.
Late.
posted by Drew at 1:18 PM | 0
comments
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Hurricane Rita update
I've been having a wonderful time in Banff, I drove out to Lake Louise yesterday, and took the scenic Bow Valley trail back. Today I went into Banff town centre (it's Canada, after all) and did some shopping. I think that Banff National Park has supplanted the Monterrey Peninsula as the most beautiful place I have ever been, and I've been on six continents.
I still don't know if anything happened to my house. I have a neighbor who I asked to give me a call if something bad happens in the neighborhood, but I don't want to bother them if there isn't anything big. I'm going to fly back tomorrow, getting in around 6:00 pm. I'm worried about the drive back from the airport, and whether we have power back at the house. My office will be closed again on Monday, but I've been away for nine days, now, and I'm ready to go home.
I have both homeowners and flood insurance, so everything I have should be covered. Worst case, I have some trees down. I don't think that most folks in Houston will have had any major problems, but I know some people in Beaumont/Port Arthur and western Louisiana. I hope everything is okay for them.
Everywhere has some threat from natural forces, whether it's earthquakes, tornadoes, blizzards, mudslides, flooding, tsunamis, volcanoes, or something else. Houston's threats are hurricanes and humidity. It's frustrating to me when everyone tries to put the blame on someone; local politicians, public service groups, FEMA, or even the President. Society demands a fall-guy for every disaster, man-made or natural. I doubt that any city would have done any better than New Orleans before Katrina revealed some of the weaknesses in our systems. Imagine a city like Los Angeles or Chicago trying to evacuate completely in a matter of a couple of days. Houston did a magnificent job, but clearly there are some problems to be corrected. I think people need to take charge of their own lives, and not expect the government to hold their hands. My brother left Thursday morning, gassed up before he left for Austin, and didn't have too much trouble getting there. The people who waited until the last minute, for whatever reason, were the ones who ran out of gas on the freeways. The down side of the near miss is that next time, less people will evacuate, especially if it's not directly headed for Houston, and that will be the one that causes all the destruction.
Late.
posted by Drew at 7:10 PM | 1
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Thursday, September 22, 2005
Ridin' the Storm Out
I've had a lot of calls from everyone who's worried about hurricane Rita hitting Houston, and wondering what I am doing. I was attending a conference in Calgary, scheduled to fly home this evening (Thursday). I decided to stay the weekend up here, and I drove up to Banff to see the Canadian Rockies. I've always heard that Banff National Park was beautiful, and the drive was very scenic, it even snowed on the way here (the high in Houston was 100 F [that's 38C to my fellow Calgarians]).
Here's a picture of the hotel
Late.
posted by Drew at 6:16 PM | 1
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Friday, September 09, 2005
nancyboyz.com 2005
For you fantasy football geeks out there, here is our team for this year. We do an auction draft, so I've also included the amounts. Our league has 10 teams, we draft 19 rounds, with starting linups that include 1 QB, 2 TE/WR, 4 Flex, 1 IDP, 1 team defense, 1 PK, using modified TD-only rules. We have a cap of $100 (fantasy dollars).
Name Pos. Team Amount
Dillon, Corey RB NE $20
Walker, Javon WR GB $14
Martin, Curtis RB NYJ $13
Johnson, Andre WR HOU $9
Dunn, Warrick RB ATL $6
Brown, Ronnie RB MIA $5
Collins, Kerry QB OAK $5
Crumpler, Alge WR ATL $4
Lelie, Ashley WR DEN $4
Smith, Jimmy WR JAC $3
Brooks, Aaron QB NO $3
Hasselbeck, Matt QB SEA $3
Clark, Dallas WR IND $2
Defense, NE TD NE $2
Brown, Chris RB TEN $2
Henry, Travis RB TEN $2
Moats, Ryan RB PHI $1
Stover, Matt PK BAL $1
Freeney, Dwight DP IND $1
Late.
posted by Drew at 3:07 PM | 0
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Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Katrina
When the tsunami hit in Sumatra, I thought that if something like that happened here, we wouldn't have the same problems. A weather-related disaster in the US is 10 or 20 people killed, not thousands. But I was wrong.
Everyone will have to do something. Lots of people I know are doing very compassionate, imaginative things to help. One friend is a realtor who is putting together empty houses with victims, another is finding temporary jobs for refugees, many others are volunteering at the Astrodome feeding people and helping in other ways. I'm donating to the American Red Cross. My company is matching funds, too (thanks Enbridge).
Late.
posted by Drew at 11:32 AM | 0
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Monday, September 05, 2005
Spammers Win drew@hevle.com
I had to finally retire my old email address, drew@hevle.com. I had posted it here at my website for contact information, and spammers harvested it. I've been getting about a hundred spam emails a day, most of them in Chinese.
So, spammers can have my drew@hevle.com address. My new address is at the bottom of this page, and you can also get me at firstname.lastname@lastname.com (this is the one I'm using for personal email). It's a shame that I have to burn the good address, especially since that address was one of the main reasons I bought the domain, but oh well. If something is free, someone is sure to abuse it.
Now they can email me at drew@hevle.com all they want.
Late.
posted by Drew at 5:43 PM | 0
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Last updated (format) 2/22/06
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