This Week Can Go Down 2 Different Ways

Because the FRS are playing two teams this week from the top two TV markets in the country national sports coverage will be heavy for the next week. The Angels from the left coast are in Boston for a three game set mid week and Wednesday night’s contest will be ESPN. ESPN will also show Friday’s game from the House That Ruth Built. Fox has the Sox – Yankees tilt listed for Saturday broadcast, but I may not see that as they also list the Braves – Nationals and they try to regionalize their coverage.

As a bonus it looks like ESPN is going to show tomorrow’s contest between the White Sox and the Red Sox which is a make-up from a rained out August 14th game. I thought I heard one of the FRS’s broadcasters say last week sometime that Chicago was thinking of forfeiting the game because they didn’t want to fly into Boston, play a game and then have to fly back home on what was supposed to be an off day.

So I’m either in for an exciting TV week or a very disappointing one. I’ll let you know.

Started down, still down.
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Controlled Burn – September

Our re-entrance into the woods meant a revisit to our controlled burn area. It has been since June, so at first I couldn’t remember which stub I stood on to get the original photo. Not taking any chances I took pictures from 2 different ones. I should have taken more than one shot at each stump though, because if you compare the two you can see my point of view is a little different…

Mr. Fletcher’s Ride – July/August

Mr. Fletcher's Ride - July/AugustAlthough we have quite a bit of warm weather left to come our way, it has finally cooled enough so that mornings will let us go for a hike in the woods again. So for the first time in a couple months we went for a hike in Hitchcock Woods. This picture is very similar to June’s shot except for the angle of the sun, so we are going to call this July and August’s photo and will try and get back for a September one later this month. Looking southwest at the corner of Mr. Fletcher’s Ride and an unnamed path about 1/2 mile in from our usual entry point.

Pessure Washin’ Fool

Today’s highlight was washing the house. Brush on the Simple Green and wash off. All I did was the front, sides and back will have to wait for another day.

While I was getting around the front door I decided to do the small brick porch and the three steps. That wasn’t so bad, but my problem came while cleaning the bottom step, I accidentally sprayed the end of the sidewalk. Well, now I was stuck doing the whole sidewalk. Took about an hour. You can bet that I was extra careful at the other end of the sidewalk that I didn’t hit any of the driveway. We have a two car wide driveway and it is about 50 foot long, that sucker would have taken about 12 hours to do.

Started down, still down.
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Gone

Those of you who pay close attention to this blog (and if you do, please look in the yellow pages under Mental Health Professionals for some help) know that Donna and I lived in New Orleans for a while in the middle 80s. Once I left the Navy we choose New Orleans for a couple of reasons, one of which was because she grew up there we would both be eligible for in state tuition while we attended college on the GI Bill. The other reason was that Donna’s dad had recently passed away and her youngest brother was still a teenager, so we felt if we moved back in with mom and brother it might be a stabling influence on young Scott.

When Donna’s family moved to New Orleans in the 60’s they bought a 4 bedroom, 1-1/2 bath split level home in the Lakeview section of town. It was near Lake Ponchatrain, you couldn’t actually see the lake unless you could climb to the very top of the two massive live oaks that shaded the house, but it was also only a short bus ride to downtown.

We stuck around long enough to see Scott graduate high school, but the economy had turned sour and jobs grew scarce, so Donna and I moved up to NJ. Not long after that, Donna’s younger sister convinced mom and Scott to sell the house and move out to Seattle with her.

Below are a couple of small images showing the northern section of New Orleans before and after Katrina. The before came from Google Maps and the little pointer shows where we lived. The second is from part of a larger high resolution satellite image from Digital Globe. You can download both before and after images from their page by clicking on the Hurricane Katrina Imagery link in the upper left. They are approximately 4000 x 4500 pixels and are 3 or 4 megabytes in size.

Before:
lakeview before

After:
lakeview after

The dark greenish blue shows the areas that are underwater. One of the levees that broke, the 17th Street Canal one, is on the left of the image where the light turns to dark. The actual breach point is about parallel with the marker and is less than a mile from the house. Most assuredly Donna’s childhood home is a total loss.

Started down, still down.
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Half Right & All Wrong

When I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I would be buying gas next week and it would probably be $3.50 a gallon, I was half right. Down to about a quarter of a tank tonight on the way home from the MMC monthly meeting, I stopped and filled up at $3.499 a gallon. There were a couple of gas stations that were advertising $3.199, but I guess that was what they were selling it for when they had it, both places had bags over the pump nozzles in the internationally know signal for “I’m Out of Gas, But Come In and Buy a 6-Pack of Beer, You’ll Feel Better.”

After one misdirected envelope, the second arrived today with my Calvin & Hobbes sticker. I put it on the bumper, snapped one picture and took it off. There were three reasons for this; 1) it was larger than we expected, 2) silver, while not bad, seemed kind of blah and 3) I placed it too low on the bumper and with too much of a slant. So back to the sticker guy I go with a request for another sticker that will be in dark yellow and 5″ tall instead of six. Maybe the first one won’t get lost in the mail and I can get this in a week instead of two.

Started down, still down.
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It’s 1973 All Over Again

I filled up with gas last Thursday and the price was $2.63 a gallon. (The Emperor uses premium, so those are the prices I’m quoting.) This morning on the way to work, at one of the stations we pass, I noticed that the price had jumped to $2.89. Twenty-six cents in 6 days. Yikes. On the way home, the price was now $3.04 and there were short lines at the pumps.

After I got home I put on my Rollerblades for for my bi-nightly skate. On the 3 mile loop I pass somewhat near 2 gas stations. At one the price was the same $3.04 and the cars were 8 to 10 deep along the shoulder waiting to fill up. At the other gas station I couldn’t see if there were lines, but they had pulled the prices off their sign. Probably didn’t have enough threes.

I still have a half a tank in the Miata, so I can go another week before I *have to* get gas. This is a two edged sword though, by next week there shouldn’t be any lines, but the price will probably be $3.50 a gallon.

9:30PM Update: Went out for ice cream and made a quick gas station tour. Passed 8 stations and 6 had premium for $3.19. Two still had $3.04, both were Shell stations, one of which was the 8-10 car line before, now with no line at all. The station with no price earlier now said $3.19.

Started down, still down.
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