Another Week in a Post-Ike World

Well, we survived another week. Once again. a little more eventful than perhaps we'd like, but nothing too bad...

Monday Dee went back to work, although they were only doing half-days. Since school wasn't back in for Jessie and Brennan, they went along and helped. By all reports they were good assistants and had the teachers in the class next door requesting their help on Wednesday. Jessie even had some of the two-year-olds latch on to her in particular. After that was over, Jessie went to play with her friend Tori, and Brennan went to play with his friend Tyler.

Tuesday I don't remember a whole lot about anything that went on. I did go that evening to help take some insulation out of the attic of a sister in the ward who it was thought had had some water damage from the storm. But on examination of the situation, it was determined that the real problem was that her AC system wasn't draining properly and so we ended up not doing anything other than figuring that out. But, as you will see, in the end I got my opportunity to take out wet insulation after all...

Which brings us to Wednesday. Jessie and Brennan went with Dee to work again. That afternoon, they came in from doing some stuff outside and discovered water dripping down the door post between the living room and the hallway, and heard distinct water sounds. I was about to leave work anyway, so I just came right then. It didn't take long (or more than a climb into the attic) to discover a small leak in the hot water pipe, with water fountaining out of it across the attic. So we turned the water off. After some debate and discussion, I ran to Lowe's and bought some epoxy putty. I put that in the hole, and then Dee headed off to Mutual, a bit late. When she got home we turned the water back on and the epoxy seemed to be holding.

The next morning I called a plumber. They said someone would come between 12 and 6. So Dee and the kids made sure they were home. And they waited. And waited. And waited. And Waited and WAITED. Just before I got home from work the plumbing place called to make sure we knew they hadn't forgotten us. Then somewhere between 6 and 7 they called to say the plumber wasn't going to be able to make it afterall, but that someone would come the next day between 8 and 12, and because of the missed appointment they would waive the $50 service fee.

So, Friday I stayed home from work while Dee, Jessie, and Brennan went to work. Kind of a role-reversal there... Finally, right about 12, they called and said the plumber was on his way. Then it still took him more than an hour to make it to our house (have we mentioned how much we love having no traffic lights). In the end, he put a clamp on the leak.

This morning I left early to go on a work crew to Baytown. Just as we were getting organized at the church in Baytown, I got a call from Dee telling me that the ceiling in our living room was sagging. So that was not so fun. But I was kind of stuck in Baytown, and so was most everyone else likely to be able to help. We hauled a lot of tree branches, most of which had to first be pulled down or cut up or whatever. Despite being taught all my life that service is spiritually uplifting, during the work I lost my sole. There was also a wheelbarrow casualty, and a truck that got stuck in the mud. But despite this we got all the work done, including a fair amount for the neighbors of the house we had gone to. In the middle of all that work the said neighbors turned up to start working, and were quite pleased to discover this strange group of yellow-shirted people had already done a lot of their work.

Once we finished there, we headed back and I co-opted two of the other volunteers to come help get the insulation out of the affected area of our attic. That was loads of fun--NOT. You might think you'd get hot hauling tree limbs in the middle of the afternoon in late September in Houston. But that is nothing compared to how hot you get pulling up insulation in an attic in Houston in late September in the late afternoon. Luckily it didn't take us too long. Still, we'll have to do something about the sagging ceiling and replace the insulation.

After all that, Dee went to the Women's Conference. I think she enjoyed it. But she just got home, so I'm going to end this and relax.

Well, I guess I will mention that the latest we've heard is that it will likely be into November before all the traffic lights are working. There's still places in Houston without power. Of course, Galveston is going to take far longer to recover, but there's still plenty of reminders of Ike in Clear Lake.