Here Comes Ike!

I was not happy to wake up to the news that Ike hasn't moved to the east and is going to hit our home. We love Houston. We love all of Houston and Galveston. This has been our home since 1994. We have lived in all the areas that are going to flood tomorrow - North Shore, Clear Lake - NASA Road One, Webster, & Seabrook. It is just so sad to realize that things are going to be very different for people in our great city just 24 hours from now.

Saturday morning we are going to wake up to damage. There is no doubt. We could have up to 100 mph winds and there will be trees that go down. That kind of wind is going to blow from dark tonight until close to noon tomorrow. So it'll be a long haul. Of course any regular thunderstorm seems scary sometimes. This is something that Norma and I have never experienced. Our closet call with Rita was scary enough. So we'll be a little tense.

BUT, we have a great plan. We are going to protect our belongings today as best we can. I'll be moving our awesome HD tv to the dining room table and put them in the center of our home near a doorway to the garage. Any other valuable pieces will go there as well. Our place to go (in case of a very nasty tornado or serious home damage) is in our downstairs guest bath. It's a 1/2 bath in the center of our home on the ground floor. We will close the door and place a crib mattress at the door. Those are precautions that may seem crazy to some, but we are going to do the best we can. All of our 'stuff' is replaceable.

To be sure that we have a record of everything we are going outside and taking pictures of the trees, house and backyard. One worry for me is our fence. It was put in with the house in 1992. So it is going to take severe damage. I could probably push it over in places in our back yard - it's that old. So I know there is going to be some serious damage there. So I'll take a few pictures. Maybe they will come in handy.

We will not have power for a while. Our energy companies are preparing people for the worst - 2 weeks. If that happens we may try to go to San Antonio (when the roads are passable) to stay with Norma's brother's family. But, for now it's best for us to ride it out here. Even if we left now... we would risk car trouble and being stranded when this storm begins. And that would be a terrible idea!

Please keep a good thought in your mind today for us and for all of the people of Houston who will ride this thing out. What a wonderful place this is... I just hope IKE realizes it as he gives us his best shot.

I Don't Like IKE

School is canceled tomorrow. So is the all day AVID Tutor training that I was going to attend on Saturday. So my weekend is now free. Oh yeah, a hurricane is coming. So it might not be fun. :(

1 Million Evacuate in Texas

Kids were pretty nervous today at school. Understandably. We have been lucky since we have come to Texas in 1994. There hasn't been a hurricane hit us directly. The closest call was Rita in 2005 (yep, same year as Katrina). Tropical storm Allison actually did much more damage than anything we've seen before.

During Rita we tried to evacuate. That was a nightmare. Our thinking was that we had Aidan and he was just under a year old and we wanted to get to San Antonio and be safe. The scary part of Rita was that it was the biggest storm ever recorded in the gulf - at cat 5. We were really scared. Well, so was EVERYONE in Houston. After trying to drive to San Antonio, we finally pulled over and turned around just outside of Katy, TX... which is about 45 minutes from our house. It had taken us 6 hours to get there! And we were running low on gas and there was NO GAS to be found anywhere. So we were actually quite relieved to make it home. People died out there on the freeway trying to evacuate. It was a nitemare.

From Wikipedia: On Wednesday, Houston mayor Bill White urged residents to evacuate the city, telling residents, "Don't wait; the time for waiting is over," reminding residents of the disaster in New Orleans. After heavy traffic snarled roads leading out of town and gas shortages left numerous vehicles stranded, he backed off his earlier statement with, "If you're not in the evacuation zone, follow the news," advising people to use common sense. However by 3:00 p.m. that afternoon, the freeway system in Houston was at a stand-still. [19]

I am not as panicked as I was during Hurricane Rita. Rita took an unexpected jog to the east just before landfall. You can see that here

We are hoping tonight that Ike will head in the same direction. But, that probably isn't likely. Over the past 24 hours the storm tracking has started to move to the east. It went from landfall very far south of us in Matagorda Bay to now a direct hit on Galveston Island (directly south of us about 45 minutes). That means the current track puts the eye path of the storm, ohhh, right over our neighborhood. Again, that is actually good news at this point. Because the storm has been trending to the east, it will probably continue to do that. But, NO ONE knows. It's all guess work.

Hopefully tomorrow afternoon (before the power goes out) we'll know that the storm will go far enough east that we'll be on the weak side of the storm. These hurricanes have strong sides (or dirty sides) to the north east. The weakest part of the storm is to the south east. So for us, if it keeps going to the east... that's great news.

We have taken a few precautions...
Both cars (including the rental) are in the garage. I have also disabled the electronic opener (which will be useless without electricity to run it).

I have cleared the entire yard of anything that could be debris. At this point the winds will be from 80 to 120 mph. That could make just about anything a projectile.

We also got out $$$ from the bank. That was a minor miracle. The back money machine was all out of $$$ and the front was probably running out when we got there. The line was 5-10 people deep.

We stopped and got some groceries. Nothing that needs refrigerated. So stuff like pop tarts, chips, water, dry cereal, peanut butter & jelly.

Tonight we had some frozen pizzas... and tomorrow I'll raid the freezer again and try to empty some more out of it. If we are hit at all by the storm we will lose electricity. If it is a direct hit and real bad... the potential is a few days without any juice. We'd lose everything in the freezer in that case.

Tomorrow morning it will already be raining, so I had to take care of things tonight outside. Tomorrow we'll be doing lots of laundry, washing all our dishes, cleaning the house. And watching the track of the storm. Hopefully we'll have some very good news.

TV Interview

Here is my interview on our cable educational access channel about AVID.


AVID Interview from fordee on Vimeo.

TV Nerves

In July I was recorded in an interview by our school district for their television program. I was told it would be on in August, but tonight I saw that it is finally about to air. My segment is next... and I am very nervous sitting here watching it. Almost the exact feeling I had just before I walked up to do the interview.

Strange how you relive the same nerves. And I am nervous about what I am about to say... but, I have already said it. So I guess the cat is out of the bag!

I'm recording it and I'll post it here sometime this week.

My fingers and toes are crossed that I don't sound too stupid. I talked about our AVID program and tutoring.

Dancing at the Game

Friday night was the "Father-Daughter" dance for our school's dance team at half time of the football game. I was honored to dance with a former student of mine. Her Dad was unable to dance because he has MS.

Aidan had a great time at the game. Norma struggled some because her ankle was REALLY sore after working all week. But, she toughed it out and we went home and iced it down after half time. At that point the awesome Eagles were up 21-0 and later went on to win 40-0. Now the AHS Eagles are 2-0 for the first time in their three year history! Pretty exciting.

Half time went very well. My dance partner was great. She is quite the dancer. Afterwards her mom thanked me for dancing with her and I said, "Well, she made me look good, didn't she? She had to work PRETTY HARD to do that!" And I smiled. To make this white guy look good is pretty much an impossible task. But, she got the job done. It was a lot of fun to see the kids from school yelling my name and waving.

One of the teachers that I worked with said, "You looked pretty good for a guy that was just in an accident last week. Nice and loose." Well, the adrenaline was pumping a little. I never even tried to do 1/2 the moves that we practiced until last night because I didn't want to hurt my back any more than it is. But, once we got out there I was fine.

My dance partner's father has MS. So he couldn't dance with her. I felt a little guilty because he should be out there... but at the same time, I was proud to stand in for him. It is always amazing how something like this goes such a long way with the kids. They really enjoyed it.

Aidan had a ball. I waved up to him from the field and he waved back. It was cool to have him there watching. So I guess now I can say that my son saw me on a football field. Of course, this was NOTHING like what I used to do on a football field. It is actually much harder to face the stands and dance than it is to play a sport like football where you are just focused on your opponent. I never really paid much attention to the stands when I played.

Today I am a little sore and a little cranky. But, I am so glad to have had the chance to dance with her. It was a lot of fun.

Aidan's First Preschool Picture

Friday was picture day.

In the car on the way to preschool I turned around and said to Aidan, "Boy, you look great!" He said nodding, "Yeah. I do." Quite a sense of humor. :)

The Only Marks On Him

Accident update:
We have a rental car. Finally. We also know that All-State (black truck guy's insurance company) is going to pay our $500 deductible. Nationwide (our insurance) is going to start the processing of our vehicle and will let us know what we can expect to get for it next week (hopefully Tuesday). Then this mess can be put to bed.

Norma and I are still pretty sore in our neck, shoulders, and back. I feel really good sometimes and really awful other times (right now is an awful time last night was crazy, more on that later). Norma's ankle is a mess. Black and blue all over.

Aidan only had these marks on him, luckily:


I can not stress to people enough - spend the money on a great car seat like we did. Britax rules. Even the All-State lady that I spoke with during this process agreed that it saved her daughter from injury last year.

It looks like we'll be getting a Honda Civic for sure. I test drove a few cars and it stood out head and shoulders above the rest. But, first things first. We have to hear from insurance companies before we do anything.

DD

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DD

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DD

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aidan @ walgreens- trying on masks.
DD

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Back @ Work

We were back at work today. A little drained, a little sore, and a lot happy to be with our kids. I was just showered with cards, hugs and lots of smiles. You would have thought that I missed 2 weeks! It is pretty awesome to be at a school with so many kids that I care about and that care about me and my family.

Norma and I have such a unique experience because we both teach at our school and share in the lives of our students. It is so cool to be able to talk about our students at home and my wife totally understands. To share in their accomplishments and to also see how great kids today can be.

People tell me all the time that I am too optimistic about kids today. But, you should walk a mile in my shoes. To see the kind of passion, affection, and devotion our students have towards us is really something. I know I am a lucky husband, father and teacher. But, today I feel doubly lucky.

A few years ago I went to a funeral for a colleague who passed unexpectedly. It was just the most awesome thing to sit there and be a witness to the large crowds of people who came to pay their respects. He only had taught for 4 or 5 years in the community, but wow the number of kids, parents, and teachers that he had touched with his career. It is really an amazing thing. I wrote about it in this post in 2006: Why I Came Back to Teaching

I felt that same feeling today when students were generally worried about me and my family. One student wrote, "Mr. D I don't know what I would do without you." It really got to me. I know her story and I know how much she struggles at home. And I know she meant what she wrote.

Friday night I will be dancing at half time of the football game with one of our Patriettes - the dance team. They have a father-daughter dance each year. Two years ago I danced with one of my students and it was a really special thing to be able to stand in for her father who had passed away. Friday will be like that again for me. The student that asked me is very close with Norma and I and it will be great to be with her and celebrate her for the night. I know I am doing the dance with her for her... but I get so much out of it myself. It'll be so cool to see Aidan in the stands watching me out there. And I hope he realizes that I am doing it because I care about my students just like I care about him. (for my crazy night of dancing last time around - check out this post: Dancing )

I really downplayed everything about the accident today in class. But, the kids really wouldn't let me. They kept asking questions about Aidan, Mrs. D, and my car. On my board the quote of the day was, "Accidents Happen." - Mr. D.

It was a good day, although both of us are beat tired tonight. I don't think I realized how much this whole ordeal took out of me until we got home from school and ate dinner. Both of us felt like the bottom dropped out and we were exhausted.

Tomorrow we wake up and do it all over again. Thank goodness!