Somebody do something quick
 

I'm bored

Just a few more minutes...


http://weather.myfoxtampabay.com/map...3_ir_sat_1.jpg

Mike, would you mix up some martinis please?

And then explain to me 10 reasons why the Jupe family should relocate to Texas.

In no real order

10: I serve Martinis at the race track when it goes cold
9: TWS is the most underrated track in the country
8: VR, deep_uv, and TR6 all live here -- oh wait these are supposed to be good reasons. Forget #8
7: Our track season is 9 months long
6: TWS needs cookies
5: No need for snow shovels
4: Austin
3: Bull lives nowhere near here
2: RUF is in Dallas
1: It's Texas -- you'll get it once you live here

C'mon down!!!

11. GUNS GUNS GUNS !!!!!!!!!!!

If you're bored, look out the window...

It's dark.

That's because you can't see through plywood.

That explains it.

They are all set for the storm in College Station

Yep, plywood on the inside of the windows...

Be safe tonight Robert and Mike

Not a lot of people around Houston checking in because of power loss. I've been reading RL and a couple of local forums - one guy with a blackberry, another on gen power at a hospital. We've got 35-45 mph winds & heavy rain west of downtown, but it's not hurricane strength by any means at this point. Rain-based flooding will probably occur in the neighborhoods prone to it, but nothing like Galveston/Texas City. Restoring power is the only big deal at the moment.

no power. Trees down all over the place, but we are fine. I need coffee.

You're gonna have to drove over here, then. I plugged the grinder & coffee machine into the gen this morning, made 6 cups for me & the girls. I can do another batch for you!

Glad to hear that you're fine.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._of_coffee.JPG

You think Ike may have been, ahem, overblown, in the news?

My interpretation of Ike, via I can haz cheezburger cat:

We bought a bunch of gas just before Bertha came up this way. We still have about 30 gallons out in the garage. And it's a good thing, too . . . several gas stations here in Navarre are OUT of gas. The few that have it are gouging folks at up to FIVE BUCKS a gallon. Bastards. Glad my daily driver gets over 30MPG. :D

it hot

I bet it is, Mike, with the power out and all. You might consider doing what we did as part of our hurricane prep. We bought one of those window AC's that can run off of our generator. We put it in our master bedroom to escape the heat and actually be able to sleep at night indoors instead of on the patio. The rest of the time it's out in John's train room (a gigantic shed we recently had built for John's hobby). Lowe's and Home Depot have them. They are priceless when the power's out. I don't know who you guys have for power . . . but Gulf Power, whom we subscribe to, is usually very quick to get things started up again. I hope you have the same good fortune.

Mike are you really thinking about CR next year?.......

dude I'm not thinking about it, I'm doing it. ...if we ever get power back

Re: #3....and all are equally happy! Be very careful, my Mother-In-Law lives there...and I could tell her where you live (keep the chainsaw and goalie mask close at hand)!

Re: #7, so is ours.

Re: #1, yes, but will you ever be able to get rid of it?

Hey, look what the wind blew in!

Bull......looking forward in seeing you at the Glen in October.........:cheers:

Glad to read all is well in Globe Town, and that you are keeping your priorities straight....

I'm going to the track this weekend even if we don't have power. Sitting around here won't make the lights come on!

But who's going to refill the generator, Mike? Gotta keep that fridge running! Oh, that's right . . . you have a family that's going to stay behind and take care of that for you. <insert guilt waves here> ;)

Electronic DPS road signs all around Austin say "Do NOT drive to Houston or Beaumont. Very little if any fuel is available en route".

Thanks for the info. The girls are out foraging for gas right now with 3 5-gallon race jugs. If they come back empty handed, I have 10 gallons in the motorcycles I'll tap.

From those who've tried to get down there from Austin, I've heard that it's very difficult to locate fuel as far out as Brenham on the 290 route and LaGrange/Columbus on the 71 route. If you do find it, expect long lines.

I'm a HWFMR lurker because you all are so funny. It seems that there are alot of you from Texas, and it looks ugly (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/200...l_life_of.html). I'm praying and hoping for a quick recovery for y'all in one of my favorite 3 states.

Our track season is actually 12 months long. The tracks are still open in December and January even if PCA isn't scheduling events then. All you gotta do is go to a member day. Some of the nicest weather for the track is in December. :D

Nah. That's just deep_uv's face that gives it that reputation.

Dear HWFMR Lurker

What are the other two favorite states?

Drunk and Passed Out... :D

This is no-**** true. A bunch of friends just went down there to protect utility workers trying to restore power. They said the same thing--BRING EXTRA CONTAINERS OF FUEL IN YORU VEHICLE.

Also, looting has broken out in Houston, food is getting scarce, and my guys expect possible riots within th enext few days in some areas.

Lock and load, folks.

Houston/Galveston
 

I have men on the ground performing commercial disaster repair/drydown work and I am going in on Monday. Galveston is the worst, access to the island is limited and supplies are scarce and the island is being cleared by 6:00. Water is not potable, maybe I should bring the AR or HK.

If you have a carry permit, bring a handgun. If you bring a long gun, BE DISCREET about it.

Hm - hope I don't need more than three or four magazines' worth. Don't think I've restocked in a while.

Houston covers a lot of territory - any idea which neighborhoods are having trouble? I haven't heard anything about looting/unrest in the media (not that I'm a conspiracy theorist, but I won't take the absence of that news as proof).

No, sorry, I have nothing specific. Trying to get that.

That's not what your girlfriend thinks. ;)

So you have been there too? A lot of people agree with you!:icon107:

No maybe about it....bring both!

HAHA!! I've been to Jersey. :rolleyes:

I just talked to my mom who is still in Houston. Still no power but otherwise she is fine and in good spirits. She is having to stand in line at the only grocery store in her area that is open to get the one bag of ice she is allowed (limit one per customer). She said she was in line over an hour for her one bag of ice. She still refuses to leave Houston... :rolleyes:

And the coastal communities like Galveston, League City, Keemah, Freeport, Surfside, etc, are in much worse shape than Houston. :(

I pinged Globe as I hadn't heard from him in 24 hours. He's still ok, said he'd contact me later.

It really pisses me off that in a time where we should be helping each other out, some folks decide to instead use force to get stuff before everyone else has a chance at it. I've got a friend who told me a story about when she was at a gas station after Ivan gave us hell down here. Some guy went to the front of the line at a gas station. When asked by the guy who was initially at the front of the line what he was doing, he brandished a hand gun. What an asshole. I wish those kind of people would just be taken out of the gene pool. Wouldn't it have been awesome if everyone else in that line had a gun of their own? Bwahahaha. That would have taught that dickhead a lesson. Of course, it could have also resulted in a huge homocide scene. People can be such jerks. Sorry . . . that just really pisses me off. Now let me tell ya how I REALLY feel . . . lol. ;)

As with most any State, you need to tell us what location in the State. After all, Texas isn't all Colonias.

Now, back to hearing how folks are doing after Ike.

As I have said before, we should all be required to carry. People would be much more polite to each other, and those who were not would be quickly eliminated from the gene pool!

I don't agree that we should be required to carry, but I damn sure don't believe that we should not be allowed to carry if we want to. I don't remember the former NRA logo from years ago, but it said something like you'll be safer if the bad guys don't know whether you are armed or not. If these bleeding heart liberals were to get their way and take away our right to carry, all the bad guys would know and crime would rise.

There was a study the NRA did in Australia after they banned guns. Murder went up by something like 80%, theft was up by about 70% . . . those aren't exact figures but it was HUGE. I don't want to live in a country that doesn't give me the right to defend myself against the same assholes who are committing crimes that don't register their guns in the first place.

Oh crap . . . there I go again. I think my blood pressure just shot up. ;)

Emailed back and forth with Globester this morning. He was in a gas line for at least 2 hours, propbably more. Haven't heard what the full duration was. That can't be fun. No talk of gunplay yet.

I've got gas! Nothing a little pepto shouldn't take care of though.


I waited two hours this morning, but finally got a tank full of gas. Sat for a long time without moving... it turned out the turds running the station got in to work late. :( There were four HPD officers at the station keeping things running smoothly.

Honestly, I've seen almost no disorderliness in the city. We live in a pretty nice part of town, so maybe that is part of it, but for the most part people are going out of their way to be good to each other. I'm sure the media will be able to find looting etc, and put it on the idiot box, but from what I'm seeing in town, things are really operating pretty well. It is just hard to get stuff like food, gas, and ice. Really, even the food situation is getting better. Grocery stores are opening up, as are restaurants.

Last night my neighborhood got power. Nearly all of the homes... except for mine and the other nine houses serviced by the one power line that is down behind us. So... it could be a while before I've got power. Fortunately, wifey and daughter are staying with a friend who has power.

My office is open, so I'm back to work, (reading rennlist...). The big question in front of me now is do I head to the track this weekend. It mostly hinges on what fuel availability is like away from town. As it stands right now, I probably won't be going this weekend, but we'll see...

Hope you get the power back on soon Mike. It sucks when work is a better place to be than home is!

Mike . . . don't you have a generator?

The assumption in the Rockies is the other person IS armed. Makes for a very polite, agreeable communities.

I don't, and honestly, I'd hate to have to wait in gas lines to keep one running anyway. I am tempted once things get back to normal though to get one of the natural gas powered generators.

You shouldn't wait until a hurricane is upon you or close to hitting land fall to gas up. We have over 30 gallons worth in case we need our generator. If we wind up not using it, we just dump it in our truck and wait for the next season.

+1

My mom finally got power back this evening (in Houston). Sounds like H-town is finally starting to get sort of back to normal. But everything from Clear Lake south sounds like it is fukked up badly and will be for a LONG time.

WTF! I'd like a "do over" please!
 

Holy ****! Can I get a F'n do over for the past two weeks.

First my dad passes away on the 4th of September, which is hard enough. But then I need to get Butt F'd by Continental Airlines for $975! for a plane ticket. When I said "Bereavement"....the bitch actually laughed. No bull****.....laughed!

Oh, wait....it gets better.

Then, I need to change my return flight so that I can get home before Hurricane Ike destroys everything and....you guessed it.....a change charge of $150 from good 'ol Continental.

Make it home.....pay $4.09! for premium (that's the only grade available) then buckle up for the ride of my life. Eye wall passes immediately to the east of my house. 13 hours of "I think we're gonna die".

Luckily, many downed trees, but none on the Sisco Family Castle.

Then, I get to cut trees out of the roadway so that I can get out of my street. Not bad, except that I have a small 9" pole chainsaw and I'm trying to cut a tree 2 feet around!

4 days without power......people way over reacting and causing a panic over gas.....waiting more than 12 hours in the sun to buy a generator......getting ice and water from a FEMA worker who says "I don't think we'll be here tomorrow, but watch your TV to see where we will be". Huh? TV? WTF doesn't that require electricity? Genius!!!

Get power...get gas (from gas station, not from food)....buy produce (oh boy was that peach GREAT!).....kid's still not in school.......cut down more trees......go back to work..........try to find gas again.........negotiate trees, branches, debris, etc on every street..........Starbucks is OPEN!!!.

Have 5 Captain Morgan + 7 UPs!!!!

Does this qualify for a "Do Over"?

Bill, very sorry to hear about your Father. I hope that things improve at home as quickly as possible.

Sorry for your loss Bill.

Also sorry to hear you have such a puny "chainsaw". :icon501:

When I bought it I didn't understand it when it said "Globe size blade" on the side of the box. Now, of course, I know.

Globe size = short and puny

Well my droving was puny today, that's for sure. But without Robert H., at least I was able to stay on the track.

BTW, my Proto-996 Spec weighs in right now at 2970 w/o drover. The alignement seems pretty balenced. I was concerned it would be tail happy, but actually it's not bad at all. I found it was not hard to control the tail end once it got loose. Biggest issue I'm having right now is skittishness while under hard braking, particularly in the bumps after the T1 transition. Not quite sure how to address that, though I'm thinking about upping the damping on the rear shocks. The back seems a bit underdamped to me.

Sorry to hear of your loss, Bill. That sucks.

What is your rear toe setting?

All his toes point forward. All 12 of them.

Bill - sorry to read about your dad. And then all the crap you had to deal with to get there and back, and then to Ike. Gheez!! I wish you well....

Huh, I would have guessed he had 8.

Mike . . . do you think a shock tower brace would help? Are your sway bars adjustable?

Bill . . . you've just experienced the reason why the saying, "when it rains it pours" was invented. Hopefully it'll all clear up and it'll be smooth sailing from here on out. You're a lot stronger than I am . . . if all that happened to me I'd either be in a funny farm or at the bottom of a whiskey bottle. I sure hope things get better real soon. And never, NEVER ask "Can it get any worse?" Trust me. Here's to a much better week and year ahead . . . you're long overdue.

Too much rear rebound or too little rear toe in. Meaning, car goes "toe out" as rear unweights.

Excessive rebound makes the rear of the car unweight faster causing a rapid weight shift to the front.

I'd mess with rebound first.

I think you are probably right about rebound. I left it alone for this event but will adjust it before I go out again. I was able to turn 2:03. Slow by race standards but faster than I could do in my 997.

Bill, you DEFINITELY qualify for a do-over.

I'm so sorry for your loss and all of your frustrations.

Bill

Sorry about your Dad. Lost mine a few years ago. To have all the other grief heaped on top of it isn't fair.

I'd send a letter to Continental's CEO about the rep who laughed. What a jerk

Billl, I am sorry to hear of this, I lost my mom in April--it hasn't gotten any better. :(

There are no longer any airline bereavement fares, FYI. However, this does not excuse that douche from laughing at your loss. I recommend firebombing Conti's HQ.

I used to actually like Continental . . . until now. I take a lot of trips out to California and Nevada. I used to avoid American because I think they are very unfriendly. Looks like I'm down to using Delta now. I won't use Continental any more, not after learning they hire assholes.

DELTA is an acronym for Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport (usually applies to your luggage).

Lol, Dave, that's a good one! I've been (knock on wood) lucky so far in that my luggage has never been lost on any airline. But from here you have to go through either Pensacola or Ft. Walton Beach to get to a connector . . . and the only airlines that are offered are American, Delta, or Continental. I guess I could drive all the way up to Atlanta, but at the cost of gas, it's cheaper to just fly. And since I don't have enough hours, I'll have to be a passenger on one of the few flights offered. Sigh.

THanks Dave. I knew you lost your Mom this year as well. It's been a rough year here at Case de Sisco. My brother inlaw in April, my dad and then that freakin' Ike. If bad things happen in three's, then I'm set for another decade!

The icing on the cake was that wench from Continental. "Bereavement....ha.ha.ha....ah...I don't think you'll find anyone offering those fares anymore. Well, anyway you did get a pretty decent deal ($975) so, that's like getting a discount. Ha.ha.ha"

You know my typically reserved personality (sarcasm). I think I dropped more F-bombs on that lady than she had heard in the past 5 years. Of course, this was after I warned her that I was about to get very ugly with her for her comments.

I do plan on contacting Continental about the matter and reminding them of the frequent flyer miles that my wife and I rack up each year.

I've set 5PM today as the deadline for my bitching. This means that I may not even get to tell you about how they "misplaced" my family's luggage containing their clothes for the funeral.

Hell, I may take out a full page ad!

Thread Hijacking now over. :icon107:

Seriously, contact Continental, and make sure you have her full name.

. . . so that VR can have her whacked. :D

Most of the funeral homes now have a bereavement travel service where they hassle with the airlines for you. This is what my brother in law does. Contact the funeral home that is conducting the services and see if they provide the service if not contact me and I will get hold of my brother in law and see what he can do for you.

I am sorry about your loss, close relatives are always difficult to lose.

I was clearly under duress when I opened this thread. I mean asking this group to do something quick?...

Hey . . . I was good about it . . . it took me 24 hours to respond initially. ;)

Can we make Centerpoint the official electricity supplier for HWFMR? :surr:

Mike,

You got power yet? I finally got mine yesterday. It will be interesting to see how much they are going to try and make us pay for this little fiasco. We already have the highest line charges inthe state.

They don't make you guys pay for the line repairs do they?

Yes. They will go to the state PUC board and ask for an increase in line charges. When we deregulated the grid stayed with center point and the various providers get to buy space on the lines to deliver the power to your house. They get to recoup any additional expenses that thy are out of pocket due to storms where they have to replace equipment and bring in outside crews. They started politicing 3 days ago for a rate increase when still 50% of the city was without power.

Mind you this was only a Cat 2 storm when it hit and it was a glancing blow to Houston. We were lucky if it had been a Cat 3 or higher and been a direct hit we would probably be out for another month. As it is it will probably be another week before everyone is back on. Unfortunately CPE will be crying about the expense of the repair to the grid so an up grade will be out of the question so next time around same story.

I'll ask next time I speak with them, as they are a client of mine. :)

OK gang. This just in... I HAVE POWER!!!! :jumper::jumper::jumper:

Just got it at lunch. I was so glad to see the crew's truck parked in my driveway that I went out and got them a cooler full of iced down St. Arnolds and Shiner Bock. The guys in the crew were in town from NY. Great group of guys who worked their asses off over the last three days. :cheers:

Congratulations! I really wanted to tip the power guys who hooked me up, but I was away at work all day when the lights came back on.

Good to hear, buddy!! :cheers:

BOOYAH!!!!!!!!!!

Outstanding...and a nice gesture for the NY guys!

Power smower. You can still make those great martinis in the dark, right? Bwahahaha. Oh **** . . . I think I just started something. Ha! :D