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Things are looking bad.

Family

By ad hoc (Wed Sep 01, 2004 at 06:42:51 AM EST) (all tags)

Plus, pictures!

I got a note from my dad this morning. He's usually a cool, calm, collected guy, not one prone to hysterics or overstatement. (Background: my mom is an Award® winning quilter, and dad builds enormous R/C airplanes) and occasionally reviews them in hobby magazines.)

Well, it looks like our luck has run out. Early predictions are that we will take a near direct hit this week end from the mother of all canes "MOAC". We are getting things as ready as possible as our home probably will not be here come next monday. Our home is built to withstand 110 mph winds but nothing can handle 150mph. $mom is going to pack all her quilts in plastic bags and we will put them in our old car which will be in the garage. It won't blow away but my be crushed and the window broken out. I will put as much of my airplane stuff in there too. My C130 that I have been working on for a year and a half will just have to ride out the storm as it is to big to go anywhere. We went shopping yesterday and bought a lot of canned goods as I am sure we will be without power for sometime.

It's drawing a bead right on their house. I mean, I've been through a couple of hurricanes, but nothing like this one. It's a cat 4 with nothing to slow it down before it hits land, so it could even be cat 5 by then. Looks like about an 8AM Saturday landfall. Scary

So I met Steve Ballmer today. I even shook his hand. Aren't you thrilled? Me neither. However, both he and the mayor have lost a lot of weight and are looking fit. No, I don't mean in that way. Eww. He was visiting the settlement house where I volunteer present about $400,000 (MSRP, of course) worth of software to the Timothy Smith Learning Centers ($50,000 goes to USES's Center).

Steve waves goodbye to me on his way out the door

Steve gives a bunch of local kids an Xbox.

Radio Paradise is playing Israel Kamakawiwo'ole again. Man, that guy's voice gives me chills.

< The dream is over | BBC White season: 'Rivers of Blood' >

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Things are looking bad. | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

sxbox is cool by Liverpin (6.00 / 1) #1 Wed Sep 01, 2004 at 07:00:13 AM EST

i got one mode chip and all. ballmers looks like a bald monkee with him all little bill gates.

i hope the weatherdoesnt break your dads planes those care cool adn cost alot to mjake

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lIvERpin Combien de goupilles avez-vous dans votre foie?

Ballmer is looking gaunt, almost ghost-like by MohammedNiyalSayeed (6.00 / 1) #2 Wed Sep 01, 2004 at 01:08:20 PM EST

The pressure of his new found responsibities must be weighing heavily on him.

That C130 model is amazing. Easily the coolest R/C plane I've ever seen. It makes me want to pick up the hobby, and now I've just lost about an hour looking at links for various R/C planes. Damnit.

I hope the hurricane dies down, but it doesn't look good. If it doesn't die down, I at least your parents are spared the brunt of it, and that they do ok afterwards during the recovery phase. I mock hurricanes from the safety of Raleigh, in that I was warned about how awful they were, but every one that's made it here has been weaker than a good, solid Midwestern windstorm, but having seen the damage Charley did, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Well, at least not on most people. And certainly not anyone cool enough to build R/C planes like that C130. Do they have time to drive up to Boston for a few days, or does that run the risk of exposure to looting before they would return?

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You can build the most elegant fountain in the world, but eventually a winged rat will be using it as a drinking bowl.

: R/C models by ad hoc (6.00 / 1) #6 Thu Sep 02, 2004 at 02:40:27 AM EST

I was never into them. I mean, they look cool and they, to an extent, appeal to the geek in me, but having grown up with them... no. Since he retired he works for a guy who makes ARF (Almost ready to fly) and pre-cut kits. So he builds a lot of those as tests for the kit designer and builder guy. (I don't think the C130 is an ARF kit, though.)
While the plane is pretty expensive, it's the quilts that my mom makes that have the most value. Planes can (usually) be repaired, quilts cannot and they really are extraordinary pieces of art.
They were planning on coming for a visit in October to maybe go to Topsfield, but that's all up in the air now. It's a 3 day drive, and there may be some cleanup that's necessary before any vacation can happen.
I got word this morning that they've left and are heading to my brother's place in the panhandle, west of Pensacola (about a 10 hour drive) where they'll be staying until it's over.
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[ Parent ]

Best wishes by jimgon

(3.00 / 0) #3 Wed Sep 01, 2004 at 01:43:06 PM EST

Best wishes to your family. Knock on wood and all that.

I was going to by Breaker (3.00 / 0) #4 Wed Sep 01, 2004 at 10:12:08 PM EST

Write a bit about how Bush's walking away from the Kyoto treaty means that more violent weather's most certainly on it's way and that if re-elected King George WII would declare a War On Hurricanes. But I couldn't really put my heart into it.

Hope your folks get through OK and have insurance for any damage. Especially for that plane - I'd be gutted if that amount of work got smashed. If the house gets destroyed, where will your parents shelter while the winds are a howling? Cellar or something?

: Cellar by ad hoc (3.00 / 0) #5 Thu Sep 02, 2004 at 02:28:29 AM EST

Houses in Fla do not have cellars. The ground won't support it so they're all built on slabs.
They do have insurance, so things will be okay. After Andrew, the insurance companies jacked up the rates by several hundred percent, and they've been paying that ever since.
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[ Parent ]

Things are looking bad. | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback