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I Hate Ike
Posted by Paul Macklin
Friday, September 12, 2008 at 07:07 pm CDT
Well, we hardly have any wind here, but for some reason or another, we've lost power. We'll have to count on it being out until Sunday.
We're powering down now to conserve power. We'll probably power on the networking equipment for 15 minutes at a time every few hours to check in.
Wish us luck -- all of us.
All Ready for Ike
Posted by Paul Macklin
Friday, September 12, 2008 at 04:38 pm CDT
Well, we're done boarding up all the windows, moving things into the garage, and stocking up. We bought plywood Wednesday before the major run on it, so that was fine. Got gas for both cars yesterday, so we didn't hit the lines and outages today. Just took a walk with Dakota around the neighborhood, while the weather's still relatively nice. Actually the breeze feels pretty good right now. :-)
Well, last thing to do is move the CR-V in and do laundry while we still have power. We'll keep posting here from time to time while it's possible. Wish us luck! -- Paul and Angie
Hurricane Ike Plans
Posted by Paul Macklin
Thursday, September 11, 2008 at 10:01 am CDT
Hi, guys,
I just wanted to keep you informed of our Hurricane Ike plans. It looks to be poised to make landfall near Houston (somewhere between Matagorda and Galveston and most likely near Freeport, for those who know the area) as a category 3 or 4 storm late Friday or early Saturday, but hopefully not head-on. Depending upon your source of info, winds between 50 mph and 85 mph are expected at our location. (ZIP code 77096 , if you want to keep track; Julie's is 77375 ) The best reporting I've found is this blog at the Houston Chronicle. This site is informative when it works. :-)
We live about 25-30 miles from the gulf and bay. We are not in an evacuation zone, even for hurricanes up to category 5. Our house is not in a flood plain, and our neighbors (who have lived here 25-30 years) tell us that our particular block is one of the few that never floods. Our house should be structurally sound and withstand the weather.
We are sheltering in place for the hurricane. We're boarding up windows today and tomorrow, stocking up on water, food, batteries, diapers, and propane for our Coleman stove. We have an UPS that will keep our networking equipment online for a short time if the power goes out (so that we have an alternate form of communication), and a DC inverter to power things off the cars if we need to. I'm halting work on the grant proposal this afternoon to focus solely on hurricane prep and family care. Angie and I have both had work canceled for tomorrow, so we'll take care of Dakota at home and finish our preparations.
Once the storm has passed (late Saturday or early Sunday), we'll make an assessment on whether to stay or look for a hotel room based on whether we have power and whether the local roads are passable. We recently had the trees in our backyard trimmed, and we had several trees cut down because they interfered with the power lines and our roof. We don't anticipate damage to our home or power lines due to trees.
We'll keep you informed as things go through. If our cell phones don't work, we'll try to reach you by email if our cable connection holds. If our power is out, we'll probably only post updates to our family website at http://TheMacklins.net , so I'd check here.
Please pray for us, but don't worry for us. We'll be careful and safe. Julie should be fine in her location, but I'm sure she'll keep you up-to-date.
Much love -- Paul, Angie, and Dakota
Musician in the Making?
Posted by Paul Macklin
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 09:16 pm CDT
For the past week or so, I've been holding Dakota while playing the piano (right hand only). Music has always been soothing for her, and she will often fall asleep after about 20-30 minutes of this.
Today, I sat her upright on my knee facing the piano, with her arms down on the keyboard. She did a great job of supporting her head and looking up, as though watching the music (J.S. Bach's Wohltempiertes Klavier). ( pic here )
She did manage to press down on the keys with her fists a little, although she doesn't quite have the strength to press them down very hard. I also played a bit in front of her, to show her how fingers touch the keys to make sound. It was really cool--later on, when I rested her hands on the keyboard again, she uncurled her fists, spread her fingers out a bit on the keys, and even drummed them a little. I was so proud! It was a some great father-daughter playtime. We'll definitely continue to bring music into her life. Perhaps we'll have a new pianist in the future one day. She's so smart, I'm sure she'll be a much better musician much earlier!
Great Fun!
Posted by Paul Macklin
Sunday, August 17, 2008 at 11:01 pm CDT
We had a pretty great weekend. My (not-so-) little brother Scott flew to visit us on Thursday after finishing his astronautical engineering internship in Colorado, so that he could meet our little lady. It was a great time. He stayed over Thursday night and had Pappasito's with us, then bussed to the med center with me the following day to tour around on the MetroRail and have lunch together at Cafe Soluna. I really enjoyed having him along!
On Saturday, Stephanie and A.J. (her boyfriend/amazing chef) arrived after driving from Nebraska. It was fantastic--we all met at Julie's place in Tomball and had a great evening in. I was really happy that Dakota was feeling up to the trip, so we could play "baby monster" together, let Scott hold her again before he flew out, etc. It was really nice having so much family together here in the Houston area!
Oh, and we bought a new car on Saturday--a whistler silver metallic 2008 Honda CR-V 2WD LX. We'll post more about the vehicle and how we settled on it later, but so far, we're really enjoying it--much easier to get Dakota's car seat in and out, and plenty of room for strollers, etc. Ahhhh, family life ... :-) We put about 40% down, so the monthly payments are pretty good. Again, more about that later.
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