Weekend Update #3

Let's start with Friday on this one!

Friday at work: This past Friday had to be one of the best days at work that I have had since before I moved to China! Sorry I can't be any more detailed than that here, but let's just leave it as one for the record books!
This only got better when I received a call from our builder, which leads to the next subject!

The Home: The builder called on Friday evening and let me know that he was able to be there when they did the geological survey of our property. The expert's recommendation is to start building!!!! The sink hole thingy, in their opinion, is an anomaly caused by heavy rains due to a small crack in the lime rock shelf that they couldn't even see on the Ground penetrating radar. the shelf itself runs across the entire property about 20ft down. They see no threat to the site that we chose to build on! The builder is going to line up the mason's to start working on the foundation and the clock has started, Hooray!!!

Harley and Me: The heat this past weekend was pretty stifling so we didn't put in too many miles. What we did do was meet up with our friends and rode to a place called Charlie's Throttle Stop for lunch. I had the opportunity to try the "Sweet Southern Burger" which is a cheese burger using a sliced "Crispy Creme" donut as the bun! It's totally wrong for you , but oh so tasty!

Chillin' with Lightnin': Sunday was spent inside with AC just chillin' and doing laundry to get ready for the week ahead.

Weekend Update #2

This past weekend we had some hot and humid Florida style weather which led to some pretty vicious storms.

I met up with our friends Julie and Rick to try to go to the Schutzenfest at Kolping on Saturday. After this blew in we decided to wait and give it another try on Sunday!
We tucked the bikes in out of the hail zone just in case!


Much better
Obviously before I talked them into trying the limburger cheese!



Release the hounds! (sorry for the blur)











It was a fun time and would have only been better if Lightnin would have been here too. She'll be flying back into town tonight and I can't wait to get an update from her on the situation down in the G of M!

Gulf Oil Update, They Capped the Well!

Hip, Hip, Hooray! They capped the well!

Yes this is still only a temporary fix and there is still much work to be done, but it's still the best news we've had in the past 88 days!

They'll have to vent it somehow to relieve pressure before they make the final tap into the vein with the relief wells or else the pressure on them would put us right back where we started.

I'll be watching intently until it's capped off permanently!

PS: From Lightnin

All-

There will be many pictures and maybe even a video or two when I return! It's been an awesome experience to work and mingle with the locals to see first-hand the extent of the devastation here in the Gulf. I'll get back to ya'll after the 19th! Take care!

Weekend Update!

Not much to report, but here goes:

Gulf Oil Crisis - If you watched the news then you probably know that they are trying to place a new cap on the gusher, let's hope this one works! Lightnin is still down there doing her part to keep the clean-up crews safe. If you get CMT then hopefully you caught the Jimmy Buffet benefit concert last night.

Lumber Dave (Who's this Jack guy?) - Saturday morning I had a chance to help out our friends Julie and Rick stocking up on some firewood! One of their neighbors had dropped a bunch of trees, pulled them out of the woods and dumped 'em in a stack. It was sort of a game of log climbing, twister, and "chess with a chainsaw", but we cleared out quite a little bit of the pile of logs. Next comes splitting and rumor has it that we'll pit man against machine!

Harley and Me - The weather was nice enough that I was able to put in a couple of hundred miles again this weekend. Unfortunately with Lightnin down at the G of M I'm temporarily without "Helmet Cam" capability so I didn't get any photos.

The House - Looks like we'll get the geological survey completed in the next couple of weeks, so depending on the outcome we might actually do ground breaking in about a month!

That's about it for this past weekend, I'll try to get some sort of photography to add to next weekend's update.

Update on the Gulf Oil

Lightnin hasn't been able to get on line to send pictures from her camera, but she has been able to send a few from her cell phone/camera. the quality is not as good on some of these, but you should be able to get the idea.

Here's Lightnin sporting her stylish safety gear, but more importantly is to look over her left shoulder (to the right in the picture) and you'll see the "Floating City" where most of the clean-up personnel are living during this operation.

Schmoopy's restaurant in Dulac, LA; evidence of the flooding caused by the storms over the past few days

Here's a mural on the wall of a building near Grand Isle, LA displaying the sentiments of the area.











That's what I have for now! She's hoping to get some pictures of the "Sandboni's" that are being used to help clean up the beaches.

My Source(s) on The Gulf Oil Crisis

Some of you may already be aware, but Lightnin has been deployed to the Gulf of Mexico to do what she can to help keep the workers performing the clean-up efforts safe from harmful exposure!

I'm proud of this for several reasons the most compelling is because she is able to at least do something to help!
I don't think I can remember a time when I have felt so frustrated at the fact that I do not have the ability or opportunity "Do" anything about a situation that will likely directly affect me in the long run. So it feels good to know that at least Lighnin has been given the opportunity to "Do" something!

I also wanted to share some photos of oil that washed up on the shores of Fort Pickens Beach, near Pensacola Beach. (These photos were provided by another source who will remain anonymous at least for now)

The pen as a reference hlps to determine the size of the globs found, I'd estimate this one to be about the size of a human hand
This bottle demonstrates how the crude will coat and adhere to just about any surface
















I'm afraid that these are merely small signs of what is to come for the Gulf Coast!

With my sources spread out: Lightnin in Louisiana, Anonymous on Pensacola Beach, and my good friend FC covering the waters around Cedar Key, I should be able to keep you all posted on what's happening where over the next few weeks.

Fourth of July Weekend 2010

This 4th of July please remember to fly your flag proudly to display our Independence. Take time to remember those that have given the ultimate sacrifice tho preserve our freedom and the American way of life. Give thought to those who are currently out there performing their duties to protect it!

Have fun, celebrate, and be safe!

God Bless America!