Friday, September 19, 2008

Our Pre-Hurricane Ike Drama

With a lot of family and friends in Houston, we've had plenty of Ike news and coverage. We're in Aggieland and our city was an oasis of electricity in the aftermath. The kids didn't even seem to notice the storm outside.

The Wednesday before the storm hit, Hubby and I went down with a chainsaw to cut the tree branches that had grown onto my parents' roof. We thought three limbs, one hour, and poof, we'd be done and on the road again. Hubby was sick and his last patient of the day had shown up a half-hour late so it was a bad start to the trip. I had added the cost of the chainsaw rental, gas to travel, and food for the road and came to conclusion that these three lousy limbs were gonna cost me $35 each to get cut. *grumble grumble*

Instead we were met with a jungle covering half their roof! My dad also kept pointing out spots we shouldn't step so we didn't fall through the roof. After three hours of heavy labor, we still weren't done but had to go home. Instead of one tree and three limbs, there were three trees that needed to be cut back plus two more that it wouldn't hurt to include. We cut and hauled in the dark until a pile 6ft high and as long as the drive was piled onto the street.

To ad insult to injury, heavy garbage wouldn't pick up the limbs the next morning as planned because they weren't cut into perfect three foot section and bundled. That morning, as Houston woke up and realized a big, nasty hurricane was bearing down on them, the tree cutters were suddenly swamped with calls. To get those branches removed, I had to call a dumpster hauling company and pay them $200. Well, it was my little brother who pulled the cash out of his summer savings account to pay the workers. I did promise to pay him back though.

Our work was enough that the side of the house roof didn't suffer any ripped off shingles. Darn! Considering how bad of condition the roof was in, I wish I had just let the hurricane finish it off and get it replaced under insurance!