What I did on my Summer Vacation

Three years ago we went down to South Padre Island with my family as we had the year before. We wanted to make it a tradition and we thought, "to hell with Hurricane Emily." Before hitting the Yucatan peninsula, Emily was a Category 5. By the time it hit SPI, it was barely a Category 1 Hurricane.

Everyone deserted the Island with the exception of us and some other fools. The fools won out that day as Emily came and went with some wind (matched by my Dad) and little damage. The rest of the vacation was great as were the huge waves generated by the storm.

This was Hurricane Emily before hitting SPI:


So this year we thought it would be even less so considering that Hurricane Dolly started out as a tropical storm BEFORE hitting the Yucatan. Obviously, we were wrong:

In case you can't tell, Dolly is tighter and more dense. You can look at the eye for scale.

Dolly stalled out in the Gulf some 30 miles off the coast and just sat there gaining strength and then moved in slowly as a Category 2. By that time, we didn't have power and didn't know enough to leave. We were also asleep at the time.

Here are some of the things we saw on our way off the Island after the storm had passed. The sun even came out for a bit that morning.

The Stripes will never be the same again. This happened to every single Stripes on the Island and every gas station that used the same tin, umbrella-like roof.

I've never seen a traffic light on the ground, it was big.

This was not the only power line pole that was snapped like this.

More power line poles. Electricity is not supposed to be restored to the Island for weeks. That is the only reason we left.

Don't let the light fool you, it had stopped raining by then. I was too hungover to worry much, but after we got passed the bridge, Port Isabel and State Highway 100 with no problems, we figured we were solid.

Sadly No!

US 83 was flooded in Weslaco, which is about 20 miles East of McAllen. To make matters worse, the dumbasses were turning traffic away into flooded frontage roads with no detour. Luckily, my parents, who were headin up this convoy, figured out that Business 83, which ran along the railroad would probably be safe so they tried that. Because of spotty cell phone reception, we didn't get the message for some time so we were 5 miles East of my parents. We drove through 2.5 feet floodwaters in our Toyota Camry with water splashing onto the windshield from slow moving school buses going the other way. That was the end of my hangover.

Today, I barely even remember the perfect 3 days we had before the storm came. Maybe better luck next year. Until then, I'll leave you with an image that will convince you never to take a dog to the beach (which we didn't do).


This is from our backyard.

Hello gentle readers

We just got back from vacation and we should post about South Padre Island, the World Cup, the Gladys Porter Zoo, our anniversary, but none of that is nearly as interesting as our adventures over the past two days.

Yesterday, my boss handed me a clipping from the newspaper about a certain gubernatorial candidate making a stop in Abilene.



As expected the Jewish cowboy attracted an eclectic group of 50 or so people, everyone of whom was wondering why the person next to them lived in Abilene. We were the only delegates from our small county.

I felt compelled to buy something so he'd have something to sign. I bought Roadkill, but if Adam hadn't of asked for it back I would have had When the Cats away on hand.

M also bought some salsa.

Note by M:
I've met the man and I still have NO IDEA for whom I should vote in a few short months. I am excited though that for once I won't be voting against a particularly bad candidate...I can actually vote for a good one! I just don't know who that is yet.

Today, M came with me and my boss to Granbury on business. It was my first on location archival survey. It was also DM's first trip on one of these.


As you can see, we had a great time in this 4-seater despite it being smaller than a suburban.


We had to wear those headsets to talk to each other. The ride home was in a different plane that allegedly had air conditioning. We had to ride sitting backward this time and because of afternoon heat columns, I nearly lost my lunch, though I maintained my manly composure.

Note by M:
I kept an eye out for telltale piles of dirt near the airplane hangers, but it looks like the Night Flier hasn't recently visited the Metroplex or its surrounding areas.

For those interested in our vacation (Mom), we took a trip down to South Padre Island where the waves were lame compared to last year's hurricane Emily steroid charged waves. We watched a lot of World Cup and really got into it, well the guys got into it. The girls were watching the games through pornographic lenses (M doesn't dig soccer players the way a fellow female watcher did). I wasn't really pulling for any particular team, but it was really exciting when someone scored. My zeal for World Cup took me far beyond the vacation all the way to the headbutt heard 'round the world.

We also went to the Zoo for the benefit of my 3 year old nephew, who thankfully, is well behaved. Since the Valley's climate is quite similar to that of most tropical and African animals, the Gladys Porter Zoo is, in my opinion, one of the best zoos. The animals rarely have to be caged due to weather so there is the maximum of space used for a realistic habitat. Our nephew mostly liked the snakes. I liked this biotch.

Kinda reminds me of Contra. (And yes, those are its phosphorescent young writhing on its back.)

For our anniversary, we got to spend a quiet evening alone at a nice restaurant followed by fireworks...no not those kind, we had to share our room...and the walls were thin. I could hear my dad snoring through the walls in the condo next door. But seriously, its been 5 years! Some of you were there, some of you (well one) were not yet born, and thankfully none of you are now deed!

M note:
According to the book How to Lie With Statistics we have lasted longer than half the newlywed population. Now if only we could update our blog more often!