rain, rain, and more rain

I woke up this morning to cloudy skies and light rain. Now it's raining even harder. I have an appointment with a client later in the day, and I hope it slacks up by then.

Unfortunately, we're expected to receive scattered thunderstorms all day today.

Now, the bad news: as long as it rains and the rivers are above normal flow levels, we stay here completing reports.

Oh well.

Cloudy skies

It's not a tornado, but it sure looked like one. As I went into the store, everyone came out looking up at it. Sorta like if Superman had of flown by. The really neat thing is that the winds were pretty still, there was very little rain, and nothing was being mentioned on the weather station.

Pretty cool.

Where am I?

Uh, yea. Where am I again?

What a day makes...

This was taken this morning. Overnight, the price fluctuated that much. Also, note that they advertise the Super Unleaded for 3.59. That's the cheapest. The regular unleaded is actually $0.10 more and the premium is $0.20 higher.

Things aren't so bad...

This was taken this morning (8/8/08) here at the gas station just outside of my hotel... And at those prices, it only took $33 to fill up my rental. That is probably 1/3 of what it costs for my regular vehicle.

Update #2 from Iowa

I left the JFO (joint field office) this morning heading for my assignment here in Clear Lake, Ia. Don't let the name fool you, it's not that pretty. It's an old town, quite small, and doesn't have a whole lot of highlights, but there's plenty of work to be done here.

On my way, I passed my first windmill farm. Personally, I thought it was very neat, and I didn't mind seeing them from the roadway. For those that protest them, well, I welcome them.

(I'll work on the photo quality next time)

Oh, I would post a picture of my new hotel, but believe it or not, it's too dark for the camera. It's a Super 8. I have a double bed, a recliner, and a 3'x5' window. Part of my wall is actually underground. You can use your imagination on how it really looks. I move out Sunday!

-RH

Checking in from Iowa...

I'm checked in here in Iowa and am mostly settled. Currently, I'm in Des Moines, Ia, but that location could change. Some of the word coming in is that I'll possibly head up to Cedar Falls, Ia to help with work up there. That's about 2hrs from here and holds a whole lot more needed work than here in Des Moines.

I lucked out and found a good deal w/ the local Holiday Inn. A king bed, nice Phillips lcd tv, and a very large working desk. Not bad, especially since I'm only here to sleep. The neatest this is that they've only been open since March. Still practically brand new.
I couldn't makes these two photos in a panoramic with the software on this computer. Sorry, maybe Bethany will copy them and fix them for me :) These are two photos taking from the back door of my hotel. There's actually quite a bit out there, even if you can't see it. In the middle is the applebee's, followed by a red robin. Off to the left is the walmart, subway, and a mini mall with all kinds of other add ons.

This is just to the right and has the tjmaxx, office max, petland, kohls, and a few other little shops too. Behind them are about another dozen restuarants, lowes, and a home depot. This is quite the boooming little area.
Out the front door is the local country club golf course too. The only thing a non member can do is go to the driving range and I didn't bring my clubs.

I'll check in when I can next time.

-RH

Well, He's Off....

Well, I dropped Robert off at the airport this morning. He's on his way to Iowa to do some FEMA work for the next few months. We certainly will miss him. He reports tomorrow for work and will be working close to 70 hours a week. I will probably be hanging close to Montgomery while finishing up the last of the thesis work.....hopefully that won't be too much longer and I'll be back in Birmingham with a job. Robert will still have his same email address and phone number if anyone needs to get in touch with him or just wants to chat.

New Furniture

Robert and I have been holding off on buying new furniture for a while, but this weekend, friends of ours (Thanks Tamara and Dallas!!) were selling their furniture for a great price. They had to get rid of it, so we thought we'd take it off their hands :).

So...on Saturday, Robert and I made a day trip to go pick up the furniture and spend a quick afternoon and lunch with Tamara and Dallas and their family. Unfortunately, it rained for most of the day between Birmingham and Auburn, but we managed to pile the furniture up in the back of Robert's truck and get it covered up pretty well with a couple of tarps....we probably looked like the Beverly Hillbillies going down the road :).

We've only had a small amount of furniture in our living room for the past year and it seemed to fit pretty well...except we had a major lack of seating and no one likes sitting in the Papasan chair (kinda feels like the chair will tip you out). We now have a couch, loveseat and chaise lounge chair in our living room. It took us all day yesterday contemplating how we were going to get it to fit. Well here is the arrangement we came up with....I'm not sure if we love the way it is yet, but we'll leave it like this for a while to see if it grows on us.

rrring, rrring, rrring

Yea, I got the call.

Remember how we were thinking about going out on some field work for an extended amount of time, but weren't sure about anything? Well, the call came in for me to pack my bags. We're still unsure of the exact location and the exact date, but we know I'm going and we know it's soon.

We'll post more when we know it.

How hard is it to pump gas?

As I climbed into the truck this morning, I looked down and noticed I needed some gas to finish out the week. No big deal, right? Yea, wrong.

I pulled up to station #1, just as normal, when I noticed the pump was flashing "Card Error. Please Come In". As I thought nothing about it, I proceeded into the station to find nearly a dozen others in line waiting for the attendant to activate the pumps. I was already late, so I wasn't staying around.

I went next door to station #2. Something should have tipped me off as to why nobody was there at the pumps. As I pulled up to those, yea, they were out of gas. Every one of the handles had a bag over them, except the premium. Sorry, but I wan't paying that, $3.92 is bad enough!

So, on to station #3. I think everyone and their grandmother wanted gas, but luckily I didn't have to wait long. I went to activate the pump by swiping my card. I got a "card error. try again". So, trial #2, same thing. Trial #3, same thing. Now getting frustrated, I try once more and miraculously it worked finally....

So, after going to three different stations, spending 15mins putting around for gas, I was finally allowed to give up my check for 1/2 tank of gas. Not only is it getting expensive, but now they're just trying to see how bad we NEED it!

kayaking the coosa

We were a little spontaneous, and it seems it paid off pretty well. Friday afternoon, and finishing some yardwork, we decided we'd go on a whim and go kayaking down the Coosa river in Wetumpka, Al. Nothing too fancy, nothing too hard, and nothing that would take all day.


We called up a rental company, called a few friends and made our drive south to the rental check-in. After the basic safety talk, signing the waiver, and getting everyone together, we were in a bus and headed to Jordan Dam.

All in all, it took us close to 3 hours, we paddled almost 7mi, and had quite the fun. There were tons of boaters out and about floating, swimming, kayaking, and just sunbathing.

Definitely something that we'll try again!

Another Hike

This is a little old (6/28/08), but bear with me...

I met the scouts for one of their dayhikes around Lake Martin, while they were working on their backpacking merit badge. This trip was to knock out the 10mi requirement for the trip. We were to do 7mi at one set of trails, then move to another trailhead and wrap up the last three. This is how it went.

It was 76 degrees when we started at 8am. It stayed this way most of the hike.

We saw this little fuzzy guy just about as soon as we started. Unfortunately, he was right above a very large spider web.

Our hike bordered the shoreline of Lake Martin. We got to see several little rock formations and outcroppings like this throughout the hike. Pretty neat actually.

This was one outcropping, we could actually climb under...so we took a group photo!

We covered our first 7mi, then stopped for lunch at the trailhead before moving on to the second trail. During lunch, the rain began to fall, the thunderstorms showed up, and we had to bail out on the last 3mi. The bright side, the kids got the 5mi requirement.

Around the House

So, we are a little behind on updating things that have been going on around here, but we've been a little busy. Anyway, in between Charleston and New York, we figured we'd get a little bit done around the yard. The grass was getting a little high and the bushes were out of control. Also, my big pot was full of dead stuff. I figured it was time to dig up the dead stuff and add something new. Here is my creation....I even picked out the flowers myself since my mom was in New York and unable to help.

During our yard jobs, we went back and forth through the back gate, but on one trip through someone didn't latch it completely. We looked over and saw a couple of faces poking out to see how things were going.

After Robert trimmed up the bushes, I realized just how much I really don't like them, but I have no idea what we should put in their place. Any ideas?

The Charleston Wedding Part III

Ok, so after the usual sightseeing stuff, we had to return to the hotels and clean up for the rehearsal and the dinner. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get back, dressed, and ready to go. However, with about 10mins to go, Bethany makes the realization that the security tag was still attached to her dress and she didn't have an alternative...It took a few minutes of fighting, but the dress was spared and the tag was destroyed.

Well we got on our way, went to the church and did the typical routine of where we're standing and what we're doing.

A few more instructions, a few more practices, a whole lot of laughs, and we were done!
Then it was off to the rehearsal dinner at this cute litte bed and breakfast called The Posthouse.

We had a little time before dinner to sit and chat with the other groomsmen and have a good time.

It was at the rehearsal dinner that Emily gave Bubba his wedding gift. He owns a set of science fiction books that are near and dear to his heart.....if anyone touched them, they might not have a hand left :). Anyway, Emily was able to get in touch with the author's wife (the author had passed away), and she came to see Bubba that evening. He was sooo surprised. After dinner, we all went our separate ways until the next night.