Long Time, No Posts...

Well, life has done it again; distracted me with all of the general stuff and kept me from posting to this blog. Since I last posted, I've cut down half of a tree for my Mother-in-law, replaced a large section of my fence and worked with my team at work to win the Halloween trophies for Best Decorations and Best Food.

I have also been swamped with things to review, both in games and movies. Currently, I'm trying to get the GameVor'Plex in shape for Thanksgiving, which means clearing the floors so that our new Roomba can ferret about doing our dirty work and then cleaning everything besides the floor.

As before, I will try to post more frequently, if only so I can refer back to this to try to remember what in the heck I've been up to.

Till next time...

oO , oO, oO, oO, stayin' alive, stayin' alive...

I seem to have weathered the storms, but, in the process, ended up under the weather, myself.

We had to tie everything down for Hurricane Gustav's arrival, and then cross our fingers and watch the news intently for Hurricane Ike's passing. Baton Rouge got some heavy winds and rain and even lost some street lights - and Ike didn't even hit us. That storm was massive. At one point, I remember hearing the reporter on the radio say that it was dropping rain as far north as Mississippi and as far south as Cancun, Mexico. That's HUGE.

Luckily, the GameVorplex didn't take any damage. We were out of power, cable and, therefore, touch for a while, but the only threat of property damage hangs in the balance in the form of a huge branch that is broken and hanging over my office. For the moment, I can't find a way to get up to the limb to remove it (30 feet up), so JRNip and I used several ropes to secure it in place, Spidey-style. Hopefully, that will catch the limb or slow it down sufficiently if I can't get someone out to take care of the limb before it falls.

We did, however, lose some fish to the storms. My beautiful blue Betta, Dudey, had a recurrence of "velvet," but due to lighting conditions, I didn't realize that it had returned until too late. I started an antibiotic treatment, but it was too late. Also among the lost was a new small blue fish that we assume Fluff ate when it actually got completely dark when the power was out (you see, he is a nocturnal predator and the other fish, well, wasn't) and our beloved lawnmower blenny, Milton, who did a great job of keeping the tanks clean for so long, but was found one day after the storm, missing his head. We're not sure if the decapitation was causal or postmortem, but we will miss him. Without electricity to keep the tanks cooled during the day, the temperature will rise in the house during the day and will raise the temp in the tanks, as well. With increased temperature comes increased aggression, in fish, just as in people. Think about that next time it's a hot summer and you're biting someone's head off.

Battening down the hatches...

So it's been a while since we've really had a bad hurricane barrel right down on us. The last one that affected me was Katrina, although I was lucky; Rita did a good bit of damage that same year.

Now, it looks like Mother Nature may just be making up for lost time. Hurricane Gustav is headed straight for us with all of the computer models in general consensus that it's not turning until after it's made landfall. And, it's not a small, wimpy storm; it's currently a Category 4 storm, and it's waltzing through the Gulf, which gives it the opportunity to gain strength before its arrival, which, according to the forecasts, is due to mess my life up this Monday. Happy Labor day! I brought you some rain and wind! Ug.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it looks like Gustav has a girlfriend that may be showing up to the party, albeit a few days later. Hanna is currently a tropical storm, but it appears that she is making a bee-line towards the Gulf of Mexico. I am personally hoping that either she changes course or Florida knocks the wind (and rain) out of her. We really don't need a couple of hurricanes within a week of each other. That's just poor scheduling.

For anyone who was afraid that I might climb up a tree and cut my limbs off, I wasn't able to go into Harahan, due to traffic from people evacuating. Hopefully the tree won't fall into my Mother-in-Law's house before I can get down there and remove it. I did, however, spend all day today and yesterday preparing my house and my neighbor J.R. Nip's house for the coming hurricane. I had to round up all of the small things that were outside and put them in storage, and take all of the larger things, such as outside furniture, and put them all close together in my carport and cable them all together so they won't go flying out of my yard. Will that work? I dunno... it worked last time, but time will tell. I have about one more day of preparation and about one more day before it hits, so it should work out. I'm also trying to get as much of my reviews and other site work done while I still have power and Internet access, as these become scarce commodities when a hurricane hits.

Until later, this is the Geck0, signing off.

Gustav, the unwelcomed caller...

...Then I'll huff and I'll puff and...

Well, we've managed to dodge the bullets pretty well since Katrina ripped New Orleans so badly. Unfortunately, Tropical Storm Gustav is looking like he wants to go to Louisiana when he grows up...

...and they grow up so fast, these days.

Where does that leave me? Well, hoping that the storm is small, waving my hands in the hopes of shooing it to one of our neighboring states, stocking up on batteries and canned goods that taste good cold (yum... green bean salad) and planning a trip to scale and cut down (from the top-down) a tree in my Mother-in-law's back yard.

Yup, these sort of things end up my responsibility, as they are no one else's, yet must be done. So, I have a brand-new Ryobi rechargeable chainsaw, a protective hat with a visor, some rope to help pull limbs and tree parts away from me and I'll be renting an extension ladder to do the job. It's looking like it's going to be Friday or Saturday, weather permitting.

If you never hear from me again... well, it might be that I'm bad about updating blogs.

Until later, this geck0 has to prepare to climb a tree.