Lining up for a trip to Mexico City

Not somewhere that is on my list of desirable places to visit but... seems I'll be spending the week of October 6th to 10th in Mexico City running another iteration of the class I taught in Melbourne and Singapore.

There are also classes lined up for late October in Tel Aviv and mid-November in Moscow. I had asked to not travel for the end of October and all of November due to impending grandfatherhood. So these will be conducted by a team member who is based in Tel Aviv.

September 20, 21: We have acheived normality

Not too much to say about the weekend. Saturday was consumed by laundry catch up and cleaning. Sunday was ... normal. Except for delivering the generator to some friends' house.

Still debris piles everywhere. And power is still off two blocks from our house.

Note: I'm doing some throw-down blog posts to outline the events of the last three weeks. Details will follow as I have time to load pictures and do the writing.

September 14 to 19: The days without power

Quick sketch:

Neighbor Don gave us a line from his generator so we rescued the contents of the refrigerator. Water, including hot water, remained on but for several days we were warned to boil before consuming it. Gas range and propane barbecue grill got a workout.

Heavy rains on Sunday as a cool air mass moved in. After the rain drained away the air turned cool and dry. Major blessing!

Cleanup and stacking of debris on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

"Meat cooking night" on ... Tuesday? Had neighbors over to help consume the steaks that had thawed. Multiple bottles of wine. Met back fence neighbor for the first time.

Back to work on Thursday and Friday. Offices are on west side of Houston, no damage and power off for only a day or so.

Alice declared "Day 6 is the day it got old". Broke down and bought a generator on Day 6, Don's family due back Saturday.

As we were having a somewhat hang-dog dinner figuring on several more days in the dark and heat, power came back on Friday, Day 7.

Loaned the generator to friends. They went without power for 11 days total. Aryn was without power for 10 days.

Note: I'm doing some throw-down blog posts to outline the events of the last three weeks. Details will follow as I have time to load pictures and do the writing.

Saturday September 13: final journey home

When I wake up about 8am, Ike is still pounding the Houston area.

After much deliberation and against the advice of some friends I decide I'll leave about 1pm. There is a curfew announced for home at 6pm. In normal traffic the drive would be 3 hours. Nothing is normal.

I get cash, will be handy in the no-power zone of home. And for the same reason I do two loads of laundry at the hotel. After two weeks out, I'm carrying nothing but dirty clothes and no idea when we'll have power to wash them once I leave. If I had been thinking a bit more clearly there's other stuff I should have gotten.

The drive home is totally normal. Traffic going in to Houston is light. I pass a number of disaster relief convoys. National Guard, HEB grocery store, ServiceMaster cleaning service. Not even a drop of rain until I get within maybe 30 miles of Houston. Ike has moved on.

The inbound I-10 close to Houston is supposed to be under water according to the local newstalk radio. I press on figuring I'll see cars coming the wrong way at some point. But I get all the way to the exit for my daughter's place.

Lots of trees down in various places. Power is spotty. One intersection will be normal, next one the light will be dark and people trying to figure out how to do a 4-way stop.

At my daughter's I find Alice, the cat, and the greyhounds. Also Aryn's mother-in-law stayed with them with her two cats and a dog. So 4 people, 4 cats, 3 dogs.

We convoy home, I drop the mother-in-law and her part of the menagerie. Alice finds about a mile of power lines down in the road between the freeway and our house. Hope those don't bring juice to our house.

We find the neighborhood looks ... just like a hurricane struck it. Lots of fences down. Power out. Some damage to homes here and there but nothing very bad. Our house has a few shingles off and some water blew in around some of the front windows. The house has a lot of MDF trim instead of real wood. Water causes it to swell up so it's clear which window sills got water.

We have water service but it's not declared safe to drink without boiling. Landline non-digital, old no-power-required phones work. Cell service sucks. Closest neighbor has a generator running. His family evacuated to her mother's place in Mississippi. He gives us an extension cord's worth of electricity to run the fridge.

Sleep with windows open in the heat and humidity.

Friday September 12: The race for home

My trek started at 3am Friday morning, Singapore time, when the alarm rang. Flight was at 6am.

It's easier to do this one all in Houston Time as I was covering 13 time zones and a crossing of the dateline again. So 6am Friday the 12th in Singapore is 5pm Thursday the 11th in Houston.

Projected path of Ike looks to have dead aim on Houston and right over our house. My planned landing in Houston is 4:20pm on Friday the 12th with the last leg being straight down from Minneapolis. Talked to Alice again. Then in line to board I overhear a guy saying he's heading for Houston and that the airport will close at 2pm on Friday. Not good.

Seven hours to Narita airport, Tokyo arriving about midnight Thursday night Houston time. At the connections desk I book a flight to Austin instead of Houston. They can't assign a seat. Bad sign.

Ten hours to Minneapolis, arriving about noon (Houston and Minneapolis time) Friday. After customs, at the baggage recheck, I have to sort out somewhere to send my bags that will match up with where they can get me. Can't get a seat to Austin but seems I can to San Antonio. After security and checkin to the flight, I talk to Alice. Plan is for me to get to San Antonio and use a one-way car rental to get to Houston. Projections for Ike have moved east a bit, which is good. Puts most of Houston including our place on the "dry side". Called Hertz to get the rental car set up.

Bit over a three hour flight from Minneapolis to San Antonio, arriving 5-ish. It's now been 24 hours since I took off in Singapore. Ambien-forced sleep on the ten-hour leg but still exhausted. Also starving, NWA is a per-for-snacks airline and I'm cashless. Never took time in Mpls to get money or food. Have multiple voicemails from Alice. Trying to get bags and listen to them is beyond my capabilities so I wait until I have my bags and my rent-car agreement and can sit down.

Gist of very long voicemails is that they don't want me driving in to Houston at this point. I'd arrive about 9pm and the outer edges of the storm are already causing rain. What we'll find out at some point is that the inbound freeways were being closed at 6 or 7pm. Aryn has been online and rented me a hotel room at a Holiday Inn Express in San Antonio. Damn good thing she did that or I'd've had to sleep in the car. San Antonio hotels are bursting with evacuees. Alice and I talk some more. Aryn has "bullied" her into coming up to their place. That puts everyone together, a few miles further from the coast, and in a more protected location. I find the hotel and check in. Then we talk some more. I'm really not sure this is the right thing. Really wanting food, water, and to get on the road home to be with them.

I get talked out of leaving but still feel guilty for being in a comfortable hotel room while they get pounded by Ike. I walk across the street and get pizza. Want beer but there's none handy and I'm not feeling like driving anywhere so I settle for a big lemonade. Settle in front of TV on the Weather Channel until maybe 10 or 11. Then a full belly and exhaustion overrides worry and I get a little sleep. Miles calls at 1am. A bit after that I get a couple of texts from my daughter. Power just out there. Wind and rain whipping.

After a bit I take an Ambien so I can sleep. Drive to Houston tomorrow.

Updated: Added screen grab from radar archive. Houston at 2am on Sept 13.

September 8 to 11: Teaching class in Singapore

Late night arrival. Albert Court no jewel but clean and close to office. Hot & humid. Flying solo on the class this time. 16 students. Would have been more but the room wouldn't hold them. Eyeballing track for Ike as the week wore on. Really hating travel during hurricane season. By the time class ended Thursday evening it's obvious Ike and I are in a race for the Gulf Coast.

Talked to Alice early morning Thursday her time. Also called the kid for her birthday. Nervousness all around.

Note: I'm doing some throw-down blog posts to outline the events of the last three weeks. Details will follow as I have time to load pictures and do the writing.

Sunday September 7: Travel day

Time to leave Sydney. Me for Singapore, co-instructor for home. So of course it's a stunningly beautiful spring day in Sydney. Absolutely perfect. We walked two blocks from the hotel into the side of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Saw huge number of giant bats. About a two-hour leisurely walk down to water's edge, along the water to the Opera House, up to Circulay Quay, and a couple blocks on up to the hotel again. Off to the airport at noon.

Note: I'm doing some throw-down blog posts to outline the events of the last three weeks. Details will follow as I have time to load pictures and do the writing.

Saturday September 6: Saturday in the park... in the rain

Free day in Sydney. Co-instructor had been to Australia about 10 or 15 years ago (touring in a band!). He needed pics of the Opera House. Started out with shopping in the QVB, then subway to Circular Quay. Absolutely pissing down rain the whole day. I found out my little windbreaker isn't much good in true rain. Sat in the hotel bar nursing some Australian Pinot Noir most of the afternoon.

Note: I'm doing some throw-down blog posts to outline the events of the last three weeks. Details will follow as I have time to load pictures and do the writing.

Friday September 5 Customer visits

Co-instructor and I flew to Sydney on Thursday evening. Travel inside Australia is like a flashback to ten years ago. You show up at the airport, walk thru the metal detector, and get on the airplane. The only thing that had to come off or out for inspection was the laptop. No removing of shoes. No pulling out of the baggie of liquids and gels. I remember when it was this easy at home.

We're at a Sofitel again in Sydney. The Sofitel in Melbourne is much nicer than the Sofitel Wentworth in Sydney. The rooms are crackerboxes

The entire day Friday was devoted to customer visits. It drizzled on us almost the whole day. Except when it was downright pouring. I had an umbrella until the wind between buildings turned it inside out.

This is the day that filled me with angst. I'm still a pretty introverted person and my job is slowly sliding me into stuff that has been outside my comfort zone. Doing sales calls, even in a technical role, is right out there. But it actually went quite well.

September 1 to 4 Teaching class in Melbourne

From Monday through Thursday I taught a about some of our software products. I had a co-instructor for this run, someone with more experience with the main subject of the class than I have had. It was a nice, small class of eight students. All very involved and asking good questions.

And that's about it. Really. Here I am in Melbourne, Australia for the first, possibly only time. What do I see? Hm... The hotel, one block walk to the office, a food court where we eat lunch, the conference room where we do the class, and a handful of restaurants. When I have the chance on these trips, I'll stay in the city for a weekend to get a chance to see some sights. But for this one, we're booked on a flight to Sydney Thursday night so we can do customer visits there on Friday. Melbourne looks like a really nice place, though. I hope I get back some day.

Couple of pictures. The top one is a nice sunrise out the hotel window, which is where I took almost all my pictures in Melbourne. Hot air balloons seem to be a popular advertising medium. Several would drift across the city early in the morning. I'd see them out my hotel window. I guess they were advertising.

September 1 is the official first day of spring in Australia. No worrying about the equinoxes for them. The park that our classroom/conference room overlooked has trees planted in the shape of the Union Jack. All done back when they were a colony, of course. You can make out sort of part of it in the picture. It's the trees that haven't yet leafed out.