What as week it has been. There have been plenty of opportunities to practice and embody Stoicism as I was taught.
As Seneca says often, one must study virtue and learn it, then train at and practice it, then it is strengthened by action. In Letter 94 he says, "Virtue depends partly upon training and partly upon practice; you must learn first, and then strengthen your learning by action." and in Letter 90 he says, "Virtue is not vouchsafed to a soul unless that soul has been trained and taught, and by unremitting practice brought to perfection."
We were on vacation at Bear Lake, Utah at a family reunion the week leading up to the 4th of July. After going to the South Texas Merchant Marine pleb-candidate send off on Saturday June 29, we went to bed that night after saying our goodbye to our 2nd-year mid-shipman who was leaving for Kings Point on Sunday June 30. We began our two day drive to Utah at 5am. After our two-day drive, we spent the week in Utah, enjoying the cold nights, brilliant summer days on the beach and in the blue and turquoise water. We visited relatives in Logan and Salt Lake, and my wife and I got a taste of what it would be like to live in the West again. We began contemplating what it would look like and what we would do if we were to transplant ourselves to Logan.
During the whole week, we kept our eye on Hurricane Beryl. As the end of the week approached, we saw the forecasts revised multiple times with each update moving the hurricane evermore eastward toward Texas and up the Gulf Coast. By Sunday, we knew it was going to hit Houston. We began our two-day drive back, stopping in Amarillo Sunday night. We went to bed knowing that when we woke up the next day, the hurricane would be on top of Houston. Our three pets were at home and a pet & house sitter was there, but nonetheless we were worried.
Day 1
Monday July 8 was our drive home from Amarillo to Houston. All morning long, we had KTRH streaming on iHeart. We were in contact with the pet & house sitter, but we also knew our dogs and cat (well, maybe not the cat) were stressed. Our one dog always gets super stressed with storms. Plus, we were anxious to get home to relieve the sitter and we could take on all the concern and worries. Power at the house went out at 4:39am Monday morning (based on time stamp data of my Ring cameras). The drive seemed longer. We dropped our oldest daughter off in Austin and then made our back into the greater Houston area. We stopped at Brenham, filled up and got some food, knowing we may not be able to get gas when we got into the city. Our neighbors checked on our home and said it was ok, but our back neighbor's tree fell into our yard, obliterated our shed, with our generator pinned under the tree.
The drive into our suburb was like a war zone. All traffic lights were out. There were hundreds of downed trees, some blocking the main roads, some smashed into homes or signs or power lines. We had to take many back roads and even back track a few times in order to get home. We arrived home in the late afternoon, with no power. We unpacked and then I started assessing damage and cleaning up the many limbs and branches all over our yard. I made a huge pile by the curbside of all the debris. Besides the fallen tree, there is one big branch hanging from one of our three mature trees, which has been snapped.
We began formulating a plan and determined that power would not be restored for quite some time. We went to bed that night with no AC or fans. But at least we were with the pets again and the home survived any major damage. Having gone through Hurricane Harvey, I knew the next few days or weeks would be difficult but perhaps more endurable than Harvey.
Day 2
Tuesday July 9 brought more planning and assessment of the situation. We determined that power would not come back anytime soon. We were living in Dallas during Hurricane Ike and from talking to neighbors who lived through Ike, they said it was two weeks before power was restored. In fact, our neighbors almost made it sound like it was just a two week party of BBQs and watching college football with TVs hooked up to generators. We decided that my wife and youngest would take the pets to Austin to stay with my oldest for the week. They packed up Tuesday morning, emptied the fridges and left by late morning. I got up early morning and logged into work via my cell phone's hot spot. I read a few emails and updated my team. I was stuck in our suburb with potential blockages on roads and only a quarter tank of gas. I decided to go hunting for any gas I could find.
No gas in our suburb. No gas in adjacent towns. No gas up the freeway. I kept driving hoping for one gas station, thinking that maybe there would be power in outlying areas. But none were open. After driving almost an hour, I rolled into a town and decided to park at an H-E-B and wait. I wasn't sure if I had enough gas to get back home. As I watched the constant flow of cars roll by, it felt surreal. Many of them were looking for gas too. I ended up talking to a gentlemen who was stuck. He had no choice but to wait as his truck was bone-dry. He had driven up to Livingston to help his ex-wife and now he was headed back to San Antonio, but needed gas. There was another gentlemen who pulled up while we were talking and he came from the same suburb as the one I live in. He was doing the same thing as me - just looking to fill up. I wondered if I should attempt the drive home. I did some rough calculations in my head and decided that worse case scenario, I run out of gas very near home or in my suburb. So I trekked back home and drove below the speed limit. I made it back all the way home with a needle just above E.
I decided I was going to be stuck home the whole week, unless my daughter's car had some gas in it. After I got home, I checked her van (it is the old family van) and she had a full tank! My plan then pivoted to driving into work (which has power and connectivity) and maybe even just sleep in the van or find a place to sleep at work.
After getting all packed, the sun set. It is an eerie experience to be in a dark, hot home all alone. I lit the candles and sad down to
Day 3
Wednesday July 10 actually wasn't that bad. Things seemed to be more normal at work. It was nice to be in AC again and be connected. I logged in threw myself into work. Since I had been out a week, there was a lot to catch up on. We had a team member who recently left our group, and there was a going-away lunch that day. We ate lunch at the Island Grill and it had a really nice vibe with natural lighting, good food and lots of people. It felt good to have some normalcy again.
I worked the rest of the day, and when I came to a stopping point, I logged off, went to a conference room and logged onto my personal computer and began working on school. Since there was nothing to go home to, I stayed at work until around 9pm. Then I decided to drive home and go to bed. The home was stale and warm. Cell phone reception was spotty at best and I couldn't even access anything on my phone. I lit a candle, laid on the floor and read Meditations.
Eventually I went to bed, but it was a challenge with no air flow and no sound machine.
Day 4 & 5
Thursday July 11 and Friday July 12 were pretty much a repeat of Wednesday. Getting up was easy, because I was motivated to shower and cool off. I drove to work and was there by 5:30am; I worked all day, studied school after work and then drove home to a restless sleep.
Thursday night, after wrapping up my studies, I went to Island Grill again and had a nice meal and watched the Astros game on TV. That was memorable and was a very nice reprieve from reality.
Friday was different when I got home that night. We had power again! Unfortunately, the AC would not kick on, so the house remained quite warm at 83 degrees, but at least I had some air flow from the ceiling fans. I called Jill and told her the power was back on and she said they would drive home on Saturday.
Day 6 & 7
Saturday July 13 we had the AC tech come out, but he discovered there was no power flowing to the furnace unit and we needed and electrician to come out and troubleshoot it. Jill and Camille and the pets came home later in the day and began prepping for their trip to Belize. I contacted our electrician and he said he would come out later that day. But he never showed and wasn't responding to texts.
On Sunday July 14, I took them to the airport and then started calling and texting any electrician who could come check on our AC. I found one and he was on his way when the power went out again! But thankfully it came back on about 30 minutes later. The electrician and his wife showed up, I told them the issue and they began troubleshooting. He discovered the wire from the main panel to a subpanel was not rated correctly and burn it to a crisp. He put a joiner or something on it and fixed it. Power came back, the AC kicked on and things finally began to turn normal again.
Beyond
The following week, I made contact with several tree services to remove the fallen tree in our back yard. Some wanted to charge me $5000, others $2000, but we finally found two that would do it for $1000. They cut it and hauled it to the curb. Price gouging is definitely a thing.
There are piles of dead trees and branches on every street. Some homes needed to bring in cranes to reach up to the fallen trees embedded into homes. It will be months before the rest of the city returns to normal. We had a couple stop by our home asking what work they could provide to our yard. I asked them to give me a quote to haul off the three massive piles on my yard and they said they could do it, along with breaking down and hauling off our smashed shed for under $500. Next up will be fence repair.
As of July 22, there are no hurricanes on the horizon, but even if we get to the end of July, we'll have another solid 60 days of prime hurricane weather.
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