The insurance adjuster looked at our house because of the hail damage, and totalled the roof and a few windows. This was actually surprising to me, because I don't see anything wrong with it. Whatever. You can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a roofing contractor. They're everywhere and they're making bank off this whole thing. The only reason we got an adjuster out here was because we've had several contractors come by the house and tell us our roof was ruined. We didn't believe them and thought they were just scammers, which of course they are, but they were right about the roof -- apparently. Because of the whole town being a disaster, etc., FEMA will even pay our $500 deductible. Sweet.
The van is finally done today. $3,300 damage to it. It'll be nice to have two cars again.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
My brother-in-law, Aaron, complained that I didn't have RSS for this blog. I had no idea you could do such a thing, so I think I enabled it now. I thought I'd post some follow up on the tornado adventure, as well.
Windsor is getting put back together at an amazing pace. The Mormon yellow shirts have been huge, on Sunday we had over 600 volunteers wearing yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" t-shirts (including Jordan and me). We had an early, short sacrament meeting in our jeans, and then straight to work. It was very impressive, and hard to miss all that yellow in the "zone". The entire scene of the disaster has changed for the better in just a few days. Crews of 10 each went door to door doing everything they could, removing debris, helping people move what was left out, doing heavy lifting.
One of my well-to-do friends who has two houses right now (he's selling one) offered one non-member family to move into his house. We did the move for them. This house is just huge, 7000 sq ft, pool, movie theater, and fully furnished -- brand new carpet and paint to help it sell. Offered it up to this family for as long as they need it. I think he's crazy, but he's a saint.
The church response has been amazing. The organization and the ability to pull together this many people, in teams, with supplies, is just mind-boggling. Many of the local companies are donating things directly to the Bishop. Lowe's, for instance, asked us what we needed -- total blank check, said they'd give us anything in the store. We asked "can we get a generator?" They gave us three - 5 KVA generators. We gave them a list of things we thought we'd need, they had that and more on a truck to us within hours. Chainsaw? They gave us 15 chain-saws. And they did this all directly to the church, because I think they really knew how this stuff would be used, and well. The National Guardsman mentioned, "you guys can get in anywhere with those yellow shirts." We had no problem moving about. No questions asked. The police, etc., were stopping everyone else.
600 of us. I can't tell you how impressed I was at our turnout. There were lots of volunteers from other organizations, etc., but nothing like this.
Julie stopped by one non-members house that had been damaged, parents of one of Lacey's friends at school, and asked if there was anything we could do. They said, "thanks, but your people have already been through here, cleaned up the whole cul-de-sac." It's also interesting to note that a few years ago these same people sort of stopped letting Lacey play so much with their daughter (they used to be best friends) because they learned we were Mormon.
I'm telling you, the organization of the Church alone is reason enough to at least consider that it might be divinely inspired. There's nothing else like it. It works in every imaginable case, from teaching the gospel, to providing disaster relief. It's just amazing. And it goes for the most part unheralded. The local preacher was giving a huge sermon on Sunday, talking about coming together and healing (yada yada yada) as a community, in front of cameras and news people, all the while others were out doing. The contrast was telling. The first counselor in the stake presidency had a chain saw and was piling downed trees onto his flat-bed trailer. Our Bishop was running what looked like the Normandy invasion out of his living room, with coolers and food available for all who passed through his house.
Anyway, tons of good stories out of this. This kind of thing is what kids remember years from now. It's been a great experience for all of us, and not having any power for a few days really brought us together (plus we wont have to go camping for a long while!)
I made a video documentary style of the incident with commentary from all the kids as to their own experiences. It turned out well. Maybe I'll post it on you-tube.
Windsor is getting put back together at an amazing pace. The Mormon yellow shirts have been huge, on Sunday we had over 600 volunteers wearing yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" t-shirts (including Jordan and me). We had an early, short sacrament meeting in our jeans, and then straight to work. It was very impressive, and hard to miss all that yellow in the "zone". The entire scene of the disaster has changed for the better in just a few days. Crews of 10 each went door to door doing everything they could, removing debris, helping people move what was left out, doing heavy lifting.
One of my well-to-do friends who has two houses right now (he's selling one) offered one non-member family to move into his house. We did the move for them. This house is just huge, 7000 sq ft, pool, movie theater, and fully furnished -- brand new carpet and paint to help it sell. Offered it up to this family for as long as they need it. I think he's crazy, but he's a saint.
The church response has been amazing. The organization and the ability to pull together this many people, in teams, with supplies, is just mind-boggling. Many of the local companies are donating things directly to the Bishop. Lowe's, for instance, asked us what we needed -- total blank check, said they'd give us anything in the store. We asked "can we get a generator?" They gave us three - 5 KVA generators. We gave them a list of things we thought we'd need, they had that and more on a truck to us within hours. Chainsaw? They gave us 15 chain-saws. And they did this all directly to the church, because I think they really knew how this stuff would be used, and well. The National Guardsman mentioned, "you guys can get in anywhere with those yellow shirts." We had no problem moving about. No questions asked. The police, etc., were stopping everyone else.
600 of us. I can't tell you how impressed I was at our turnout. There were lots of volunteers from other organizations, etc., but nothing like this.
Julie stopped by one non-members house that had been damaged, parents of one of Lacey's friends at school, and asked if there was anything we could do. They said, "thanks, but your people have already been through here, cleaned up the whole cul-de-sac." It's also interesting to note that a few years ago these same people sort of stopped letting Lacey play so much with their daughter (they used to be best friends) because they learned we were Mormon.
I'm telling you, the organization of the Church alone is reason enough to at least consider that it might be divinely inspired. There's nothing else like it. It works in every imaginable case, from teaching the gospel, to providing disaster relief. It's just amazing. And it goes for the most part unheralded. The local preacher was giving a huge sermon on Sunday, talking about coming together and healing (yada yada yada) as a community, in front of cameras and news people, all the while others were out doing. The contrast was telling. The first counselor in the stake presidency had a chain saw and was piling downed trees onto his flat-bed trailer. Our Bishop was running what looked like the Normandy invasion out of his living room, with coolers and food available for all who passed through his house.
Anyway, tons of good stories out of this. This kind of thing is what kids remember years from now. It's been a great experience for all of us, and not having any power for a few days really brought us together (plus we wont have to go camping for a long while!)
I made a video documentary style of the incident with commentary from all the kids as to their own experiences. It turned out well. Maybe I'll post it on you-tube.
Friday, May 23, 2008
This is the view from a friends house in Windsor, which got hit by the tornado. Our house is fine, thank goodness. It's a good long story about what we all went through, and I'll post the video of that when I get power back to my house. We have water, cold and hot, and the kids are actually having a blast "camping" -- we even set up the tent in the back yard. Why not? We're cooking on a camp stove, and using camp lanterns for light, might as well go all the way. Of course I'm sleeping in my own bed. I had enough of camping last weekend.
Monday, May 19, 2008
I bought a 'tiny' camera for camping, cycling, hiking, etc., a Casio something -- funny, that was my first digital camera. It has better video than my (5 year old) $800 video camera -- and it's digital video, so there's no capture involved (which can only be done in real time -- a total pain). Pretty awesome. The depth of field for scenery and group shots is really good. Anyway, I took it on father and sons with the boys, took hundreds of photos and videos, and after downloading it to my computer, through a series of unfortunate events (pretty sure it was when I was downloading photos from someone's web site to put together a slide show for swim team), that the entire directory got purged. Sucked bad. I found some undelete software (called "undelete plus") which worked great, and recovered a few dozen pictures, but the rest, including all the movies, were gone forever. Oh well, at least it wasn't someone's wedding! The sad thing is I spent probably three hours sorting, cleaning up, etc. the pictures before I lost them.
Father and Son's camp-out was a riot. It's always fun -- all except the whole sleeping outside thing. I'll never get used to that. The daylight hours were really a good time, though. Ryan, Alan, and Jordan were all there. I took Friday off and went up early with the boys, we took our time getting there, and did a mountain bike ride when we got there.
Saturday was a lot of hiking. Ryan did great, outlasting us all. He's like a mountain goat. We hiked up hill from about 9am to 1pm. The kid's amazing. Jordan and Alan spent their time bouldering everything they could find. Mom was not happy with some of the pictures of the boys hanging off rock walls. Mom's will never understand that sort of thing. It would have been more fun had we remembered our rock climbing gear...so we tried to stay 20 feet or less off the ground....but that was a grey area.
I'll put some of the pictures up that I salvaged. My favorite one did survive, luckily enough, because I made it into my desktop image right off the bat.
Father and Son's camp-out was a riot. It's always fun -- all except the whole sleeping outside thing. I'll never get used to that. The daylight hours were really a good time, though. Ryan, Alan, and Jordan were all there. I took Friday off and went up early with the boys, we took our time getting there, and did a mountain bike ride when we got there.
Saturday was a lot of hiking. Ryan did great, outlasting us all. He's like a mountain goat. We hiked up hill from about 9am to 1pm. The kid's amazing. Jordan and Alan spent their time bouldering everything they could find. Mom was not happy with some of the pictures of the boys hanging off rock walls. Mom's will never understand that sort of thing. It would have been more fun had we remembered our rock climbing gear...so we tried to stay 20 feet or less off the ground....but that was a grey area.
I'll put some of the pictures up that I salvaged. My favorite one did survive, luckily enough, because I made it into my desktop image right off the bat.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Happy Mother's day!
Jordan finished his swim season with his best time in breast-stroke, beating his old time by almost two seconds. He was excited to do so well, and lettered as a freshman this year. We're looking forward to seeing him progress through High School. He's also excited to start up again in football this summer.
It's going to be a busy summer for all of us here. Too much to do, every day will be packed. We've got some fun family vacations planned already. Now, if I could just figure out how to play hookie at work for a few months. Think they'd miss me?
Lacey finished a play she was in, she had a good role as a tree -- a talking tree, and she did great.
I did a 125 mile bike race last weekend (still recovering from that ordeal), but I finished in the lead group, technically tied with two other riders (there's no sprint finish). It was pretty cool.
Dyllan is just insane lately, pretty sure he's figured out how to take over the house, and he's planning a coup. If he gets Cassidy and Lacey on his side, my only hope is that I can use Ryan as a spy, and Jordan as my muscle. Alan could go either way, but he's mostly pre-occupied with his own world domination plans, and probably considers a take-over of the house beneath him.
We're glad we all have our health, at least, and are stoked for the school year to end. Julie may be fearing having four extra kids home all day but she's always managed to plan awesome activities for them most days...especially days when I work from home and plead for her to have a field trip.
Jordan finished his swim season with his best time in breast-stroke, beating his old time by almost two seconds. He was excited to do so well, and lettered as a freshman this year. We're looking forward to seeing him progress through High School. He's also excited to start up again in football this summer.
It's going to be a busy summer for all of us here. Too much to do, every day will be packed. We've got some fun family vacations planned already. Now, if I could just figure out how to play hookie at work for a few months. Think they'd miss me?
Lacey finished a play she was in, she had a good role as a tree -- a talking tree, and she did great.
I did a 125 mile bike race last weekend (still recovering from that ordeal), but I finished in the lead group, technically tied with two other riders (there's no sprint finish). It was pretty cool.
Dyllan is just insane lately, pretty sure he's figured out how to take over the house, and he's planning a coup. If he gets Cassidy and Lacey on his side, my only hope is that I can use Ryan as a spy, and Jordan as my muscle. Alan could go either way, but he's mostly pre-occupied with his own world domination plans, and probably considers a take-over of the house beneath him.
We're glad we all have our health, at least, and are stoked for the school year to end. Julie may be fearing having four extra kids home all day but she's always managed to plan awesome activities for them most days...especially days when I work from home and plead for her to have a field trip.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Grandma Lula passed away 11/28/07. Most of us were able to attend the funeral (Juliette, Polly, and Andrew couldn't make it), and it was very nice to see everyone. Some of the anecdotes that were told:
Gigi told of staying with grandma and having lots of fun with her as a teenager. Grandma would stay up late with them and giggle like a 13 year old. Grandpa would call from the bedroom "Lula, quit acting like a teenager and come to bed!" She would continue to giggle as her false teeth would about fall out.
After Gigi snuck out of her window a few times, she tells how grandma never confronted her about it, she would just do an "end-around", and she nailed her window shut.
Gigi's and her friend kept sneaking out the front door to the freezer room to eat ice cream -- straight from the container. After a few times, one night they found two bowls and two spoons sitting on the freezer.
Everyone told of how hard she worked and saved. She was supremely frugal with money and learned to do without and to make something out of nothing. She was a good example to all of us how to live simply.
We drove 24 hours total to get there and back, but it was worth it. We had a good time together as a family on the way, and it really wasn't too bad. I'm sure it was a memorable experience for everyone.
There are some pictures of our trip here: http://www.meteorbike.com/2007_12_04
Gigi told of staying with grandma and having lots of fun with her as a teenager. Grandma would stay up late with them and giggle like a 13 year old. Grandpa would call from the bedroom "Lula, quit acting like a teenager and come to bed!" She would continue to giggle as her false teeth would about fall out.
After Gigi snuck out of her window a few times, she tells how grandma never confronted her about it, she would just do an "end-around", and she nailed her window shut.
Gigi's and her friend kept sneaking out the front door to the freezer room to eat ice cream -- straight from the container. After a few times, one night they found two bowls and two spoons sitting on the freezer.
Everyone told of how hard she worked and saved. She was supremely frugal with money and learned to do without and to make something out of nothing. She was a good example to all of us how to live simply.
We drove 24 hours total to get there and back, but it was worth it. We had a good time together as a family on the way, and it really wasn't too bad. I'm sure it was a memorable experience for everyone.
There are some pictures of our trip here: http://www.meteorbike.com/2007_12_04
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Thanksgiving cometh. Looking forward to some time off. In preparation for T-day, both the dishwasher, and the refrigerator decided to quit working. Long story short, I called the service people, who promptly came out and told me they hadn't a clue on the fridge. They fixed the dishwasher (a simple heating element) for $220. Seems steep. The fridge was not defrosting, but worked fine other than that, until the repair man came. After he left, it wouldn't even turn on. I figured his poking around the motherboard had loosened some wires.
I googled the problem and found numerous solutions posted. After the barely educated tool jockey put the fridge back together (the second visit) and left declaring no joy, I promptly went to work, pulled everything back apart, re-seating all the connectors that he loosened, and then fixed the original defrosting problem. The fridge is currently regulating and cooling like brand new.
Why we have "professional" technicians who don't seem to have the first clue when it comes to their own business, I have no idea. It would seem to me that if I went around repairing appliances and such, that I would want to know more about appliances than your average doofus. Apparently, this just isn't the case. If it isn't really obvious what's wrong (like it's not plugged in) they are clueless. My guess is they go around pressing the reset button on grandmotherly type's refrigerators and collect a pretty good living.
In all fairness I'm pretty much a jerk when it comes to technology.
So, looking forward to T-day. Julie's sister and husband are coming with their three kids. Should be a blast. Full house, for sure, but nothing I can't handle. The weather looks to be really bad, too, so getting out of the house might be more difficult than usual. I'll find a way, though, for sure. I don't know him very well, but he seems like a very pleasant chap. Julie's sister stayed with us several years back for something like a year. It was nice having her around, she's very helpful.
So, here's to long naps, sleeping in, and over-eating.
I googled the problem and found numerous solutions posted. After the barely educated tool jockey put the fridge back together (the second visit) and left declaring no joy, I promptly went to work, pulled everything back apart, re-seating all the connectors that he loosened, and then fixed the original defrosting problem. The fridge is currently regulating and cooling like brand new.
Why we have "professional" technicians who don't seem to have the first clue when it comes to their own business, I have no idea. It would seem to me that if I went around repairing appliances and such, that I would want to know more about appliances than your average doofus. Apparently, this just isn't the case. If it isn't really obvious what's wrong (like it's not plugged in) they are clueless. My guess is they go around pressing the reset button on grandmotherly type's refrigerators and collect a pretty good living.
In all fairness I'm pretty much a jerk when it comes to technology.
So, looking forward to T-day. Julie's sister and husband are coming with their three kids. Should be a blast. Full house, for sure, but nothing I can't handle. The weather looks to be really bad, too, so getting out of the house might be more difficult than usual. I'll find a way, though, for sure. I don't know him very well, but he seems like a very pleasant chap. Julie's sister stayed with us several years back for something like a year. It was nice having her around, she's very helpful.
So, here's to long naps, sleeping in, and over-eating.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Juliette has kept an amazing blog of her family here: Julie's Blog
Check it out. I think this is the best way to keep a scrap book.
Check it out. I think this is the best way to keep a scrap book.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Wow, it's been a long time since this thing has been updated. Frankly I'm surprised it even still exists. If Andrew hadn't created a BLOG on blogger I wouldn't have remembered I had one here.
General Conference was awesome. Julie especially liked Sister Beck's talk because it basically validated her entire philosophy as a mother. Read it. Live it. You know it's true.
Life here is great. Teaching seminary is a riot. Tough to get up that early every day, but we're all managing.
Work is going great. Lots of cool new development going on right now. The coolest new thing are "hybrid" disk drives. You know what FLASH is, right? Like those memory sticks you put in your computer? Well, we're making hybrid disk drives that are half flash, half normal spinning disk. You can store your OS (like Windows) on the flash portion and everything else on the disk. That way Windows boots and runs like a ton faster. They are the future of computing, for sure. Lots of cool new projects going on at Seagate right now. It's pretty cool to be developing this stuff. When I first started here, three years ago, the stuff I worked on is just now beginning to go into real products.
Just posted some new pictures on my website. Enjoy. I've actually had a few people come to me asking for me to take their portraits. I think they turned out nice.
General Conference was awesome. Julie especially liked Sister Beck's talk because it basically validated her entire philosophy as a mother. Read it. Live it. You know it's true.
Life here is great. Teaching seminary is a riot. Tough to get up that early every day, but we're all managing.
Work is going great. Lots of cool new development going on right now. The coolest new thing are "hybrid" disk drives. You know what FLASH is, right? Like those memory sticks you put in your computer? Well, we're making hybrid disk drives that are half flash, half normal spinning disk. You can store your OS (like Windows) on the flash portion and everything else on the disk. That way Windows boots and runs like a ton faster. They are the future of computing, for sure. Lots of cool new projects going on at Seagate right now. It's pretty cool to be developing this stuff. When I first started here, three years ago, the stuff I worked on is just now beginning to go into real products.
Just posted some new pictures on my website. Enjoy. I've actually had a few people come to me asking for me to take their portraits. I think they turned out nice.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
The interview went well but Andy probubly won't take the job. It is for a little tiny mine 2 1/2 hours south of here. But there is like an 1 1/2 commute both ways 4 days a week. He is just not so sure how much he would like the drive and how small it is there. We will just keep looking.
Other than that not much happening on the home front.
Thanks Polly
Other than that not much happening on the home front.
Thanks Polly
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Whitehead Family Forum
How did the interview go Polly? When will you guys hear about a job? Hope all went well!
Hi Joe, I guess this is a very in-frequently visited place, but it's not totally dead yet! I would like some pictures if you want to send them. Do you need my address, or are you just e-mailing or what? How is the newly-wed life? I hope you are doing well.
I wish I could get some desire to actually do some studying tonight...but it is one of those cold, rainy lazy Sunday's and I would rather just veg out. We are doing well, just had a nice weekend with Lestie and Tim. We went to the pumpkin patch, and got gouged for kids rides etc, but they loved it. I am getting fatter daily, it is so fun to feel the little one squirming around in there though. I can't remember if I mentioned it, but it is a girl! I am so excited to finally be able to buy pink girly things! She will be well loved by her big brothers. Ok, that is about it...not much else new- school, church, blah blah all that jazz. :)
Love,
Juliette
How did the interview go Polly? When will you guys hear about a job? Hope all went well!
Hi Joe, I guess this is a very in-frequently visited place, but it's not totally dead yet! I would like some pictures if you want to send them. Do you need my address, or are you just e-mailing or what? How is the newly-wed life? I hope you are doing well.
I wish I could get some desire to actually do some studying tonight...but it is one of those cold, rainy lazy Sunday's and I would rather just veg out. We are doing well, just had a nice weekend with Lestie and Tim. We went to the pumpkin patch, and got gouged for kids rides etc, but they loved it. I am getting fatter daily, it is so fun to feel the little one squirming around in there though. I can't remember if I mentioned it, but it is a girl! I am so excited to finally be able to buy pink girly things! She will be well loved by her big brothers. Ok, that is about it...not much else new- school, church, blah blah all that jazz. :)
Love,
Juliette
Monday, October 11, 2004
Hey Joe I would like some family pictures. That sounds great . Hey I know, but e-mail works for almost anything. Everyone has e-mail. Well, We are doing well. We are currently looking for a new job. Andy has an interview on Fri. at a place about 2 hours away. We are just sick of promises and no action. Andy was promised a position in July and still has not seen any indication of that happening. So we look. Well not much else is up. We are doing well and hope you all are too!
Lots of Love Polly
Lots of Love Polly
Friday, October 08, 2004
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
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