Looks like Rita decided to spare the river city. We woke up this morning to a nice breezy day, with much cooler temps than we have been having. The clouds formed a huge semi-circle in the sky, apparently one of the outer bands from the tropical storm. And the remaining clouds were whisps that sort of looked like whitecaps on the ocean. A dramatic difference from a few days ago. Shucks, looks like I’ll have to mow the yard after all.

The start of fall in San Antonio is usually the rainy season here, but we’ve had a bit of a twist on it this season. We’ve been hearing the weather reports for the past few days on Hurricane Rita, and just coming off devastation of Katrina just a few weeks ago, we’ve given this one some consideration. The first reports that came our predicted that she would come up through the Houston area and make her way to SA, giving us some pause for concern. Since those initial reports, and as the storm has continued to move towards Texas, we’ve seen a decrease in intensity and a shift away from us, moving closer to Louisiana — like they need any more bad weather. Susan did a great job yesterday of stocking up on necessities without going overboard. She had to shop around to find any bottled water, as it was flying off the shelves. She got a tip that a local Target had overstocked on water, and we were set. Never did find any D-cells for some of our flashlights, though. Tonite as we were driving back from dinner I prepared to stop at our gas station around the corner to pick up a few sodas, and noticed that the overhead gas signs were reading $2.64 for unleaded, $2.64 for unleaded plus, and $2.64 for premium — how strange. As we pulled in we figured it out: they were out of gas. It was a strange sea of 24 lonely gas pumps with little yellow bags over all the handles. A strange sight indeed, and kinda struck home what this weekend was gonna be about. Rita should hit the coast proper in about five hours, so we’ll just see what the weather brings.

I frequent a few tech message boards, and always enjoy seeing what kind of avatars people assign to themselves. My favorites are the ones that look something like the poster, or what the poster wished they looked like. After surfing up a few avatar creation sites and playing with their toys, I think managed to create one that looks somewhat like me. I asked my oldest boy Michael his thoughts, and he seemed to like it except for the face being a bit too round. Bless that kid.

If you were judging from the number of recent posts, you might think I’ve slipped into cobweb mode. Au contraire, my humorblog has been getting a bit of my attention over the past few months. I’m always finding some tasty morsel to drop into the archives. But nothing like my photo gallery, where I upload like a madman. I’ve always been a photo nut, but when I went digital two years back it seems like I can’t go anywhere without my camera, and I’m always looking for an excuse to whip it out. I’ve posted 1,100+ pics since then, and enjoy every minute.

And the rest of my non-digital world is doing great as well. We spent the summer months staying busy with family activities (see the photo gallery, of course), and now we’re gearing up to get the kids back to school on the 22^nd. Never a dull moment.

Two days ago I was at the Des Moines airport on standby for a flight back to San Antonio. I’d come up to Iowa earlier that day to attend my grandmother’s funeral, and was now trying to get a flight home so I could get back to work the next day. My sister-in-law, who works for airlines, was working with my wife to get me on another flight. One flight had been cancelled, and all those passengers were shuffled to the flight I was supposed to get on, pushing me out of the flight, so I got to the airport early while the gals worked it out. I got the call, and was told to try and squeeze on a flight to Chicago. There weren’t many seats left, but if I made it on, I’d have no problem getting into SA. I waited at the gate counter, and after everyone else was on the plane and the gangway door closed, the agent called my name and gave me the tickets. I went to the gate door and waited patiently. The agent went to the door, opened it, and slammed it behind her. I waited there a few more minutes, and then the door opened. She slammed it behind her, whisked past me, and started clicking away at her console. I looked outside and was surprised to see the gangway pulling back from the aircraft. I walked up to the counter, and she said, “May I help you?” You-are-kidding-me, I thought. I said, “Yes,” and handed her my ticket. She read it and her eyes got big. She glanced out the window to see the plane pulling away, turned red and said “Oh, c__p.” Not a good sign. She started typing away a bit more furiously, and said “I wondered why I still had one seat open.” I was hot. “I thought you were right behind me,” she said. Not without getting pinned in a slamming door, I thought. She then re-listed me on a flight that connected thru Dallas to SA, apologized and told me that she bumped up my priority. I boarded a few minutes later, and made it on the flight to SA, and, according to my sister-in-law, bumped some other people who were listed on standby before I was.

On the DFW-SAT flight, I ended up sitting next to a young gal who appeared quite nervous. She apologized for squirming around so much, and I noticed that she had military orders in her hand. I asked where the military was sending her, and found out she was on her way to Lackland AFB for basic military training (bootcamp). I told her that I retired from the military, and she started asking me for pointers about basic. Well, I was there over 25 years ago, but some of the truths still held. We talked for most of the flight, and I was able to give her some advice, and she shared about her desire for a military career in the medical field. By the end of the flight Tamara seemed a bit more calm, and I enjoyed sharing some ‘sage’ advice with her.

So it seems I didn’t get on the wrong flight after all.

We’re settling back into Texas, which is a pretty natural fit for us. After accepting the new job in San Antonio, it’s been a flurry of activity. Since the new job offer came so soon after leaving my last job, and they wanted me to start within two weeks, Susan and I decided to leave her and the kids back up in Denver while I drove down to Texas to start work. My Mom offered to put me up at her place just outside SA until I found a house to rent. Poor Susan, she got the brunt of the work taking care of the kids and packing the house for the move — all I had to do was go to work and find a place to live. Yes, I did feel guilty.

After a few weeks I found a house in Universal City and moved in the second week of November. The following week I drove out to my in-law’s place in Andrews, Texas, for a family Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration. Susan and the boys drove down from Denver, so we were together for the holiday and had an opportunity to iron out some details for the big move in December. Susan’s parents were planning to come up to help pack, load, and drive one of the moving trucks, help that we gladly accepted.

Being as I’ve never been a loadmaster, I’m not the best person to look at the items in a space and determine what size truck it will take to pack it all in. I did my best, and after comparing prices decided on a 25′ and a 17′ Penske truck — they beat U-Haul’s prices by half. The closer it got to moving time, Susan got a bit nervous about my choices, and asked me to upgrade the 17′ to another 25′ to make sure we’d have enough room. Unfortunately, it was such short notice that Penske didn’t have another large truck available in the area, and the rate would have doubled. I had no intention to check with U-Haul again, but when Susan went to one of their locations to pick up move moving boxes, she decided to check, and they said they could fix me up with a 26′ truck at a rate comparable with the lowest rate from Penske. Another phone call, and the reservation was made. My mind reeled at the considerable rate ranges both of them displayed — it was all a matter of who had the closest trucks.

I flew up to Denver the weekend of the move, and picked up the trucks on Sunday. The first stop was Penske, where we picked up a truck with <20k miles, automatic transmission, cruise control, etc. — a real beauty, and a dream to drive. Then my father in law and I picked up the U-Haul truck. It was quite an old, rickety rig, manual tranny, uncomfortable seats — a real beast at the same price as the Penske. Ah well, it’s a truck.

After church, a group of guys from the congregation came over to help us load the trucks. We quickly filled the first truck, and after seeing how much stuff we had left, were glad that we opted for the additional 26′ truck for the rest of the stuff. On the second day of loading, we realized that we were going to need a trailer for the rest. We finished stuffing the second truck, and picked up the largest enclosed trailer they had, a 10 footer. On the third day, we stuffed that one full, and went back to the first two trucks to fill in any empty spaces left in those — we were packed. On the day we drove out, Susan’s van was filled with the remaining overflow. We have vowed to downsize before the next move!

The caravan to Texas went a bit slow, as my U-Haul didn’t like to climb the Colorado hills and mountains under a full load and with a trailer. Raton Pass was the most fun: 15mph while winding out the motor! It tends to make for a long trip. Once we hit the flat lands, we were on the move, and arrived uneventfully.

Since then we’ve taken a considerably slower pace getting things set up at our new place. Our biggest challenge is finding a spot for everything — we’re down from a three car garage to a two, and we no longer have a basement. That, and we’re considering looking for a home to buy, possibly within the next year. So, why unpack something we’re not using just to pack it again? These and other questions are constantly considered.

In between, I’ve settled in to my job, got the kids in school, and in general re-Texased ourselves. Whew.

It’s been quite a wild ride over the past two weeks. On Oct 14th I lost my job with CH2M Hill; my team was merged with another team, and two managers were not required. Bummer, to be sure. The following week I called an old friend of mine in San Antonio for a reference, and oh by the way, do you happen to have any openings at your company? The answer was yes, and within two days I had someone on the phone making me an offer — what a deal! I’m starting work on Nov 1st, which means I leave this week for Texas. Unfortunately, I need to leave my family behind for now, and will come back to Colorado to move them sometime around Christmas. And now, back to packing…