Alphabe-Thursday..."R" as in REPURPOSE

It's time again for Alphabe-Thursday at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." This week Ms. Matlock asked the class to work on the letter "R."

I was already thinking ahead to the "R" post when we went down to Galveston a couple of weeks ago for the Historic Home Tour. I had read in the Houston Chronicle about the way some of the dead trees from Hurricane Ike were being repurposed. You can read the article here.

My Dad used to have an expression. He'd say, "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken _ _ _ _." (You'll have to use your imagination...we're keeping this a G rated post.) Galveston has made the best of a bad situation. Many beautiful, large Live Oak trees died when the storm surge swept across the island, but Galveston found a way to make chicken salad.

Here are pictures of the results.


A group of Herons.


This was the largest one we saw. Much of the dead tree was used in this statue.


A flock of birds were created from one of the branches.


Even the trunk was carved with little animals and reptiles around the base.


All of the upper branches were carved. I can't help but wonder how it was done. Did someone stand on a ladder? Perhaps they used scaffoling? Maybe they did it the old fashion way and climbed up the tree?


This was in front of City Hall which is located next to a Fire Station. It's a fire hydrant with running water.


You can't have a fire hydrant without a Dalmation!


This home had a guard dog.


This dog sat happily in the front yard. (The basket of pups was concrete and not carved from a dead tree.)


Isn't this a cute frog?


I wasn't quite sure why there was a Japanese lady in this yard. Perhaps the owners are of Japanese descent?


And this yard had a mermaid.


This is a pelican on a post. I could only take the picture from the street and the pelican is facing the house.


I really liked this one. It's a memorial to the trees that were lost in the storm.


Here's a close up. It says, "In Memoriam Of Galveston's Lost Oaks."


I'm not sure why these people chose the Tin Man, but he's cute.



This large porpoise was in a backyard. I didn't have the nerve to knock on the door and ask if I could go in the back to take a picture, so it's taken from the street.


They also had an owl. You can see the porpoise again on the right. Since the house was on a corner I was able to get two different angles.


This is a mermaid and some porpoises.


Isn't this a cute little porpoise?


This squirrel was carved and then placed on a stump.


I'm not sure how long these will last. They were all varnished or painted, but I would think eventually they would start to rot or termites would move in. Hopefully, they'll be around for a good number of years.

I missed our letter "Q" assignment last week (I didn't QUIT school.) and I might miss again in the next few weeks, but I'll be back and so will my doll scenes.

I hope you read this assignment carefully. There might be a TEST when we get to the letter "T."

(Nah...I'm only kidding.)

Alphabe-Thursday...The Letter O as in OUTAGE, etc.

This week seemed to fly by and already it's time for another Alphabe-Thursday. This week we are studying the letter N. Head on over to our teacher's blog at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent" for a list of this week's participants.


The first O world that came to mind was OUTAGE as in the massive power OUTAGE after Hurricane Ike in September 2008. What was very humbling to me is how all the out of state power companies came rushing to our aid. I know they all have agreements with one another to help out in massive OUTAGES, but still they came and stayed for weeks afterwards restoring power in the blistering heat. In our town Pike Electric Company of Mt. Airy, North Carolina came. I will be forever grateful to them for leaving their homes and families and restoring our power. Actually, we can live without lights, but living without A/C here is no fun!

Then I thought of OK and specifically A-OK. I vividly remember Shorty Powers telling us during NASA's Project Mercury Program that "everything was A-OK," instead of just plain OK. It was always reassuring to hear his voice speak that phrase. Lt. Colonel John A "Shorty" Powers was a public affairs OFFICER for NASA and was considered the "Voice of Mission Control." He is credited with ORIGINATING the word A-OK. In doing a little research I discovered different definitions for A-OK, but I tend to agree with the "All is OK" theory. It makes the most sense to me. Sadly, everything apparently wasn't A-OK with Mr. Powers' life when he died of chronic alcoholism in the 1980's.

OVER came to mind too. Like the Caisson Song's words:

OVER hill, OVER dale, we have hit the dusty trail,
and our caissons going rolling along...

(Scroll down here for the rest of the words.)

I've always liked that catchy tune.








Then the kids thought about their OLD, OVERWEIGHT Grandma and what they could do to help her. It was decided that she should immediately begin an exercise program with lots of encouragement from them. "OH boy, let's start moving Granny!"


Class dismissed to visit other student blogs!

Galveston Island Four Months After Hurricane Ike

Yesterday we drove down to Galveston Island again. It's now four months since Hurricane Ike hit and some progress toward recovery has been made. We originally went down two months after the storm and were shocked by what we saw. I don't think people realize how devastating the storm was to the island. We didn't realize and we're only 26 miles inland.

For us the storm was over when the electricity came back on and the branches and debris were finally picked up a month after the storm. For the people of Galveston the storm won't be over for many, many years. I now understand what they mean when they say the storm surge is what does the most damage and costs the most lives. There's a world of difference between the damage where we live and the damage on Galveston Island.

On this trip we found more places opened, more people driving around, and less piles of debris. Two months ago, there were debris piles on sidewalks, in the streets, etc. This time it was more contained.

We drove down to the Strand which is the historical business section of the island. It seemed to us that approximately 98% of the stores are closed and either undergoing repairs or have plans to make repairs. The storm surge really took a toll on this area. You can see where someone marked the water line on this building. That's my husband and he's 5'8" and the curbs are very high which adds another foot or so.

It's very sad to see all the empty stores. Most of the merchandise was shoveled out onto the sidewalks and hauled off. This store is empty except for the few things that remain hanging in the window.

We stopped for a while and spoke with a lady working on this old fashion soda fountain/candy store. We've stopped in here in the past and were pleased to hear that they're hoping to reopen in April. During the storm the owner's son stayed here and marked the water level every so often on the door frame until the water got too deep and he had to retreat upstairs. Then he started marking the water line on the staircase.

But, they've got the wood now for the sub floor and it should be down in the next week or so.

The lady told us that parts of The Strand still don't have electricity or water. We did notice at least one traffic light that's still not working which surprised us after all this time.

But things are looking up a little. The island looks greener now. The salt water seemed to kill a lot of the vegetation, but they've replanted some palm trees and shrubbery. We passed these bushes on our walk.

But then we took a closer look and saw some green starting to sprout. We were all excited...perhaps they aren't completely dead after all!

We saw this sign too. No one will ever say that the people of Galveston aren't resilient.

And someone has even decorated a little for Mardi Gras which they still plan to have this year. (There were quite a few cars parked along the street, but most of them belonged to people working on the restoration.)

And I was pleased to see one of my favorite antique stores reopened and restocked. The lady told me just about everything was destroyed but they managed to reopen the day after Thanksgiving after a lot of hard work.

Every year the Galveston Historical Association has the Historic Home Tour in May and we enjoy going. I was pleased to see that they're still planning to have it in 2009.

The worst national disaster in the history of this country was the 1900 Galveston Hurricane when the storm surge swept across the island and anywhere from 6,000 to 8,00o people were killed. (By the way, a lot of people think the Great Chicago Fire was the worst national disaster, but it wasn't.) Galveston came back, but it was never the same. I believe history will repeat itself and Galveston will be back, but it will be a different Galveston.

After the 1900 storm a seawall was built along part of the island to protect it from future storms and the elevation of the island was raised behind the seawall. The remaining homes and buildings were jacked up and sand was pumped in underneath. Considering the time period it was a pretty amazing feet of engineering and I've always been fascinated by the story.

Just last week it was reported in the Houston Chronicle that the 100 year old seawall was damaged by Ike and will need expensive repairs. The heavily damaged University Of Texas Medical Center at Galveston has laid off 3,000 people. This week the Shriner's Hospital announced that they will temporarily close due to damage and loss of funds in the current economy. A lot of people fear that the closure won't be temporary. And, I recently heard on the news that 40% of the people that lived on the island are gone.

However, there are many proud and determined people in Galveston who are descendants of the 1900 storm's survivors. I'm sure the island will make a come back, but it will take considerable time. And please, no more hurricanes for a while.