Sad update to Tornado post

While everything here at the casa is fine, with no damage from the storms, not everyone was so lucky.

Sadly, the number of dead and injured in the North Texas tornado outbreak Saturday night, continues to rise.  There were 23 injured that I have read, and 11 killed, most of them in their cars at I-30 and the PBG tollway.  Hundreds of houses in Ennis, Garland and Rowlett were damaged or destroyed.  Pets have been lost or killed also.

Please keep those affected, and the first responders too, in your thoughts and prayers.  If you feel so inspired, donate to the Red Cross, or Salvation Army.  Donate blood to your local blood bank--it won't be used here, but I guarantee someone in YOUR area needs blood NOW.  Donate to your local animal rescue organization--they help reunite lost pets after storms like this, with their owners.

And whatever your feelings on the company Chik-Fil-A, please understand that here in NTX, they were responding Saturday night along side the Salvation Army, helping by providing free food to the first responders and folks displaced by the storms.   I haven't heard of another company doing that yet, let alone RIGHT after the storms moved past.

December Tornados?

Yep. Another evening spent standing in the storm shelter.  Several tornados in and around the Metromess, and our county.  Damage south of Dallas around Ennis.  No reports of injuries yet, thankfully. 

And so it begins

The crew arrived at 8am to begin the excavations.  An hour later, they were chest deep in the holes under my house!  Every hole is dug by hand.  There are 18 holes to be dug.  They will be finished digging by tonight, with most of the piers set, in order to do the lift.

The crew has already begun to dig.

Thru my beveled glass door looking at them jackhammering a hole in my porch.

Chest deep in a hole under my house.

Placing the concrete piers.

Looking down at the placed piers.  Ready to place the jack.

In truth, they have already finished the front of the house!  This crew is very efficient.  The lift is done already on the front of the house, the holes backfilled, and ready for new concrete caps in the places they had to jackhammer concrete out.

Tomorrow, they will be back to lift the rear of the house and finish everything up, including remortaring any brick cracks and the concrete work.  They'll even re-lay the pavers on our patio that had to be removed.

I will say when they placed the piers, and lifted the front, our poor house made some very strange noises!  It creaked and thumped, and vibrated a little.  I'm glad the dogs were at TIRR for the duration of this repair.  The noises and all the workmen would have disturbed them greatly.

Sometimes you're the chicken, sometimes you're the axe.

Yes, I'm afraid this year the holidays (Christmas and New Years) will be a blur.  Our foundation work got moved up to start tomorrow.  Yay!  It makes for a heck of an expensive birthday present...  Which means the Christmas tree has to come down the day after Christmas...so that next Monday, the paint crew (of 8 guys) can show up to paint the inside of the house.  I'm told this will take approximately 3 days.  After they get done, we get to demo out the rest of the laminate flooring, and our bedroom carpet, so that Jan 4th, the flooring crew arrives to do the new flooring throughout the house.

In addition to that, I have to transport the dogs to (and from) the Ranch where they will stay during the times the work crews will be here (for the dogs sanity and the workers safety).  That's a 3hr round trip each time.

Then we will need dirt and sod for the back yard, and then it is time to list!  So I need to schedule a photo session with our realtor, and get the house listed.  Oh, and lest I forget, we have our anniversary during this whole time too.

All this on top of the normal stuff we do here daily, like conquering Mount Laundry, and trying to keep things clean...And I almost forgot--the dishwasher repair guy is coming back out today to see if he can sort out why my nearly brand new $800 dishwasher doesn't like to wash my dishes!

So if you see me running around like a chicken with my head cut off, now you know why!

All we want for Christmas...

All we want for Christmas is a new dog couch, a new dog couch, a new dog couch!

Yes, the stinky old dog couch has gone where all ratty old couches go...the dump!  The dogs are quite dismayed too.  Shiloh keeps wandering around the living room, looking for it.  Ranger is rattled enough by the process of moving, that he slept in the dog crate last night, not in his regular dog bed!  And Indy, well, he just makes the best of it and hogs 3 dog bed pillows at once.

Confused...This is December, right?

My old fashioned lilac is blooming. I think it must be seriously confused!  Last time I checked, it was December 12th.

Red sky in the morning...

Our son woke me this morning to witness the sky on fire.  Enjoy.

As I am sick with Capt. Tripps*...

and don't feel particularly well, I am going to raid the children's photo collection to share a couple classic Ridgeback poses.

THE classic Ridgeback pose.

Hey!  That's my ear!

Diva demands belly rubs!

There's a bunny out there, I just know it!

My eternally happy puppy!

* Capt. Tripps is the name given to the bioweapon influenza in Stephen King's The Stand.

On the DMV...AArgh!

Why is it all DMV's are the same?

So last month I got a notice in the mail telling me I had to renew my drivers license in December.  No big deal I thought, thinking I could go online and submit the info.  Then I read the letter, and it stated that since I received the letter it meant I could not go online to renew.  Crap.

I went to our local DMV back in 2003 when we first moved here, and with newborn infant in tow, on a really hot Texas day, and suffered through the process of exchanging my Kansas DL for a Texas DL.  This, as I recall took hours.  Really.

So today I decided since I had errands on that side of town, I would go in the morning, get my DL done and my errands after.  I drove over there, and pulled into the lot to park.  Uh oh, I said, as I looped for the third time around the jam-packed lot.  I asked an officer who was standing outside, and he suggested I park in the grass, since parking on the nearby street was prohibited.

After finding a spot in the grass dry enough so the van didn't get stuck, I wandered over to the doors.  They looked funny, because I could see a bunch of legs pressed up against them from the inside, sort of like human sardines, or folks seeing how many college students you can cram into a telephone booth.  I hesitated, then opened the door to see the humongous line of people jamming the entryway as the line wound around inside.  Uh oh, I thought again.

I inquired politely if they were all waiting for drivers licenses, to which I received a chorus of "yes, yep, and uh huh's".  One kind soul offered up that the wait was at least an hour and a half, or more.  I just groaned, and decided I didn't have time to waste slogging through a DMV line today.

Heading back to the car, I noticed the building hours listed as 8am-5pm M-F.  I guess I will head over there before 7am tomorrow.  At the least, I should be able to get a proper parking spot, and with any luck, be in the first 10-20 people in line.  I hope I can bring enough coffee to get me through this!