Had to spend money on something that wasn’t food or the car

And it hurt, bunches. We were getting a decrease in the effectiveness of the HVAC and when they checked it the vents were full of dust from the clothes dryer, that we had to vent inside because the outside vent was completely blocked. They tried to clear the blockage, but it would take a power washer to get that mess out of the dryer vent. Basically we have a dryer vent that runs straight up from the laundry nook to the roof because the laundry room is in the middle of the house and that’s the only access to the outside. I see this as bad design.

We could have had the master bath and the kid’s bath back to back and put the walk-in closet and the laundry nook back to back where the master bath is now and had access to an outside wall for the dryer vent, or put the laundry in the garage to access the outside wall. It’s all just bad design.

And we are under a severe thunderstorm alert right as I compose this with nickel-sized hail falling outside the office window and glancing off it making alarmingly loud snapping noises. It was a small storm and passed by the time I completed this sentence. Saw the news after I composed this and it was a serious fast storm that extended for hundreds of miles, just not over us. The band of storms was moving about 40 MPH N-NE according to the TV weather and was gone in about an hour. Anywho, the tornadoes were well away from Casa de El Poeta unlike a few years back where the roof was pelted by debris coming out the top of tornadoes less than a mile away (storm track was just over 400 meters from the house). The TV news says many farm buildings were destroyed and animals released but the storm, but nothing fatal unless a coyote grabs a loose chicken.

And it’s about time to hit the sheets and catch some sleep, y’all take care you don’t get caught by a loose chicken with a tornado chasing a coyote.

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Finally got a track map that I can show how close the tornado came

There was a map that I took a picture of and marked about where Casa de El Poeta is.

And yes that is very close but we sustained no damage whatsoever.

Looking at the tracks it may be that the Garland tornado was also the Rowlett tornado after it picked up and set down later, but because of the debris from the Dallas tornado effectively jamming the weather radar the people tracking the storm by radar can’t be sure if they were separate twisters or the same storm bouncing around from one place to another.

And that’s all for today, more as I get it.

Oz is wonderful this time of year

And I almost got to see it. I got caught in a thunderstorm trying to get to RPG group this afternoon, that turned into a tiny tornado that went right over me. I couldn’t see it, or much of anything really, but I know I was standing still while I got hit with wind from 3 different directions in about as many seconds. Plus I got hit with nickel sized hail, that felt larger when it was hitting me but what I could see was only a bit larger than nickle sized.

The fun part was watching the trees floating down the street while the flood waters swirled around my ankles and calves. I was standing in a pedestrian refuge back a bit from the street, but not far enough back. This was a few seconds after I stepped off the bus into light rain, it literally went from light sprinkles to rain of Biblical proportions in seconds and then a F0 tornado (or maybe more, I made that judgement based on the fact that I managed to stay on my feet and I was right in the middle of it) and rivers in the street (and sidewalk). I’m catching reports from other areas that didn’t get tornadoes but did get 70+ MPH straight line winds, which I could also believe as I have walked around in tropical storms before and this felt similar to that.

So as I was standing out in the hail and the flood and the wind watching half-trees floating down the street the host for the game managed to get a car up to me so I can get off the corner. We eventually get to the house after weaving through the various bits of tree in the street. I’m soaked to the skin of course, even my phone was affected, underwear wringing wet, and puddles in my new shoes. 😛 So, dry clothes were rounded up, not an easy thing as I’m Rather Large with a deep pelvis and broad shoulders. And everyone except the GM at the house are a bunch of beanpoles with no hips or shoulders. So I’m running around in pink sweatpants and the largest T-shirt they can find, and of course everything looks like I was spray-painted into the clothes from the knees up. So, now I have to make myself something to eat, check my e-mail, and maybe get some sleep.

I survived the tornado, on Wreck-Free Sunday

If you have been following the news then you know we had tornadoes in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. The one actually inside the city limits was about 5 miles away from Casa de El Poeta. The one that got closest was about a mile away over in Rowlett. That one was an EF3, and we could barely hear it with the tornado sirens going off and Mrs. the Poet, the kittens, and me in the bathroom. And that is as close as I ever want to get to a tornado.

Getting the kittens and Mrs. the Poet into the bathtub was comical, and futile. The kittens’ bed, food dish, and litterbox are in the bathtub in the front bathroom which is also the structurally designated “safe area” in case of tornado. Mrs. the Poet wasn’t as enthusiastic about getting into the tub with the litterbox as the kittens were. To be honest I wasn’t that enthusiastic about getting in the tub either, but as the tornado was not actually at the door we were OK.

Then we had what happened when we tried to get to church this morning. The lady who came to pick us up in the rain this morning lost power steering when she picked us up and thought she was running out of gas. But when she put gas in the car she still didn’t have any power steering. My instincts said “thrown belt” and started looking at the temperature gauge but I got distracted making sure I got all the captures I could on my mobile game. About a mile later the check engine gong went off because the temperature gauge was about to hit the peg. We pulled over and popped the hood and yep, that serpentine belt was laying loose off the front of the engine. So help was summoned while the ritualist at church was called and told to not hold up service. I have to admit I was dressed for inside the church rather than outside so I was mainly trying to stay warm in my shorts and T-shirt with a high wind and a cold rain falling.

And I’m out of stuff to write about.

PSA, Opus