Not Necessarily Interesting News

The wife and kid left on a cruise to Mexico with my parents yesterday morning. They left on about 15 hours notice. My parents are frequent ‘cruisers’ and got a call from the cruise line looking to fill a boat leaving Galveston in the morning. I guess they had a lot of cancellations and such because of Hurricane Rita passing so close to Galveston. I think it cost a grand total of about $350 for both my wife and kid to do the cruise. Not a bad deal.

I have a busy week ahead of me anyways so it wasn’t bad timing. I had a Land Rover club meeting last night. I’ve got tickets to the local premiere of Serenity with some friends at which a couple of the stars will appear and do a Q&A. Those are the big tickets in town this week selling for over $100/each on eBay. This weekend I’ve got a British Car Show so I’ve got to get the Defender detailed for that. Detailing the Defender consists of washing down the outside, cleaning the windshield, and hosing out the inside. Looks like I’ve convinced a few other folks in the club to show up too. I hope there’s a better showing than the 3 Landies of last year.

Last night, after my meeting, it did feel funny to come home to an empty house. Too quiet. It does give me a chance to watch the movies I want on our big screen at a volume level that I prefer. I watched one of my favorties, Saving Private Ryan, last night and had pictures shaking on the walls during battle scenes. 🙂

I finally got a replacement for my smashed digital camera. My parents gave me a sweet 7 Megapixel Sony DSC-W7. I really loved my older 5MP Sony so this was a natural upgrade. I already had a 256MB and 1GB Memory Stick so it only made sense to stay with Sony. It’s still small enough to fit in my pocket on vacations and such. It’s biggest feature to me is that it is the only 7MP camera that uses good ol’ AA batteries. Just like my old camera which was the best camera at the time that used them. No $50 batteries for me. No, sir. My first camera used those and when you’re on a trip and it dies you’re SOL. You can get AAs anywhere. My only real complaint is that it uses JPEG and has no option for RAW image format. Still, it’s insane how much you can zoom in on an image and see detail.

Now to find things to take pics of.

Generators and chainsaws. Those are the sounds of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Everywhere you go you are never away from the hum of a generator or the buzzing of a chainsaw.

I had heard about a guy through my Land Rover Club that had been making aid trips into the rural areas of the Gulf Coast. Places where the Red Cross and FEMA hadn’t shown up or had left before things were totally self-sufficient. I got in touch with him and volunteered my truck and time over the weekend. He was grateful and asked me to organize things in Austin to bring out with me. I posted pleas for goods to take with me and my wife did the same in her homeschooling groups. My friend Chris also posted a request for donations on the Defender website he runs. We received over $1600 in monetary donations and almost 1/2 a trailer load of goods. On Thursday before I was to leave we went to Costco and got over $1100 in supplies, finishing off filling the trailer. We kept the rest of the money in reserve in case we found a need that needed immediate cash while there.

(Read on …)

Tonite we’re headed to Costco to gear up for my relief trip to Louisiana and Mississippi. We’ve taken in over $1,700 in monetary donations along with a sizable amount of goods. We’re absolutely floored by the amount of money people have given. People have given and given because of this disaster and when we made the plea it was tough to find supporters, then all of a sudden, BAM!, everyone rallied and are making this a great trip. I’ve had offers to pay for my gas, (turned down, that’s my contribution), offers of equipment, goods, bibles, and more. It’s been amazing.

Thanks to everyone who has pitched in. Words can’t express my thanks.

I’ll leave first thing tomorrow and will report when I get back. I seriously doubt I’ll have connectivity on the road.

Looks like I’m headed to Louisiana for a few days to help out. Someone in my Land Rover Club has been organizing caravans of supplies to rural areas of the state and I volunteered my truck to help out. There are areas that are hard to reach but with a 4×4 you can get aid to where it’s needed. Right now I’m looking for a trailer to tow out there with me because my truck has limited cargo space. I’m also looking for supplies to load me up before I leave in the next few days. If anyone knows of or has a trailer in the Austin area they’re willing to loan me for a week please drop me a line. Below is a note from folks in that area listing what supplies they need. If you have any of these I’ll carry them over with me.

Our most pressing needs are:
– Non-perishable food items & juices
– Baby Food
– Baby Formula
– Diapers
– Feminine hygiene products
– Hand sanitizer
– Care packages for military personnel (travel size
toiletries, insect repellant, new olive drab or brown
military style undershirts, new underwear, new socks)
– Batteries (D size)
– Leather Work Gloves
– 1 gallon ziplock baggies
– Non-parishable canned foods
– Small pint-sized juice boxes (the kind with the
little straws)
– Energy Bars
– Unsliced Cured Salami Logs

A great idea would also be to include a personal note
of some kind. These people are worn out and need to
know they are being thought of and that our hearts are
with them.

Thanks.

My son participates in the Young Marines. Earlier this year he went through a week of Boot Camp and came out as a Private. Yesterday he did his first test and passed with flying colors. He was promoted to PFC(Private First Class) and got his first chevron. He was bouncing off the wall when I went to pick him up at Camp Mabry at the end of the day. He wore his cover with its chevron for the rest of the night so that everyone could see. It’s interesting that now there are recruits 4, 5, and even 6 years older than him and he is their superior.

A friend and I got to test drive the new Land Rover Range Rover Sports offroad this morning. There was an event put on by the local dealers at a ranch outside town. Chris got to test the HSE while I got lucky and got the fully loaded Supercharged version. Not that you can tell from the pics but I was driving the lighter silver Sport while my friend Chris was driving the darker one.

First impressions:

• Buttons. Lots of buttons. Traction control buttons. Hi-lo buttons. Buttons to tell you what buttons do. Total visual overload.
• Comfy seats compared to my stock D90 seats. Of course, a wooden bench is more comfortable than my seats.
• Shiny.
• The engine is quiet and smooth.
• Two screens for the DVD system in the headrests for the backseat. Life’s rough.

Likes:

• Comfy and quiet.
• Power. As much as you need when you need it. Very responsive. I didn’t get to really wind it up as it was an offroad course but you could tell there was a beast under the hood wanting to be let loose.
• Traction control was spot on. I got it high-cornered and it had no problem walking off the hill on two wheels. When lifting a wheel off the ground you don’t even realize it. It sends the power to the other wheels.
• On board display was neat. Seeing exactly how much you were stuffing wheels on a little screen in the dash was interesting and informative. A lot of data is presented in a fashion that doesn’t overload you.
• It felt very sturdy in the twisty bits of the trails.
• Three words. Adaptive Cruise Control. Prayers have been answered with that one.
• Fridge in the armrest. No more digging around in the backseat looking for another ‘bottled water’.

Dislikes:

• Too many buttons. Of course, my 90 has exactly 1 button, for the emergency flashers, so I may have an different perspective than most.
• Hill Descent Control was annoying as hell and I turned it off. I know exactly how fast I want to go down this hill. Stop hitting the damn brakes for me. If I need to go slow I’ll down-shift.
• I felt way too disconnected from the trail. I want to feel at least a bit of the trail.
• I want a real parking brake. Not another damn button. And to release the parking brake you just drive off? WTF is up with that?

Overall, it’s a very well put together vehicle. If I had the means and already had a 90, 110, and 101 in the garage I’d seriously think about it. It is great for driving around town but is still very capable offroad. I think, with a competent driver, it’d have no problem with most of the 3 diamond trails I’ve been on around here. The interior was easily on par with the Jag XJ-12 our family just sold. It would make a very nice touring car with the capability to go offroad when you got to where you’re headed.

When we heard that there were now evacuees in Austin we knew we had to do something. We made a drop today at the Salvation Army center downtown for the victims. They are the only charity I’ll support in times like this. I will never support the Red Cross and that belief was solidified yesterday after one of their local directors said “We need money not stuff. Take your stuff to the Salvation Army.” Yeah, I know it takes money to help out but you don’t turn away donations. Someone I know showed up at a local Red Cross shelter with $200 worth of bottled water. The lady asked if he had cash. When he said no they directed him across town to a drop point nowhere near where it would supposedly be used.

I went through my closet and found a lot of clothes I had that we’d bought at end-of-season sales. I donated almost 2 bags worth of brand-new men’s clothes. My son went through his toys and gave a giant box of stuffed animals and games for the kids. My wife did the sme. The truck couldn’t hold anymore stuff by the time we pulled out of the driveway. On the way downtown we stopped at Walgreens and picked up a basket full of toiletries (razors, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc, etc).
There were 6 guys out back waiting to unload cars with goods. We were in and out in under 2 minutes. They asked if I was donating my ‘jeep’ too. I told them the Land Rover was my baby but if they need a truck to haul goods around town it’s at their beck-and-call. 🙂 By the time we left there were 3 more cars behind us waiting to unload.
My son learned a bit about how other are not as fortunate as he is and didn’t mind one bit giving his toys so that other kids might have something to call their own.

I don’t know what to say. Part of me says rebuild as it’s a hell of a town to visit and has some good memories for my wife and me. The practical side says don’t rebuild in a damn bowl below sealevel where hurricanes are likely. We were going to visit in December on our way to/from Orlando but now have changed plans. With gas prices as high as they are flying is actually cheaper than driving. Amazing. Also, without being able to stop for beignets there’s no reason to drive.

We’ve posted in a couple places that we’ve got room for a few folks/refugees from Louisiana but without a way to get online to find the postings it’s pretty futile.