Imelda Cleanup

The stake did a cleanup in Vidor last weekend, but I didn't go because of my choir director calling. This week there were some opportunities to help out locally, so I went to the Hinds house on Sunday morning to help rip out some drywall.

They had flooded during Harvey too, so they were pretty bummed to have to do it all over again. I was only there for a couple of hours, but I knew what I was doing this time and got a lot done. We got most of it ripped out before I headed back to get ready for church.

Tropical Storm Imelda

Just two years after Harvey, we got another huge rain event in our area with Tropical Storm Imelda. Thankfully our house was spared again, but our neighborhood was hit harder this time than during Harvey.

School was cancelled on Thursday, which I initially thought was cautious, because the storm had just recently developed. I went to work and watched as just got hammered by rain. It was soon apparent that the school cancellation was warranted as I started getting reports that our neighborhood was flooding.

This was just a few streets away from us, but our street was fine. Our backyard got very wet, however.

Once I realized how serious it was, it was too late to go back home, so I stayed at work until the rain subsided a little. In the late afternoon it looked like a good time to head out so I had Amber go check the flooded areas in the neighborhood to make sure I could get to the house.

The drive home was a little treacherous, with stoplights out, flooding on 1960, and many abandoned cars, but I made it home without incident.

Only later did I learn that I had an easy time of it. Many people were stuck on highways for hours waiting for water levels to go down.

We're now convinced we can't move anywhere else in the Houston area, since our house is apparently flood-proof (knock on wet wood). Many homes did get flooded (again), so I imagine we'll be mucking out some houses in the next few weeks.

Galveston

We never got around to planning a 3-day Galveston weekend like we often do, but it was still very warm this last weekend, so we decided to at least go for the day on Saturday. We got there late morning, and the kids didn't have to be told what to do.

They rode boogie boards until they wore themselves out, then came back to the sand to build sand castles. There was a family near us whose kids joined in the fun. I think the kids only spoke Chinese, but sand castles are a universal language.

I finally remembered to bring our kites. Many of them were too damaged to really work well, but BB8 was still functional.

It was a nice relaxing day.

But eventually, it was time to head back to reality.

Miles riding a bike

Miles has had his bike for quite a while, but despite my previous efforts, he hadn't learned to ride it. Amber thought it would be fun if the kids could ride their bikes to school, so I told her she could try her hand at teaching him and this time it stuck. In just a few days he was riding all over.

He's been riding to school every day since then, so when Labor Day came around, we decided to go on a family bike ride. We rode on the Spring Creek Greenway Trail and he ended up riding at least 10 miles that day. I think it's safe to say he has officially learned to ride.