Tracking Hurricanes in California

It just might seem crazy that someone in earthquake country would worry about hurricanes, but for me is comes natural. You see I may live in earthquake country but my entire biological family lives, you guessed it, in hurricane territory. So this weekend was one of those where I was on edge as I watched Hurricane Ike make landfall about 50 miles west of where my family was all hunkered down.

With earthquakes, you just never know when it is going to hit, you live your life everyday knowning that today could be the day for the "Big One" but it is just a normal part of your daily life living in Southern California. But living in hurricane territory, for several months a year you keep an eye on what the weather is doing out beyond the Carribean where "they"are born.

You keep an eye on every tropical depression that appears and you learn to hate it when they attach a name to it, because once they name it, you know it is big enough to eventually become a nightmare for you.

With earthquakes, they strike and are gone just about as soon as they come. But hurricanes will come at you slowly and build in power as they make their way in your direction. You watch them everyday, slowly coming in your direction but still not knowing where they are truly going to go. It is always a guessing game, a game of suspense. Even when you think you know for sure just where it will strike, it can change directions in a matter of hours and head in a direction you never expected.

Three years ago, Hurricane Rita decided to pay a visit to my family in Texas, a very unwelcomed visit indeed. My family dates back to the 1800's in East Texas (on the Neff side

In all those years, never had any of my family ever had to evacuate for a hurricane. Oh we

had hurricanes visit us throught the years, but unless you were really close to the coast,

you just boarded up your windows, made sure nothing was laying out in the yard that would blow away and you just stayed inside till it was over. The last big one I personally remember

was back in the late 1960's. It was a Friday night and my Mom and Dad and little brother and myself were sitting in the stands watching the Silsbee Tigers play football against some other High School team. The reason I even remember it is I remember my Mom making mention of it.

The wind started blowing some and it started to rain and she said "Well I guess the Hurricane is getting closer". We finished watching the game and went home and that night the wind really blew and man did it rain. The next day we saw pictures on TV that showed the beach close to Galveston where it had come ashore. It was a mess there but we just got some strong winds. But in 2005 when Rita came to visit, it was a total different story. My Mom was 87, and it was the first time she ever had to pack up and evacuate her home, not knowing what would be left of it, if anything, when she returned. My entire family evacuated to diffrent places in North Texas and waited out the storm. My sister took my Mom with her as they went up close to Dallas.

I told them then I had rather been right there with them than to have to be out here watching it on TV and not really knowing how they all were doing. My family was extremely lucky when Rita came . My Mom's house was ok, just an electrical box blew off her house. My sister had more damage,trees down, one of their big storage sheds was torn apart and they had many many trees down on their property. My brother's house was ok with just minor damage. It is truly a time that my family will never forget, when we were scattered in so many different places just waiting out the time to see what was left of their lives after the Storm.

Now this past week, Ike decided to pay a visit. At first we thought he was going to come in around Corpus Christi which is at the exteme southern tip of Texas. But as the week went by

we knew that Ike was going to be coming in very close to, if not directly into, where my family was. I can not even begin to tell you the sense of helplessness that I feel when things like this happen. Here I am 1600 miles from them and know what they are going through in preparing for a Storm of this magnitude, and not being about to do one thing to help. Everyone is really great in contacting me with what their plans are and where they will be during the storm.

Thay way I can relay it to the others when I talk to them. They all may in different places, but we all know just where everyone else is. So it was Friday evening before Ike made land fall. I

knew just where each on of them were and we all just waited. The last time I was able to talk with any of them was around 7pm our time here in LA. I was glued to CNN to watch the storm and different broadcasts from the area in Texas. So around midnight our time, Ike decide

to come in at Galveston, about 50 miles to the west of my family. I knew they were having very strong winds (between 85-110 miles per hours) but I knew they were not getting the flood water. I went to bed around 1am. At 8am , my sister was able to get through on her cell phone to let me know that everyone had made it through ok and with very little damage. I almost cried. That was the last time I was able to hear from any of them until late this afternoon when I was able to get through to my sister.

Once again my family had made it through and was safe.

I am so very thankful.

There Come a Time in Your LIfe...

When I first started this blog, I gave alot of thought as to the direction I wanted it to go. I decided that I would just share with everyone what was going on in my life and share bits and pieces about my past and some fun adventures I have had along the way. Sometimes it would be funny and sometimes it just might not be as funny and sometimes it just might be a little serious. I wanted my friends and love ones to really get to know the person I truly am.

Lately I have been giving A LOT of thought as to how to handle people who are still important to me, but for whatever reason, our friendship is not as important to them and we have just drifted apart. You see I believe in being forever friends, maybe not the best of friends, but when does there come a time when some one who was an important part of your life, cease to being apart of your life at all?

A few weeks ago, for the very first time in my entire life, I told someone I had known for many years that we could no longer be friends. The decision to do this was one that kept me up many nights and caused me a lot of internal strife. This person had been a close friend of mine for a long time, we had a lot of fun together through the years and several adventures together I could never share here! (just trust me, we had fun!). But over the last few years I realized what a cold, negative person he had become, but I stuck by him as his friend when others left, I just said I was trying to accept him as the person he was. But the time came when he turned his negativity on me, and I decided I just couldn't do it anymore. So after a few weeks of soul searching over it, I just quietly told him, we could not be friends anymore. It would be safe to say he did not take it well, but I just had to walk away. I can truly say it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. For several days afterwards, it felt as if he had died and
I mourned the lost of my friend.


There are other friends I have that it seems it has come to the point where I am the only one who calls or emails. They are always super excited to see me if we bump into each other or if we do talk on the phone. You know, sometime in your life you have been there too . I never really know how to handle situations like this.

Well last week, a friend of mine in Palm Springs, MD, sent me something that just really put it all in perspective for me when I read it. It says:


There come a point in your life when you realize:

who matters, who never did, who won't anymore... and who always will.

So, don't worry about the people from your past, there's a reason why they

didn't make it to your future.


This really made a difference for me, so I wanted to share it with you. We are all together
in this journey called life, and just maybe, you have been going through something similar too


later

ps. thanks MD for sharing this with me and for the others who also sent it to me in different forms. love you guys

Let Me Introduce You..

On our first day of vacation, Patrick and I drove over to meet a new addition to our chosen family..I would like to introduce you to our new "nephew"..... Brandon Kristian Spadaro !!!! (YEA) Mr. Brandon is the son of our close friends Jennie and Kristian Sadaro. He made his entrance into the world on August 8! (8/8/08) at a whopping 9.10 lbs and he was 20 1/2 inches long. He is totally adorable (just like his Mom and Dad). Patrick and I are very excited about having a new nephew, trust me, kids just can't have too many Gay Uncles! Congrats to Jennie and Kristian on such and awesome addition to their family!!

We're Back!!!!!

Hey There,

Well we made it back from vacation, actually we made it back last Monday (Sept 1) at around 2 am! I had really intended on catching you all up during this past week but to be honest, I was tired!! After having 10 days off and getting back into the work grind, which by the way was just a little hectic this past week!!!, I just did not get it done, but I promise to get it all posted this week and we even took some great pictures I will be sharing with you, all in all we traveled about 1200 miles in about 5 days. Everyone had a great time and everyone made it back in one piece. Stay tuned, the update is a coming!

later

On Vacation!

Patrick and I are off on vacation this week, actually we are heading to Vegas and the Grand Canyon tomorrow. We are taking his family along with us so we are sure to have lots of fun.


Check back next week for a rundown on the fun we had and see pictures of our trip.


Until then, please enjoy this short video entitled. "The Closet"




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sskPvWid4oU

Good Adivce

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk ever day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate antidepressant.

2. Sit in slience for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.

3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, ' My purose is to __________ today.'

4. Eat more foods that grow on tress and plants and eat less food that is manufacture in plants.

5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds

and walnuts.

6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

7. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid on a maxed out credit card.

9. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

12. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

14. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?'

17. Forgive everyone for everything.

18. What others think about you is none of your business.

19. GOD heals everything.

20. However good or bad the situation is, it will change.

21. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick, Your friends will. Stay in touch!!

22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for _______. Today I accomplished _________________.

24 Remember you are too blessed to be stressed.

While Going For A Walk One Day......

Since I spend most of my working day sitting on my tush, everyday during my lunch time I try and go out and take awalk to stretch my legs and let some blood flow to my backside. One or sometimes both of my co-workers go with me so we can get some exercise and fresh air, well as fresh as you can get with all the cars rolling by on Wilshire. One day a week or so ago I was out by myself ( yes they do let me wander out alone) and I was walking by the construction site
on the next block.Like most construction sites around LA, it it pretty much surrounded by tall plywood walls so you can't see what they are doing and they in turn can't drop anything on you as you pass. Now I have been by this site many times over the last few months, matter of fact I had walked by this very site the day before, but as
I walked through the covered sidewalk, the sign above caught my eye. Actually I glanced at it as I walked past it and I suddenly stopped and went back to make sure what I saw.
I just burst out laughing. It just hit me as classic LA humor. I loved it. I was afraid someone would graffiti over it before I could come back the next morning with my camera. Just had to share it with ya!!

later