WE SURVIVED IKE !

 

As most of the world knows, Texas was hit hard by Hurricane Ike.

Ike came ashore in Galveston which is about 250 miles from where we live in East Texas. Most hurricanes or more likely, tropical depressions will make their landfall and then weaken significantly before they make it as far as our home in Athens.

Ike, however, was different. At one time, it appeared he would come straight up from Galveston, through Houston and right over Athens.

My brother and I spent Friday cutting limbs and getting our house and yard ready for high winds and the certain rain.

Due to the wonders of modern television, we were able to watch as Ike came ashore. It wasn't long until our weather changed and we started getting quite a bit of rain and wind. To our good luck, Ike's path changed to the east and it looks like we missed the worst part by about 35 - 40 miles. There were lots of trees uprooted, power lines down and damaged roofs just a few towns away. We are thankful we were spared.

We were glad that it worked out that we were able to be here with our boys to ride out the storm. It would have been really hard to have been trying to keep up with how things were going in Texas if we had still been in Latvia.

Thanks for all of the prayers and concern from our friends in Latvia. We really thank you for remembering us. Please continue to pray for the people of the Texas Gulf Coast and others that have been affected by this huge storm. There is much clean-up, repair and rebuilding that will be taking place as Ike has left his mark on a huge area of Texas.

HOME TO TEXAS

 

A couple of small visa problems encouraged us to move our flight home up a couple of weeks. I assume all countries' visa regulations are cumbersome but sometimes in Latvia it would be humourus if it wasn't so serious. The agents we are working with do not know the English language as well as they think they do and that complicates matters even more. As their guests, we try to be non-confrontational as we discuss the documents but ultimately it is entirely in their hands whether they accept our documents. New regulations seem to have a way of popping up without anyone being aware they have been added.

We had one date that was incorrect on a visa document so we have had to delay our submission. We will get that corrected and submit the documents from the US. I would like to say that next year we will know better (we said that last year!) but I think it ultimately just comes down to how business is done. We must expect delays and new requirments and live with it. We will enjoy the  extra two week with our boys and other family.

Olegs picked us up at 3:00am in Cesis for the trip to the Riga Airport. It was a very nice 44 degrees....low humidity; great jacket weather.

We had no problems until we started to leave Amsterdam. After we had settled in our seats and adjusted ourselves for the 10.5 hour trip to DFW, the pilot informed us that the cargo hold door had a malfunction. I don't know jack about planes but I do know that an open door could create a small problem when you are at cruising altitude.

We deplaned, loaded up on free water, waited for three hours and then boarded the replacement plane. After that, it was a great flight.

We arrived at DFW at 4:00pm and the pilot informed us it was 97 degrees. When I stepped off the plane I think it was close to 218 percent humidity.

Steve picked us up and we headed to Whataburger for our first American burger fix to feed our addiction. Mexican food is next on the wish list!

The boys had done a fairly good job of keeping the house presentable this time but all of us spent the Labor Day holiday working in the yard getting it trimmed up.

We are glad to be home. We have a lot to accomplish and are looking forward to visiting with friends and family.

Adam (our next to oldest) will graduate at the end of the month from Art Institute of Dallas. We will be there for that big accomplishment.

Stay tuned as we update what is going on in Texas.

Paldies!