Notes on Hurricane Harvey

Friday August 25, 2017 - 8:30 p.m.
Glad I did my grocery shopping on Tuesday, before the hurricane was predicted to actually be a hurricane.  Even on that day, store clerks were unwrapping skids of drinking water.

I did stock up yesterday on water, bleach and paper plates, after hurriedly rescheduling a Girl Scout recruiting rally I was to conduct that night.  The storm was predicted to be a category 3 (as I write this, it has morphed into a category 4 with wind speed of 140 mph!). 

Joe and I had already brought in the outdoor furniture and potted plants.  I will leave out the hummingbird feeders as long as I can today for the little fellers.  Fixed steak Diane for dinner.

The ice chest is cleaned out, my brand new drink dispenser is full of water, in case we cannot use water from the tap later.  A gallon of water is in the freezer, to drink as it thaws (a trick we used when Joe, Emilie and I used to go camping in July to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  It is a cheap vacation, but pretty hot in Texas, and that icy water was a godsend!).

Called Mom yesterday and told her we would ride it out.  Have had several offers of places to stay from friends in Austin and San Antonio.  My birding buddy, Susan, called from her temporary digs in  Laredo.  They live in Rockport, which is under a mandatory evacuation order.  Tonight she and her husband, Paul, are drinking gin and tonics at Danny and Mona's, then tomorrow she will go birding early in the morning with the Laredo birding contingent.  I am jealous!

8:45 p.m.
Cooking a pot of beans for Joe -- what a funny request!  The power is still on -- T.V. has shown the storm's progress all day on all channels.  Press conferences with the mayor, video of slick streets, reflecting the street lights, that are devoid of traffic -- kind of like on Christmas Eve.

The T.V. folk must be exhausted, though they act as if they are not.  As I took down the hummingbird feeders, one of the hummers scolded me from the neighbor's tree.  Sorry, little guy!  Young grackles were flying awkwardly from tree to tree, pushed from behind by the wind -- what a time to learn to fly!

Joe has gone in to bed.  He predicts that the weather effects will be minor here.  As we are in the southwestern quadrant, he is probably right.

Texted Kimiko, in Victoria, where Harvey is headed.  She will hunker down and hope for a good outcome.  Several other people have texted asking if we are OK.  I sheepishly have to admit to still having power.

8:53 p.m.
Still have power -- for how long?  Wind in Rockport reported at 118 mph - as fast as a tornado!

Haha!  All four news reporters sitting at the news desk are looking at their electronics at the same time.  So funny -- so contemporary.

I just opened the front door.  Can't hear much inside, but outside the wind is roaring through the trees.  The cats sit at the open door, ears back, eyes bugging out.  The beans are almost done.

Emilie called earlier to see how we were doing -- Joe said, "We are making our wills."  Her BFF from college texted me to check on our status -- sweet of her!

9:05
The power just blinked off for a nano second.  Good thing Joe completed the one task I set for him today:  put batteries in the flashlights.

11:45 p.m.
 Just ended a call from a friend in Ithaca.  Good night!

Saturday August 26, 2017 - 8:15 a.m.
My cat, Mickey, and I took a quick stroll up the cul-de-sac - a couple of fences are down, one tree (trunk about 8" in diameter) snapped close to the ground, lawns are covered with fallen leaves and small branches.  I put the hummingbird feeders back up earlier, and the birds are swarming.  Gnatcatchers and titmice twitter from the branches up high.

Cool and pleasant outside, with no rain at the moment.

Emilie has (had?) job interviews in Pt. Lavaca Tuesday (postponed indefinitely), Austin Wednesday and Houston Thursday (probably ditto).  She is anxious to go to work, but Harvey says, "Not yet."

11:00 a.m. 
Today I have spoken with Anne and John Roman in their new home in Florida, and to Mark Roman, who is planning a trip to Hawaii mid-September with his girlfriend, who will be working there.  Must be rough.... LOL

Inca Dove calling in the back yard, "No hope... no hope,"  but things are getting back to normal.  Nary a car on the streets.  The news from just north of here is horrific, but only one death so far - someone caught in a house fire.  RIP.

Fieg Family Model T Sold for $3.75

Ford Motor Company observed the 100th anniversary of the pick-up truck this year, a milestone noted by the production of Model T conversions dating back to 1917, and the first true pick-up in 1947.   After-market conversion kits were sold with detailed instructions for the transformation.

1925 Model T Conversion Pick-Up

Max Fieg built such a conversion from a 1925 Model T Touring Car.  The car was made almost entirely of wood, and served Max and his family for a good many years.

Eventually the truck was retired and later it caught the attention of a passer-by.  He asked Max, "How much do you want for it?" and Max replied, "How much have you got?"  The prospective buyer said, "Three dollars and seventy-five cents."

Max Fieg in 1943

"That'll do," Max said.  After dropping a fresh battery into it and making sure it turned over, he pocketed the cash and watched his customer drive away.  The vehicle has not been seen in the family since that day.

Fanciful family lore suggests that some members of the Fieg generation from the early 19th century were wagon-makers, a narrow and exacting discipline, which may explain why the men (and women?) of Lothar and Max Fieg's generation were endowed with considerable carpentry skills.

The Model T has made some appearances in the Fieg family at other points in the 20th Century.  Frank Fieg, barely old enough to drive, worked as a taxi driver to earn enough to purchase a 1925 Model T of his own.  In the late 1930s, he was cruising in his "tin lizzie" from Cooperstown to Oneonta.  The vehicle, four cylinders with a top speed of 45 miles per hour, was already obsolete when it rolled off the assembly line in Detroit, and so was quickly passed by modern vehicles with six-cylinder and V-8 engines.

Frank was attempting to negotiate the sweeping curve at the Hope Hill intersection on Rte. 28, when a big V-8 roared past him, heading toward Hyde Park.  Frank knew the other driver would not be able to hold that curve at such a breakneck speed.  The car careened off the road and slammed into a stone mill and feed store, which stands there today in mute testimony.  The driver was killed.

Frank's son, Greg Fieg, had the occasion to ride in a 1917 Model T Runabout in a holiday parade in Venice, Fla. in 1997.  The car belonged to the late Army Col. John Morley, who served with Frank during the battle of Okinawa in 1945 (though they did not know each other).

1947 Ford pick-up

The first true Ford pick-up, an F-100, was built in 1947, initiating the F-series, now F-150s, which have been the best-selling vehicles in America for many years.  That truck, with its powerful flat-head V-8, heavy-duty suspension, and reinforced frame, filled a void in the marketplace.

Ford Assembly Line

At the time Ford Model Ts were entering the marketplace in 1908, other cars could sell for up to $5,000.  Henry Ford, watching an assembly line in a slaughterhouse, had the idea to adapt the technique to his automobile production, an efficiency that allowed for production of cars that sold for sometimes less than $400.  This made transportation affordable for most families in what the great industrialist called the "democratization of the automobile."

Henry Ford

By 1914 he boasted that you could have a Model T in any color, "as long as it is black."