I had hoped to be more active in this endeavor, but life doesn’t slow down for new bloggers.
Hurricane Harvey came and went and thankfully we were unscathed compared to so many. We received 12 1/2″ of rain on one day and a total of just under 32″ during Harvey’s visitation. I had never seen such an accumulation of waters as those left by Harvey and it occurred in places I’d never seen before.
Harvey struck the lower Texas coast on Saturday 8/26/2017. We had family dinner plans that night at Aim Thai, my favorite Thai restaurant. The entire family punked out because of Harvey’s impending visit. That suited me just fine, we gave them a “rain check” and went by ourselves. As usual Cho cooked us a wonderful meal and we returned home with nary a puddle in sight.
Sunday 8/27/2017 was different. My better half works for a dog/house sitting service and she loves her job and her four legged charges. Around 10 PM she was scheduled to appear for a bedtime visit with Max and Zack, two beautiful Standard Poodles, approximately 5 1/2 miles from our house. When she informed me of her plan to depart for her duty I peered outside to see some of Harvey’s torrents coming down nearly horizontally. As I mentioned before my other half loves her jobs and her charges, they all seem to love her visits, and their owners always feel better and at ease leaving their furry babies in her care.
My sweetheart drives a universal style Japanese sedan and she has experienced all types of driving weather in it, not wanting to rain on her parade, Harvey had beaten me to that, I suggested it might be more prudent if she allowed me to drive her the 5 1/2 miles in my truck and, thank you lord, she relented.
The two blocks out of our neighborhood were uneventful we’re fairly flood resistant here. The 1st major thoroughfare was something else. As I turned east onto the normally busy four lane street I first noticed that it was unusually vacant, the second observation was the nearly hubcap high water along most of it where normally, even in a heavy rain only occasionally puddled deeply in the curb lane.
We proceeded slowly near or over the centerline often guiding on the double yellow line to keep to “the shallows”. I drove a mile or two east until we neared a lower section of road near a creek and I then turned south on a road I knew to be of higher elevation. The drainage on this road was superior to the heavier traveled roads we had turned off and we continued to the next road east. This road was deep but well lit by a school. I was almost past the school when I became apprehensive as to the depth of the water in the road we were approaching. I pulled into one of the school parking lots that was on higher ground and well lit to survey the road ahead. My confidence was wavering at this point as I had never seen high water in this location in the several decades I’d lived nearby and I’d never dreamed it would get so high here.
My ever faithful canine care giver beckoned me to continue as long as I could still see the centerline, I could, we did. As we neared one of the Villages of upscale homes with tall tree lined streets the road darkened and inched along cautiously. We soon came to a very familiar section of road that contained a concrete bridge over a concrete lined creek as you leave this neighborhood. The road here takes a slight dip before the bridge and we were probably at our maximum depth for passage. Again I was astounded by the amount of water here. I traverse this bridge quite frequently and I’d never seen this. As I was starting across the darkened bridge with higher ground and better lighting in sight I glanced out my window to see that the water was actually coming over the bridge.
I’ll stop briefly here to say I know I know “Turn around don’t drown”. I was raised with that warning drilled into my head and I understand it’s meaning without a doubt! Had it not been so dark exiting that Village I would have seen the excessively high and potentially dangerous waters. I did know the bridge to be robust, with two lanes in each direction, a raised footpath along the outside lane with a footwall? perhaps knee high on the outer side of the walkway, from which two round steel guardrails arose. It was this footwall that had prevented me from seeing the amount of water in the creek bed. This low wall prevented the waters from flowing across the bridge roadway, instead it directed the flow around the end of the bridge into the Village I was exiting. The opposite side was higher, brighter, and with much better visibility.
We continued east for about another mile under much less treacherous conditions. At our final turn to the south we entered deep water again, but we were nearly there and the nearness of the finish line drove us forward. We approached our final turn at what must have been the higher end of the block as there were many trucks and Suburbans parked bumper to bumper almost into the intersection. Turning narrowly between these vehicles in high water again was a treat…NOT! Fortunately our destination was halfway down the block and we were then able to pull up into the driveway and out of the water. Boy were Max and Zack happy to see us!!
We spent 30-45 minutes with the dogs. We let them out for their evening constitutional, dried them off, and frolicked a bit with them before securing them for the night.
When we stepped outside we were not ready for what we saw. The waters that were nearly top-of-the-hubcap high when we entered the street had receded with only a small puddle still standing here and there. On our way home we basically retraced our route from earlier in the evening on normally wet streets with an odd curbside puddle or a low dip to splash through. Recrossing the bridge the creek was well withing it’s banks and not the least bit intimidating.
Harvey’s rains continued to pelt us Monday and Tuesday. We watched the water level in our backyard rise and fall a number of times as bands of rain of varying intensity passed through. We had a small amount of water come under the back door into the back room but it was more hassle than damage and it soon left. We never lost power, never got to try out our new generator, and I’m not even sure if we opened the cases of bottled water we had provisioned. Thank you Jesus!!!
So what the heck does all this driving around in Harvey’s fool rain have to do with exploding chicken gizzards. I thought you’d never ask. Back to 8/26.
Thai cuisine is probably my favorite to eat and one of my most challenging to try to create. I spent the weekend in Gonzales for Come And Take It weekend. We eat, drink, and generally are merry. We also talk a lot about food, family, friends, football, fall hunting season, and the ALDS playoffs. I went to my local HEB and while I was there I decided it was time to cook some Laab Gai so I bought some lizzards and givers, garlic, peppers, and some other stuff. It turned out very well. The next day I decided to heat up some left overs for lunch. I mixed a small bowl of the laab and some rice and popped it in the microwave, set the timer, and headed to the back to answer my phone. I left my two dogs laying on the kitchen floor. Just as I was unplugging my phone charger I heard a loud crack almost like the report of a gun and soon after another. As I turned to investigate my two dogs came sliding around the hardwood floor corner running 90 to nothing into the bedroom with a look of, what the hell was that daddy on their faces!
Of course, when I returned to the kitchen I found two of the already twice cooked gizzards had exploded. So after lunch I washed the dishes, the microwave, and took a nap. Who’d a thunk 90 seconds in the microwave would make such a bang. My dogs sure didn’t.
On tonight’s menu I’m going to cook some Nakji Bokkeum, a spicy Korean dish with some fresh baby octopi I saw at the store this morning. Hopefully it will only be spectacular in flavor!
Cheers
The Burnt Crust 