Veronica and I made it back home safe and sound.
Upon arriving on the Outer Banks, we really did not see much on the main drag that would indicate a hurricane came through.
Sure there was some pools of rain water here and there, a couple of branches down but nothing that really stood out and said "Earl Was Here".
Most businesses were still closed except for maybe some gas stations.
As soon as we arrived home, Veronica had to jump in her vehicle and go to the store so that she could get it ready for business.
I emptied the car and put everything away at home.
I also had to clean up some water that had made its way into our bedroom, through the sliding glass doors.
I ended up getting around a gallon of water up. The carpets is still pretty damp but I have a fan blowing on it so that it will dry out.
The only other damage was some rain getting into our storage shed, that is attached to the backside of our garage.
It got a few boxes wet but nothing major.
All in all, we fared pretty well.
No flooding, no broken windows and best of all....the electricity stayed on so we don't have to replace all of our refrigerated and frozen food items.
Now maybe we can start focusing on more pleasant things, like our upcoming vacation.
We leave her in a little over 3 days....finally!
Showing posts with label Kill Devil Hills NC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kill Devil Hills NC. Show all posts
Hurricane Preparation
I went to pick up Veronica from work. I arrived to find these workers busy boarding up the front of the T J Maxx building in anticipation of the arrival of Hurricane Earl.
They are talking about the hurricane arriving here tomorrow night although we will get bands of rain and wind before then.
The store will be open tomorrow. The time that it will close will depend on when storm arrives here. Veronica and I will be there when the store closes. I will be helping them put up a frame where the only unboarded open door is. Once we get the door frame screwed in we will then put up the plywood pieces...kind like putting a puzzle together. The plywood sections will then be screwed to the frame. Hopefully it won't take too long to do this task because I am sure it will be raining and the wind will have picked up some by that time.
Another Update
All hurricane watches for the OBX and North Carolina coastal borders have now been changed over to hurricane warnings.
Veronica just called me from her work and told me that all of the local emergency vehicles are now hitting the gas stations and getting filled up.
It appears that some of the local gas stations have already started to raise their prices higher than what they were set at this morning, when I took Veronica to work.
I find that behavior to be totally outrageous...they should be flogged in the public square.
Veronica just called me from her work and told me that all of the local emergency vehicles are now hitting the gas stations and getting filled up.
It appears that some of the local gas stations have already started to raise their prices higher than what they were set at this morning, when I took Veronica to work.
I find that behavior to be totally outrageous...they should be flogged in the public square.
Update And A Few Changes
Unfortunately Veronica and I received information that was not the most accurate.
There is not a mandatory evacuation for our immediate area yet.
What they seem to be doing is a systematic evacuation.
Residence of Ocracoke Island were told to evacuate earlier. You can only get on and off the island by ferry.
Just heard that visitors on Hatteras must evacuate.
They are still waiting to see how this hurricane will track.
Eventually they will probably have all visitors leave the area and sometime after that, locals will be told to leave.
Of course if you want to leave earlier you can.
I called the Hampton Inn, in Williamston, NC and cancelled our room for tonight only. We will probably stay here for tonight and then go elsewhere tomorrow.
Depends on the evacuation process and the storms progress and track.
Veronica is at work.
They are supposed to be boarding up the stores windows this afternoon.
I spent the morning so far dragging down bags and items to go in the car with us, should we be told to evacuate.
I also put shipping tape on the windows.
I mainly taped up the big sliding glass door set that we have on both the 2nd and 3rd floor.
I also taped up the ground floor windows.
You would never know that a storm is coming. The sun is shining and there are no clouds in the sky. Just a clear nice day here on the Outer Banks.
Give it 24-36 hours and we will see what it looks like at that time.
So now it is time to just sit around and wait.
Update to my update.
Just saw the Mayor of Kill Devil Hills on the Weather Channel being interviewed.
He just announced that there is now a mandatory evacuation of all tourist in the immediate area.
The Emergency Management people will be monitoring the hurricane system and make determinations of any further evacuations as time goes by.
There is not a mandatory evacuation for our immediate area yet.
What they seem to be doing is a systematic evacuation.
Residence of Ocracoke Island were told to evacuate earlier. You can only get on and off the island by ferry.
Just heard that visitors on Hatteras must evacuate.
They are still waiting to see how this hurricane will track.
Eventually they will probably have all visitors leave the area and sometime after that, locals will be told to leave.
Of course if you want to leave earlier you can.
I called the Hampton Inn, in Williamston, NC and cancelled our room for tonight only. We will probably stay here for tonight and then go elsewhere tomorrow.
Depends on the evacuation process and the storms progress and track.
Veronica is at work.
They are supposed to be boarding up the stores windows this afternoon.
I spent the morning so far dragging down bags and items to go in the car with us, should we be told to evacuate.
I also put shipping tape on the windows.
I mainly taped up the big sliding glass door set that we have on both the 2nd and 3rd floor.
I also taped up the ground floor windows.
You would never know that a storm is coming. The sun is shining and there are no clouds in the sky. Just a clear nice day here on the Outer Banks.
Give it 24-36 hours and we will see what it looks like at that time.
So now it is time to just sit around and wait.
Update to my update.
Just saw the Mayor of Kill Devil Hills on the Weather Channel being interviewed.
He just announced that there is now a mandatory evacuation of all tourist in the immediate area.
The Emergency Management people will be monitoring the hurricane system and make determinations of any further evacuations as time goes by.
Latest Update About Hurricane Earl
Veronica and I just found out that there will be a mandatory evacuation due to the upcoming visit from Hurricane Earl.
The mandatory evacuation begins tomorrow at 1PM.
I just got off of the telephone with the Hampton Inn, in Williamston NC to let them know that we would be arriving there a night earlier.
This might be my last update until we get to our hotel tomorrow night. It all depends on how quick I get everything done.
Time to get things done.
See you on the "flip side".
The mandatory evacuation begins tomorrow at 1PM.
I just got off of the telephone with the Hampton Inn, in Williamston NC to let them know that we would be arriving there a night earlier.
This might be my last update until we get to our hotel tomorrow night. It all depends on how quick I get everything done.
Time to get things done.
See you on the "flip side".
Lots Of Sticks In The Fire
Today we have been super busy.
I had a doctors appointment first this morning. It was official weigh in day.
The magic number for today's weigh in is....wait for it.............175 pounds.
This is the lowest I have been for at least 12 years, probably more. I would like to drop 3 more pounds but not sure if it will happen.
Hurricane Earl is still approaching and it is still too early to know if it will fully hit us, give us a glancing blow or mainly stay off the coast.
No matter what it does, I am sure we will feel some of its fury since it is not a category 4 hurricane.
Veronica and I had to pack up some items in case of a mandatory evacuation. If we have an evacuation, it will be a grab and go situation so we wanted to have some stuff prepared.
We will have both cars fully gassed up too.
This storm has been the talk of the town around here.
We should have a better idea on what to expect within the next 24 hours. We might not truly know until the last minute.
Veronica and I also had to repack our suitcases and whittle down a few things. We originally had 4 suitcases but they want an arm and leg for baggage fees nowadays.
So what we decided to do was to get everything into 3 suitcases.
In one of the suitcases we put a smaller suitcase and packed stuff it that one and around it.
That will save us some money on the fees at least on the 2 flights heading to London.
On the return trip, we will have 4 suitcases, using the one that was packed in the other.
We can use that suitcase for souvenirs and whatever else we decide to purchase.
I set up a couple of additional doctors appointments for after we return home. The big one will be on 9/30 with my Oncologist.
I had a great Oncologist when we lived in Virginia Beach but because the drive to see him would be problematic, I changed to one that is close by us here on the Outer Banks.
This Oncologist is part of the same Oncology group as my other one.
The only bad thing about him is that he is only in his Kitty Hawk office on Thursdays.
He will be my main man to guide me through whatever journey that might lay in front of me.
I am sure that with the upcoming storm, I will have some exciting things to write about but if for some reason you don't read any new entries in the next couple of days, it will be because we either lost electricity or internet access or both.
I had a doctors appointment first this morning. It was official weigh in day.
The magic number for today's weigh in is....wait for it.............175 pounds.
This is the lowest I have been for at least 12 years, probably more. I would like to drop 3 more pounds but not sure if it will happen.
Hurricane Earl is still approaching and it is still too early to know if it will fully hit us, give us a glancing blow or mainly stay off the coast.
No matter what it does, I am sure we will feel some of its fury since it is not a category 4 hurricane.
Veronica and I had to pack up some items in case of a mandatory evacuation. If we have an evacuation, it will be a grab and go situation so we wanted to have some stuff prepared.
We will have both cars fully gassed up too.
This storm has been the talk of the town around here.
We should have a better idea on what to expect within the next 24 hours. We might not truly know until the last minute.
Veronica and I also had to repack our suitcases and whittle down a few things. We originally had 4 suitcases but they want an arm and leg for baggage fees nowadays.
So what we decided to do was to get everything into 3 suitcases.
In one of the suitcases we put a smaller suitcase and packed stuff it that one and around it.
That will save us some money on the fees at least on the 2 flights heading to London.
On the return trip, we will have 4 suitcases, using the one that was packed in the other.
We can use that suitcase for souvenirs and whatever else we decide to purchase.
I set up a couple of additional doctors appointments for after we return home. The big one will be on 9/30 with my Oncologist.
I had a great Oncologist when we lived in Virginia Beach but because the drive to see him would be problematic, I changed to one that is close by us here on the Outer Banks.
This Oncologist is part of the same Oncology group as my other one.
The only bad thing about him is that he is only in his Kitty Hawk office on Thursdays.
He will be my main man to guide me through whatever journey that might lay in front of me.
I am sure that with the upcoming storm, I will have some exciting things to write about but if for some reason you don't read any new entries in the next couple of days, it will be because we either lost electricity or internet access or both.
An Admission And An Observation
Let's get the first portion of this blog entry done and over with...I went to DMV last Friday and took the written test, in order to get my North Carolina drivers license. I have not had to take a written DL test in decades.
Even though I had studied and the test was a multiple choice test....you guessed it...I failed that sucker in a big way. I missed 6 and ended up with a 76. Not that much different than what I used to get in High School...almost 4 decades ago. Pretty sad I know.
Veronica only missed 1 and she did not really study much at all.
Now, I do realize that the aforementioned sentence does even less as far as restoring my standing in my "mans world" but she deserves the kudos for doing well on the test.
Now in my own defense, I found many of the questions to be rather ambiguous....yes I actually used the word "ambiguous" and I used it in the correct context. How do I know this?...because I looked it up doing a google search before I wrote it down.
Not bad for someone who flunked a written drivers license test.
But seriously...some of the questions were vague and lacked enough information to make an intelligent guess at the answer...hey...this is my excuse and I am sticking with it.
So I dragged my injured pride into the house and spent some serious time over the weekend studying the North Carolina's DMV Drivers Manual.
I returned to the location of where I had earlier lost a portion of my manhood and I took the test again.
I had a lot more confidence as I went through this test and although I did not "ace" it, I only missed 2 this time and I was able to leave the building with my head held upright.
Here in NC, they give you a temporary DL until the real thing arrives in about 10 days or so.
Once you get your "real" DL, you then can go get your vehicle(s) registered.
So with my temporary paper DL, I did some running around today in the car, I noticed that traffic has already started to pick up and I observed several cars with out of state plates.
Traffic will only get worse as the Summer months get closer.
If the traffic gets too bad, I won't be needing my drivers license because I won't be driving anywhere and I will be sticking around our quiet neighborhood.
Speaking of our neighborhood...after going for several walks over the last several days, I have a good idea of who lives where.
This isn't really hard since there are only 3 other families in the neighborhood besides us.
One other family at the other end of our townhouse buildings....one family in one of the other 3 townhouse buildings and 1 family in 1 of the other 5 or 6 single family houses.
Needless to say.....it is pretty darn quiet around here.
Even though I had studied and the test was a multiple choice test....you guessed it...I failed that sucker in a big way. I missed 6 and ended up with a 76. Not that much different than what I used to get in High School...almost 4 decades ago. Pretty sad I know.
Veronica only missed 1 and she did not really study much at all.
Now, I do realize that the aforementioned sentence does even less as far as restoring my standing in my "mans world" but she deserves the kudos for doing well on the test.
Now in my own defense, I found many of the questions to be rather ambiguous....yes I actually used the word "ambiguous" and I used it in the correct context. How do I know this?...because I looked it up doing a google search before I wrote it down.
Not bad for someone who flunked a written drivers license test.
But seriously...some of the questions were vague and lacked enough information to make an intelligent guess at the answer...hey...this is my excuse and I am sticking with it.
So I dragged my injured pride into the house and spent some serious time over the weekend studying the North Carolina's DMV Drivers Manual.
I returned to the location of where I had earlier lost a portion of my manhood and I took the test again.
I had a lot more confidence as I went through this test and although I did not "ace" it, I only missed 2 this time and I was able to leave the building with my head held upright.
Here in NC, they give you a temporary DL until the real thing arrives in about 10 days or so.
Once you get your "real" DL, you then can go get your vehicle(s) registered.
So with my temporary paper DL, I did some running around today in the car, I noticed that traffic has already started to pick up and I observed several cars with out of state plates.
Traffic will only get worse as the Summer months get closer.
If the traffic gets too bad, I won't be needing my drivers license because I won't be driving anywhere and I will be sticking around our quiet neighborhood.
Speaking of our neighborhood...after going for several walks over the last several days, I have a good idea of who lives where.
This isn't really hard since there are only 3 other families in the neighborhood besides us.
One other family at the other end of our townhouse buildings....one family in one of the other 3 townhouse buildings and 1 family in 1 of the other 5 or 6 single family houses.
Needless to say.....it is pretty darn quiet around here.
Not Again
In past blog entries, I have berated and bemoaned about the service that I have received at times from Verizon.
Now there appears to be a new leader of the pack when it comes to really poor service.
As part of my prep work for our upcoming move, I made contact with Charter Cable.
They are the main people that cover the Kill Devil Hills area for cable, telephone and internet.
Prior to calling them, I had seen a recent ratings report in Consumers Report on many telephone, cable and internet companies.
Unfortunately Charter ranked close to last place in all of the rankings. Going into this, I hoped that somehow the rankings and ratings were wrong.
I placed a call to Charter and set everything up. We got a bundle package for cable, telephone and internet.
The customer service rep was friendly and was even able to give me my new telephone number.
Once I had everything in place with Charter, including an appointment for our free installation, I then proceeded down my lengthy list of places to call, so that I could provide everyone with our new address and telephone number.
After a couple of days, I had made my way through that lengthy list and was able to take a breath before the next wave of things to do was upon me.
This initial contact with Charter occurred about 2 weeks.
About 2 days ago I got an automated call from Charter so that I could set up an installation appointment. That made no sense to me since I already had one set up. The automated caller requested that I use my touch tone dial on the phone and put in 2 numbers for the date and 2 numbers for the month that I would like to have my installation appointment on.
I plugged in the same numbers for the same date of installation that had already been made previously. Unfortunately the computer would not accept the numbers that I plugged in.
I then hung up and called Charters customer service number.
I spoke to a rep there and provided him with my customer number and service order numbers for the installation.
The rep looked everything up and said that we were all set for the date and time that was originally made 2 weeks ago.
I thought everything was all set again and I was able to take another breath of air.
Unfortunately that breath did not last long.
Yesterday afternoon I got a call from Charter stating that I had cancelled my installation and service and that we needed to start from scratch all over again.
Needless to say...I was neither happy nor pleasant.
As it turned out, Charter tried to up the cost on certain items that I had already locked in at a decent price..I say decent price because Charter prices are a lot more expensive than what we have been paying for our equal services through Verizon and Cox cable here.
I got passed onto another rep who started adding up the prices, which kept going up as the discussion continued.
Finally I had had enough and told this rep that this was obviously turning into a "bait and switch" scenario and that I was not happy at all with the way this whole thing was playing out...especially since I did not cancel anything out and that act was done on Charters side of things.
This rep must have heard enough and she hung up on me.
I then proceeded to call Charters customer service number.
I spoke with a very friendly person there that apologized profusely after hearing my long drawn out story that had occurred up to this point in time.
As it turns out, half of what I ordered was not in my original purchase and history file with Charter, so we had to go through everything that I wanted all over again. I also found out that I needed to provide the installation person $90 in cash...$30 for each service I was getting and that this amount would be directly applied to my first bill. Good thing he told me this because it was the first time I had heard of this charge. The installation person would have shown up and I would not have had a dime to give him....thus no installation at that time and another reschedule would have been in order.
After walking me through all of their offerings and deciding on what I had originally wanted, I ended up getting everything for about $5 less than the original total.
There was one minor problem....remember that telephone number that they had assigned to me...that number that I had gone down my lengthy list of places that I needed to contact and provide updated contact info...well that number was no longer found to be assigned to me.
The number was not registered to anyone else nor was it still assigned to me. It was somewhere out in there limbo land.
With the thought of additional work that I would need to do to re-contact everyone on that lengthy list, I begged the rep to attempt to locate that number so I would not have to repeat all that work again....my "to do" list is rather full as it is.
He promised me that he would try to locate that original number. He did actually call me late last night to let me know that the techs were still searching in limbo land to find my original telephone number.
He is supposed to call me back early this afternoon as soon as he gets to work and checks his email box to see if the techs were able to locate that number.
If not, I will need to get started on that list again....Aaaarrrggggg!!!!
I can now see why Charter rated so poorly in Consumer Reports rankings.
A rep from the moving company is supposed to be here shortly to determine what they will need to bring for our full packing, which will be next Wed.
Don't you just love moving?
Now there appears to be a new leader of the pack when it comes to really poor service.
As part of my prep work for our upcoming move, I made contact with Charter Cable.
They are the main people that cover the Kill Devil Hills area for cable, telephone and internet.
Prior to calling them, I had seen a recent ratings report in Consumers Report on many telephone, cable and internet companies.
Unfortunately Charter ranked close to last place in all of the rankings. Going into this, I hoped that somehow the rankings and ratings were wrong.
I placed a call to Charter and set everything up. We got a bundle package for cable, telephone and internet.
The customer service rep was friendly and was even able to give me my new telephone number.
Once I had everything in place with Charter, including an appointment for our free installation, I then proceeded down my lengthy list of places to call, so that I could provide everyone with our new address and telephone number.
After a couple of days, I had made my way through that lengthy list and was able to take a breath before the next wave of things to do was upon me.
This initial contact with Charter occurred about 2 weeks.
About 2 days ago I got an automated call from Charter so that I could set up an installation appointment. That made no sense to me since I already had one set up. The automated caller requested that I use my touch tone dial on the phone and put in 2 numbers for the date and 2 numbers for the month that I would like to have my installation appointment on.
I plugged in the same numbers for the same date of installation that had already been made previously. Unfortunately the computer would not accept the numbers that I plugged in.
I then hung up and called Charters customer service number.
I spoke to a rep there and provided him with my customer number and service order numbers for the installation.
The rep looked everything up and said that we were all set for the date and time that was originally made 2 weeks ago.
I thought everything was all set again and I was able to take another breath of air.
Unfortunately that breath did not last long.
Yesterday afternoon I got a call from Charter stating that I had cancelled my installation and service and that we needed to start from scratch all over again.
Needless to say...I was neither happy nor pleasant.
As it turned out, Charter tried to up the cost on certain items that I had already locked in at a decent price..I say decent price because Charter prices are a lot more expensive than what we have been paying for our equal services through Verizon and Cox cable here.
I got passed onto another rep who started adding up the prices, which kept going up as the discussion continued.
Finally I had had enough and told this rep that this was obviously turning into a "bait and switch" scenario and that I was not happy at all with the way this whole thing was playing out...especially since I did not cancel anything out and that act was done on Charters side of things.
This rep must have heard enough and she hung up on me.
I then proceeded to call Charters customer service number.
I spoke with a very friendly person there that apologized profusely after hearing my long drawn out story that had occurred up to this point in time.
As it turns out, half of what I ordered was not in my original purchase and history file with Charter, so we had to go through everything that I wanted all over again. I also found out that I needed to provide the installation person $90 in cash...$30 for each service I was getting and that this amount would be directly applied to my first bill. Good thing he told me this because it was the first time I had heard of this charge. The installation person would have shown up and I would not have had a dime to give him....thus no installation at that time and another reschedule would have been in order.
After walking me through all of their offerings and deciding on what I had originally wanted, I ended up getting everything for about $5 less than the original total.
There was one minor problem....remember that telephone number that they had assigned to me...that number that I had gone down my lengthy list of places that I needed to contact and provide updated contact info...well that number was no longer found to be assigned to me.
The number was not registered to anyone else nor was it still assigned to me. It was somewhere out in there limbo land.
With the thought of additional work that I would need to do to re-contact everyone on that lengthy list, I begged the rep to attempt to locate that number so I would not have to repeat all that work again....my "to do" list is rather full as it is.
He promised me that he would try to locate that original number. He did actually call me late last night to let me know that the techs were still searching in limbo land to find my original telephone number.
He is supposed to call me back early this afternoon as soon as he gets to work and checks his email box to see if the techs were able to locate that number.
If not, I will need to get started on that list again....Aaaarrrggggg!!!!
I can now see why Charter rated so poorly in Consumer Reports rankings.
A rep from the moving company is supposed to be here shortly to determine what they will need to bring for our full packing, which will be next Wed.
Don't you just love moving?
Latest Update On Our Move
We are edging closer to our move date.
Someone from the moving company should be coming in this week to estimate what they will need to box and pack everything up.
This upcoming Friday, I need to take in our digital HD cable box and get our cable service turned off.
On Monday the 1st, I have a very hectic day in store for me. I currently have the Toyota packed with all kinds of stuff...curtain rods, curtains, bath towels, shower curtains and many other things.
I will be heading down to the OBX early that Monday morning.
First stop with be to pick up our keys from the property management people.
Then I will go directly to our new place and start putting all the curtain rods up along with the curtains and shower curtains. I will also do some other work in the bathrooms.
On Tuesday the 2nd, I need to get some things ready for the movers, who will be coming the next day to pack up our stuff for the actual move. I need to turn off our fridge and clean it our really well.
On Wed the 3rd, the movers will come to pack everything up.
Then on Thursday, the 4th, the movers will return to pack up the truck with all of our belongings. After they leave, Veronica and I finally will be heading down to the OBX for good. We will stay at a local hotel down there and get up early the following morning.
The next day will be another busy one. We will meet the movers at our new place and begin the process of unloading the moving truck and start to unpack everything.
Hopefully all will go smoothly and within a week or two, we should be starting to actually have a chance to enjoy our new place.
Someone from the moving company should be coming in this week to estimate what they will need to box and pack everything up.
This upcoming Friday, I need to take in our digital HD cable box and get our cable service turned off.
On Monday the 1st, I have a very hectic day in store for me. I currently have the Toyota packed with all kinds of stuff...curtain rods, curtains, bath towels, shower curtains and many other things.
I will be heading down to the OBX early that Monday morning.
First stop with be to pick up our keys from the property management people.
Then I will go directly to our new place and start putting all the curtain rods up along with the curtains and shower curtains. I will also do some other work in the bathrooms.
On Tuesday the 2nd, I need to get some things ready for the movers, who will be coming the next day to pack up our stuff for the actual move. I need to turn off our fridge and clean it our really well.
On Wed the 3rd, the movers will come to pack everything up.
Then on Thursday, the 4th, the movers will return to pack up the truck with all of our belongings. After they leave, Veronica and I finally will be heading down to the OBX for good. We will stay at a local hotel down there and get up early the following morning.
The next day will be another busy one. We will meet the movers at our new place and begin the process of unloading the moving truck and start to unpack everything.
Hopefully all will go smoothly and within a week or two, we should be starting to actually have a chance to enjoy our new place.
Our Latest Visit To The Outer Banks
Veronica and I just got back from the Outer Banks yesterday and here are some photos and videos of our most recent trip. Beow are some photos of the saltwater aquariums that were in the hotel lobby
We had just had a front move through and it was quite windy the day after it did. The waves were still a little choppy, which made for great photos and videos
Most of these ocean front houses are empty just waiting for all of the tourist to hit town
As you can see, there a very few cars on this ocean front road. I am sure that this is completely opposite of what it will be like in the Summer
Sand art at its best
Below are various videos that I took. The sound of the ocean sure can be soothing.
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