October | 2016 | OUR LIFE IN 3D

Archive for the month “October, 2016”

20 Oct 2016

5 Comments

A Challenge For YOU! (Yes You)

I have a super fun challenge for you.

Yes… I am talking to YOU!

Take a look below if you are fearless, can embarrass yourself a bit, and almost sing… all for a good cause?

Are you fun?

Can you lip sync?

Meet some of my friends from the Charleston area Lung Association…

stairclimb

They have a message for you…

So raise your hand if you want to act crazy, raise some money, and have some fun!

Who is with me?

I know I have a lot of very creative Followers out there. A LOT!

Ones that can make a fun or funny or glam video for a good cause without breaking a sweat.

Any runners or fitness individuals out there?

That’s right I know who you are. I want to hear from you!

That’s right, YOU!

You know healthy lungs are vital part to your fitness and strength. So I want to hear from you healthy people. Find your fav song or singer or group and have at it!

Then post it on your own blog or send it back here to Lip Sync Central to help keep this healthy party going.

I mean this!

Or run some hills, or 5 miles or climb a few stairs instead of taking the elevator at work and tell me what you think of efficient healthy lungs.

Now what about those who don’t have a chance to do that due to asthma or unhealthy lungs?

Aren’t you glad it’s not you?

So, are you thinking about it?

Thank you could have some fun with it?

Here are the videos from my bud’s above to give you some ideas on what you could do and the fun to be had.

You may get discovered!

Here is Michele.

She is awesome.

She’s an inferno…

Wait for the crystal ball..

And here is Margaret Ann.

Margaret Ann heads the area Stairclimb Dylan and I do each summer.

She’s way cooler than me….

And here is Geoff.

He shows you what you can do when you are creative, fearless, have a great vid editor as part of your posse

…..and can drive backwards without fear for life or limb…his dog? He’s not so sure.

Its awesome and over the top!

“If I was you, I would want to do this too..”

He’s way cooler than me too!

So now its YOUR turn!

Yes, I am still talking to YOU!

Think about it, have some fun by yourself, with your family or at work.

Just do it! Be fearless.

Your creative efforts and collaborations will benefit the lung association and help others breathe easier… as well as possibly propel YOU into stardom.

Let me know which ones of you are going to participate.

Have fun with it!

And I am counting on YOU!

Posted in Archives and tagged a star is born!, american lung association, Breath Easy!, fearless!, have fun, lip sync, Yes YOu!, You are cooler than me too, YOU!

15 Oct 2016

7 Comments

the Missing Link

So last week when I was loading the two hurricane home videos on to Youtube Dylan spotted this oldie-but-goodie in my archives.

I think it a hilarious video AFTER I get over how lucky she was that she didn’t split her head open as soft socks meets hardwood floors.

I actually sent the video in to America’s Funniest Videos. No response yet

Anyway,

It kinda bothered me, as we watched this vid, how my laugh sounded.

Then I realized why it did. I sound like a Siamang!

A frickin’ monkey!

This is one video we took at the zoo that has these monkeys. See if you can tell us apart?

Hey, that’s not funny!

Maybe I am, or am related to the missing link?

I have been plagued with this issue all my life!

In Jr. High a particular roughian used to call me Cornelius after the famed talking monkey on the Planet of the Apes.

As a kid I could always “climb like a monkey”!

Now, my own daughters introduce me to strangers as Mr. Furry. (sigh)

Heck, even some of my best friends are primates!

Say Hello to my Best Man!

But when I ask Dylan what she thinks, she says I am just bananas!

B A NAN AS

Have a great weekend everyone!

Posted in Archives and tagged Cornelius, Daddy'd furry, its gotta be the laugh, missing link, planet of the apes

11 Oct 2016

19 Comments

Good bye Matt (Matthew part III)

Some of you have been wondering what eventually transpired to our home and family after Hurricane Matthew struck last Saturday. And I imagine my not posting for a few days may have led you to wonder.

Sorry.

Our Internet went out.

We all lived!

Here is what our house, or at least our back yard, resembled after Hurricane Matthew.

hurrince-moring-after

We were blessed.

We went to bed Friday night as the winds of the Cat 3 or 2 storm were approaching Beaufort, SC (about 2 hours to our south).

We went to bed wondering what were we in store for that night? What would happen during the night while we slept? What would we wake up to? Would we hear a crash in the middle of the night.

So when I woke up around 7:00am Saturday (OK 6:30 cause I was making a video and I had to change my clothes cause all of you might be watching).

Yes, a welcome sigh of Relief!

My shower curtain did not blow away.

Still the hurricane was about an hour away from our town and had not arrived yet. It now appeared the eye would go right across Charleston. The winds did actually died down around 10 or 11am or so here as the eye passed. It was actually kinda disappointing after the big media storm build up.

“Come on Matthew! Is that all you got?”

Then Matt packed his bags later that morning and headed to Myrtle Beach, leaving drier but just as powerful gusts ~~from his rear~~, er, from behind him. The winds, after the rain stopped, were every bit as serious as before the storm.

Still we were very fortunate. My whole neighborhood was actually. It just looked like a summer rain out front Saturday morning.

It wasn’t until I decided to go out and ~~return the Red Box flicks before late fees hit~~ drive around exploring our area that morning I saw what effects Matt had on us. Mainly it was just fallen trees and downed fences. Completely bearable!

Especially since it wasn’t my fence that was laying down. 🙂

I was most concerned about the Storm Surge of Matthew the days leading up the storm. I knew the storm itself was not going to be a catastrophic one. Luckily we never saw anything resembling a Storm Surge at my house, 20 miles inland. Below are some pics of what the surge did look like in the tidal creek that goes behind our house.

Here is the creek at high tide the day before Matthew:

Tidal Creek before Matthew

You can make out the boat docks or landings as well as a good foot high Lowcountry grass across from the homes.

Here is what the storm surge did to those homes, again 20 miles from the coast:

hurricane-tidal-surge

The docks are gone and the water is a good coupla yards up into the backyards (Yikes!). The outer layer of the sea grass is practically covered.

What did the Storm surge look like in downtown Charleston?

Remember this pic of the pink house on the Battery from last summer?

A pink flamingo colored property, reminiscent of the plantation owners in the Caribbean

Here is what Matthew did to introduce it to the Atlantic ocean:

King Street at the Battery

That first pic was taken from on top the wall of the Battery so the water in the second pic had to breach that wall and accumulate there on King Street.

Still, it could be worse, right? Right Haiti?

And the effects of the storm did vary up and down the coast. I understand Interstate 95 in South Carolina, a good two hours from the coast, was just devastated with accidents and the 85mph traffic coming to a halt.

I could go on and on about Matthew’s wrath but I guess you all know the story by now.

As for us, we never lost power. We didn’t lose a shingle. My cable did go out Saturday afternoon around 1pm just as my team was ready to score. But if that is the price I must pay for a hurricane, so be it. I was lucky!

Say a prayer for those in Haiti and seriously think about doing what you can, anything, to assist the people of that poor Caribbean country.

There ain’t no trying to reason in Hurricane season…

Thanks for dropping by and looking in!

Tune in again for my next post with (more ) evidence that I may be the missing link…….

and I am not talking about my dancing…

You all are great!

Posted in Archives and tagged fancy umbrellas, hurricane matthew, I'm getting wet!, its getting deep, Jason Bourne, Matthew, not more family videos!, storm surge, toads

07 Oct 2016

4 Comments

Wet! (Matthew Part II)

Can some one get me a towel?

So I was tweeting my friend. She was frustrated she had to leave her home to evacuate to higher ground when she tweeted:

hurricane-joke-9-485x60

Well I told her Matthew is going to ahhh, arrive around 7pm and promises to last all night and into tomorrow morning before he fades around breakfast time.

OK, No! I haven’t started drinking.

I am just getting loony from watching the Weather Channel.

Honest!

The rains did start here around 5pm and the Tropical Storm winds are supposed to start within the hour. The Weather Channel has changed their prediction to the worse, saying it will probably still be a Cat 3 storm when it gets to Charleston and there is a good chance it will touch land here instead of staying offshore like it did as it passed by Florida.

The hurricane bands are due to arrive closer to midnight and rock us (Get it? Rock us like a Hurricane?) all night long….till about 7am.

At least that is the latest forecast.

So Matt probably won’t disappoint my friend tonight after all.

So all we can do now is sit around and ~~drink~~ wait…

hurricane-party

Well it’s not a big party.

I rented a movie for the girls and they invited their 4 year old friend over to watch it later tonight.

What we are looking at, according to our local channel, and not the sensationalized news from the Weather Channel, is (hopefully) Category 2 storm but maybe a Cat 3 as it heads to our town. It has a good chance of coming very close to our peninsula before moving north. We may get the inner, more powerful bands of the storm on the coast. Winds should be between 50- 75mph but looking for gusts of up to 100mph.

The bigger danger is that of water damage, with 6-8 foot storm surge on top of full 8-12 inches (eat your heart out Ms. Paige) of rain; on top of an already filled area water basin. These local water basins and low-lying tributaries filled at the last high tide but the winds are preventing the water from running back to sea they say.

hurricane-creek

The local tidal creek (above) looks like high tide at 11am this morning but High Tide was still 7 hours away when I took this pic.

We are all buttoned up at our home. We brought everything inside that we could. We are just waiting for the show to start. And while we live about 800 yards from that tidal basin creek in the pic above (and 20 miles from the coat, I mean coast) I was doing some research last night on our home surviving a Storm Surge and we are good for up to 20fteet. So no worries there. Only all the roads out of our development will be underwater somewhere.

And now, here is our Local On The 8’s

(Wayyyy too much Weather Channel!)

hurricane-matthew-path

hurricane-rainfall

hurricane-storm-surge

Here are times of the next four high and low tides for several locations that could see significant storm surge inundation.

St. Augustine, Florida	1:04 p.m. Fri – high	7:34 p.m. Fri – low	1:26 a.m. Sat – high	7:36 a.m. Sat – low
Jacksonville Beach, Florida	1:03 p.m. Fri – high	7:29 p.m. Fri – low	1:29 a.m. Sat – high	7:29 a.m. Sat – low
St. Simons Island, Georgia	1:02 p.m. Fri – high	7:30 p.m. Fri – low	1:28 a.m. Sat – high	7:28 a.m. Sat – low
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina	1:35 p.m. Fri – high	7:41 p.m. Fri – low	1:55 a.m. Sat – high	7:40 a.m. Sat – low
Charleston, South Carolina	12:47 p.m. Fri – high	7:11 p.m. Fri – low	12:57 a.m. Sat – high	7:04 a.m. Sat – low

I would like to give you an update tomorrow morning when we get up of what transpired over the night, maybe with some pictures, but we may be out of power Then. Pray to the power gods!

And as bad, or concerned as we get here I don’t want to forget about many others, thousands of others who have it worse than us, as I say prayers for those in Haiti and others where lives were lost.

Houses can be rebuilt.

Q: So what did Hurricane Mathew say to Hurricane Nicole?

A: I have my eye on you!

Stay tuned. Florida may do all this again next week.

Now back to the party!

I have been so bored I just discovered the new thing called Pintrest

I have been so bored I just discovered the new thing called Pinterest

Posted in Archives and tagged Get back matt!, hurricane, Is that all you got?, Matthew, party

06 Oct 2016

12 Comments

Matthew is no Saint

jim-cantore

You know it is going to be a long day when Jim Cantore and the Weather Channel pull into your town.

Welcome to Hurricane Central!

Well, no, not really.

I wanted to send a post out to family and friends about what we are doing with the approaching storm headed our way. Maybe anyone reading this post, and the few I have planned later this week as the storm approaches, can get a little feel for what is like on the coast with a hurricane headed your way.

Well Monday we received word we are in the path for a category 4 hurricane. Cat 4’s are nothing to take for granted. The good thing about hurricanes is that they do give you plenty of time to plan.

So Monday we got the word Matthew was headed our way.

hurricane-path

Tuesday our great governor tells us to evacuate THE STATE!

Not the coast but the state. How many people does that uproot and put on the roads? The hurricane is not due to hit our area until early Saturday morning. She is telling us to get out on Tuesday.

So Wednesday, the next morning at 8am (4 days from hurricane landfall) the bread aisles looked like this at our local grocery store after hurr announcement:

bi-lo-breads

And the aisle selling water looked like this in the morning:

bi lo water

Fortunately for our area, my job (a.k.a. the snack man) is to make sure all the grocery stores and convenience stores are stocked with snacks and my warehouse looks like this:

hurricane-snack-central

The snack aisle will be full for anyone preparing for doom and gloom when the power goes out.

It’s too bad I don’t sell gasoline…

hurricane-gas-stations

So why the ‘mandatory’ evacuation notice so early?

Sixteen years ago, Hurricane Floyd was to plotting to hit our town and that governor waited until 24 hours out before he said, “Get out”.

And that made GRIDLOCK on the highways; everyone leaving at one time. A 90 minute car ride took 6 hours. Everyone’s temper grew.

A local artist, Steven Jordan, tried to capture the errant evacuation with a tongue-in-cheek painting like this:

hurricane-floyd-steven-jordan

So here is one time that we DID learn from our mistakes!

Hope for Humanity!

This hurricane we have 3 days to evacuate. So nice job Nikki!

Still I hear the highways were still very slow…

on Wednesday

for those that chose to go..

Other parts of our ‘State’s’ evacuation, speaking a learning from our mistakes, are:

1) they opened up the in bound lanes on our highway to out bound on Wednesday. So instead of 3 lanes leading out-of-town there were now 6 lanes.

2) They brought in over 300 school buses for the homeless and people with out cars so they too could evacuate,

Take a look:

So what did I and my precious little girls decide to do?

We are ‘weathering’ out the storm!

First, I have to work. There are grocery store shelves to be filled!

Second, the girls have off of school!

Several of our neighbors are staying put too. So last night I weather proofed the outside and pool deck. We did stock up on batteries and water.

Ahh, we already had plenty of snacks on hand. Snack man!

img_20161006_171442613

Still, living this close to the coast you still tend to worry.

We have all seen the disaster stories. Jim Cantore and the Weather Channel won’t let us forget on the catastrophic possibilities This area still talks about Hurricane Hugo some 25+ years ago.

hugo

hugo-4

hugo-3

We actually live about 20 miles from the edge of the continent but the area’s water reservoir is about 800 yards from our back yard.

I found a Storm Surge web site then that can help us predict how much danger (drama) we are in when it starts to rain.

Here is a pic of the water level behind us with a 5 foot storm surge. We live on the paper clip looking thingy (road) that butts up to the woods that borders the water…

5 foot storm surge

and so here is how far the water rises at a 10 foot storm surge…

10foot storm surge Not much difference is there?

So that will help me sleep at night when the storm bands sweep over head and drop the Atlantic Ocean on us.

Ironically, this storm is hitting exactly one year since that freakish storm hit last October the 1000 year storm (seriously, that is what it is called), which dropped over two 1/2 feet of rain on us over two days.

Remember that? It went right over top of us…

radar