All Clear, But No Water?

After much anticipation and worry over hurricane Rita, she ended up completely bypassing Texas A&M. In one respect, it is quite a blessing. Nobody was hurt and no damage whatsoever was done to the campus. On the other hand, school will be back to normal tomorrow.:( It was nice to have a long weekend, though because we do not get Labor Day off.

There was just one minor technicality: what do I do about all the extra snacks and sports drinks I bought? Well, eat it I guess, was the advice I got...........from my stomach. So, over the weekend I pretty much finished off all of the extra stuff I bought. That's ok, because that meant I didn't have to go out and buy a few meals. Since I've been slightly sick with a cold, I've been drinking a lot of water and stuff, so I quickly drank up the sports drinks. Well, about the time I finished the last bottle, I got up to go to the bathroom, tried to flush, but nothing happened. I wiggled and jiggled the thing, but it would not flush. So, I went to wash my hands and saw that the hot water worked, but the cold water didn't.

This made absolutely no sense. The hurricane didn't even hit here, so something weird was going on. My roomate started complaining because he wanted to take a shower after he went to work out and he's not like us normal people who take showers in the evening:D (j/k morning shower peoples;)). So I went to the 4th floor dorm R.A. (Residential Advisor) to find out what was going on, but he was nowhere to be found. I tried the 2nd floor R.A., but he was nowhere to be found. We ended up having to go most of the afternoon without water. Around 4:45pm the water started working. Then about 5pm we got a knock at the door and a maintenance guy came in, peaked in the bathroom, said everything was ok and left. That was kinda odd because he didn't even try to flush to toilet or anything.....

I got a call from dad saying the car was fixed!!!! He had already conveniently e-mailed me a detailed list of the bills I owed to get it fixed., but he had not yet got it back together and running.:/ In his call, he said he was able to crank it up and he and my older brother drove it around just to make sure everything was working right. He plans to drive it to work tomorrow just to be doubly sure. So that's good news, it'll just be interesting figurin' out how to get the car back down here.

We did have the football game against Texas State University last Thursday. It was rescheduled because of hurricane Rita. We ended up winning 44-31. It really should've been a bigger win, though. I'm hoping it was just because it was a rescheduled game and they weren't able to practice as much as they usually do.

Hope all is well with everyone and thank you all for your prayers. It really means a lot.

Hurricane Rita

The latest update is that Hurricane Rita is going to be headed more or less in the direction of Bryan/College Station. Texas A&M has taken in a lot of students from the Texas A&M at Gavelston location. As of yet, there is no mandatory evacuation of the Bryan/College Station area, so I plan to stay on campus. If my car wasn't in the shop, I'd pobably leave. According to my brother, who is a Meterologist at this point it is a Category 5 with sustained winds of 165 mph.

As of 3pm, classes at Texas A&M have been cancelled for Friday and the football game againt Texas State has been moved forward to Thursday at 7:30pm. The game is supposed to be televised to discourage people other than people who live in the Bryan/College Station area from going to the game. I don't know which t.v. station yet. The hope is that it will keep from cloggin' up the highways. I've also been informed that water has been totally sold out of every grocery store and gas prices are about to sky-rocket. Looks like I will be filling up empty bottles with tap water!:D

Please do be in prayer for those who are in harms way and for those that will be traveling on the roads.

Midnight Yell Practice

Don't know what I'm talking about? Check this out:
http://aggietraditions.tamu.edu/midnight.shtml

An Encouraging Conversation

Recently I had a very encouraging conversation with a coworker from Iran. We were on the bus and I got to talking to him about computers and integrated circuits, things of that nature. We got off at our stop and he asked for my number. I gave it to him and I got his. I asked for his name and he told me. That lead me to ask him where he was from. He said he was from Iran. Just out of curiosity I asked him what people in Iran think of America. His eyes got wide and he said, "95% of the Iran people hate their government. They love America! I love Bush! If you go to Iran, you find many many friends there. " I then asked him what they thought about America invading Iraq and taking Suddam out of power. He said, "Oh, they are so happy! Suddam very bad man. He kill many many people. We very glad America come and defeat Suddam. We hope America come and defeat Iran government too. Iran government very bad. Democracy very good. In Iran, there no free newspaper, no free t.v. The government control all that. They also don't like me and my girlfriend going to coffee shop. I could get arrested because I am Muslim and she not. It not government business! It is personal! In America, there no problem."

Folks, this tells me what we are doing in Iraq is right. What the media will tell us is that the war is going badly and that everyone over there hates us. As you can see, it's not true. I heard it form the horses mouth.

Weekend Troubles

As you can surmise from the above title, my weekend wasn't all that great. I had already planned to go up to Crosbyton, TX where my folks live for the 2nd Annual West Texas Sacred Harp (Southern Harmony) Singing. Due to the coordinator's daughter going into labor a couple days before the singing was to take place, it was cancelled. However, because I had already taken off work and been excused from the "constructive and exciting" meeting at work, I decided to go on up to visit the folks and hang out with my older brother Stephen and one of my friends from Texas Tech.

Well, everything was going just dandy! I did leave a wee bit late, though because my last class let out at 2:40pm and I still had to finish packing and burning some cd's for the trip. I left about 5pm which was about 1.5 hours after I was hoping I would leave. I got going at a good clip and no cops were around for the longest time. :D I go north on TX 6 until it hits I-20 West to Abilene. I took I-20 to Abilene and I missed my exit north! Well, I was rather ticked off, so I rushed to the next exit and turned around. I hit the gas and all the sudden my car jerked, started losing power, and started this loud tapping noise.

By this time I was back on the interstate hoping it would fix itself (haha) but to no avail. I pulled over and tried to look at the engine to see if I could figure out what the problem was. I couldn't see since it was about 8:30pm or so. My cell phone decided not to cooperate, so I was totally helpless. Thankfully, somebody pulled over and let me borrow their phone to call the folks. Then the guy offered to push my car with his car down to the next exit where there was a Texaco. That was rather dangerous because everyone was blazing past us and we had to cross over a couple of entrance ramps. We safely got to the Texaco.

The folks decided to come down (It was about 2.5 hours away) to get me and the car. They borrowed a trailer and took off to pick me up. About 12:30am they arrived. It took nearly two hours to get the car onto the trailer because the electric winch dad has borrowed would not cooperate, but thankfully he had grabbed a manual winch that used these long yellow straps. Dad had to winch it up inches at a time. It was finally secured and we headed out around 2:30am. We arrived about 5:00am. We ended up sleeping about 5 hours total that night.

Saturday, I was not able to do much since I had no car. Dad said he would take the head off because he suspected it was a valve and piston problem. In the meantime, I was trying to figure just how I was going to get back to school Sunday. I decided to just rent a car. I made the reservation and decided to ride back to Lubbock with a friend who was spending the night since I was in town. I spent the night with him in his dorm at Tech and the plan was to pick up the rental car at the airport (since no free-standing rental car companies would be open on Sun.) on the way to church. We got to bed late and then at 2:30am the dorm fire alarm went off, so we had to run outside. They didn't let anyone back in until about 3:15am.

We got up the next morning and headed to the airport to pick up my rental car. My friend dropped me off and headed to church. I walked in the airport and went to the Enterprise counter to pick up my car. They took my license and credit card and began to enter the information. The all the sudden raised his head and said, "Wait, you don't turn 21 until next year. I can't rent a car to you. I'm sorry." I was just plain shocked! I was stuck in Lubbock! I tried to call my brother in Lubbock but his cell was off. Dad ended up having to come get me. It was then decided my only option was for mom and my little brother to take me back to Texas A&M after church.

I got to Texas A&M successfully only without a car. All I can say is what a blessing it is to have such loving parents! If they hadn't helped me, I would be in a much worse situation than a sick car! It really made me realize how much they really do love me and that they don't just say it. All mom said when I thanked them for all they had done was that "some day you will have kids and you will want to do the same for them. Then you will know why we love you so much and why we did this for you." Do I not have the best parents in the world?????:D

Silver Taps - An Aggie Tradition Honoring Fallen Aggies

The sky grows dark as the sun slowly gives up its place in the heavens to the glowing moon. Softly, solemnly, and quietly thousands of students, faculty, family, and friends of the fallen walk with sadness in their hearts to the Sul Ross statue. The sky is darkened now. The air grows still. Not a sound is heard. Not a whisper. Slowly, but persistently the tap of shoes are vaguely heard in the distance. In perfect rhythm the taps of the shoes grow louder as the corps detail Ross Volunteers slowly march to the front of the statue. The taps of their shoes slow as they get into formation. Their white uniforms glow in the moonlight as they present arms. The command is given, the rifles raise, seven guns report. In perfect sync, they reload, the command is given, the rifles raise, seven guns report. They reload, the command is given, the rifles raise, seven guns report. They lower their rifles and stand at attention.

Gently, but resoundingly taps are played once to the north, once to the south, and once to the west. When the last chord is played, when the last tear is shed, the crowd quietly leaves. As the crowd walks away, the resounding taps of the shoes of the Ross Volunteers once more are heard. They echo across the campus as the detail leaves then slowly fades away leaving a distinct and solemn silence.

The Week in Review

Well, my birthday went pretty well. I went over to a friend's apartment Friday night to hang out. The funny thing was, aside from my roomate (who is Mexican), I was the only non-Japanese guy there! It was hilarious! There were about 8 Japanese guys there. They started playing a Japanese soccer game on a PII. Everytime one of them would score or come really close to scoring, they would all holler and shout then jabber on in Japanese. It was great!

Sunday I went to church at New Providence Primitive Baptist Church in Cameron, TX. There were only about 7 or of us there because a bunch were gone to the Primitive Baptist Association that was going on nearby. Brother Vince Hardy preached a really great sermon, despite the small attendance. After church I went back with Brother Vince Hardy and his family to wash clothes. While washing clothes, I worked on some Chemistry then played Crazy 8, Go Fish, and War with Hannah, their 10 year old daughter. Then it was supper time and Brother Vince cooked us up some really thick and juicy hamburgers! They were great!

I finished up that wonderful supper, chatted a little longer, gathered up my clean clothes, and headed out the door. I got back to the dorm and discovered that my computer's internet connection was still not working (it had stopped working the night before). By then, I was ready to start throwing things (my roomate can testify) because I have to have internet connection to do certain things. So I ended up having to call Help Desk Central on campus to see if they had an idea of what was going on. Well lo and behold, they had deactivated about 1,000 student's internet connection to force them into installing the latest Service Pack. I received no e-mail about it so I had no idea. He ended up having to walk me through it to do it manually. Once I got it done though, everything was just dandy!

Monday (today) I got up for Calculus 2. Found out that the prof is going to be giving us another homework set tomorrow to do while we are still working on the first one.:-P With that in mind, it became imperitive to make sure i finished the first homework set tonight so as not to get behind. After Calculus I took off for Symphonic Band rehearsal. It went rather well. I went from there to my Beginning Swimming class. There, I learned the back float, which I seem to have extreme difficulty doing or even attempting for that matter. After that, I high-tailed it to Engineering Chemistry and tried to stay awake through moles and line structures of formulas. It's so easy it's not even funny. From there it was off to work! At work I was actually able to get help with some of my Calculus 2 homework that I needed to get finished tonight, so I got a really good headstart on it. Turns out, I got off work early (6:00pm) which meant I had more time to finish it (the homework is all done online). I finally finished it and submitted the assignment.

Then it was suppertime. I grabbed some food and headed to the dorm to find my roomate still gone. So after a few hours, here I am!