Tornados...Tornados Everywhere

Yesterday, my phone began blowing up with weather notifications. I picked up my phone to look, and two different apps were sending notifications to seek shelter. Like RIGHT NOW. That's unusual - as I'm normally only getting a notice from the pushes to my phone (i.e. the Amber Alerts). But the actual weather app was now also pinging my phone.

The notices said there was eminent (extreme) danger and to seek shelter immediately, as there was a tornado warning in effect. I've gotten tornado warnings before, but never to this degree. So, I did as any normal person from the Texas Panhandle does, and I went outside to look. 

Sure enough, just to the south of our house was a tornado. It was forming, but I could absolutely make out that it was a tornado. It was traveling northeast, so it ended up going just to the east of us, in an open field just past the houses to our left. I could see debris flying up as it was getting closer to us.

I ran inside and woke Jeff up (he sleeps during the day as he works overnight), and made sure he was dressed, and in the hallway for safety. We both looked outside once again, and the tornado had passed us at that point, and was continuing to go east. We found out that two different neighborhoods not far from us were hit pretty hard (Sunterra and Winward). 

The storm carrying this tornado continued on, and the tornado itself bounced around all the way to Beaumont, and possibly beyond! I stopped tracking it when the storm crossed over the Beaumont area.

This marks the second time this year that there has been a tornado very close to our neighborhood. In May 2024, there was a tornado in the fields across FM 529 from us, making its way to Cypress. That tornado did some major damage to some transformers and towers near the FedEx depot at Grand Parkway and West Rd. It also took down some of the power lines along FM 529, leaving our neighborhood without electricity for several days. 

Jeff and I went to stay with my mom and step dad after that one, because they still had power. It was crazy because we could follow the path of destruction of that tornado all the way from Bellville past our neighborhood in Katy!

Speaking of spiraling cones of wind, we also made it through Hurricane Beryl in June. The eye of the hurricane went directly over our neighborhood. We kept electricity through most of it! 

The only damage we took from the two tornados and the hurricane was needing some shingles repaired after the hurricane. We've been quite lucky this year!

Surviving the Holidays

We've made it through another Thanksgiving holiday. Things have been so crazy this month that I almost forgot that I had not yet posted anything. 

I'm still responsible for making all holiday delivery changes for the holiday week. However...it has changed up a bit this year compared to all the other years I have done the scheduling. Looking back, it has been my responsibility now for 5 years, going on 6 years this coming spring. 

Customer Service used to write the schedule for our customers to get deliveries during the holiday week (we are closed on Thanksgiving, so no billing, selection, or delivering on the actual holiday itself). So, customers who normally get either a delivery or they are due in with their orders on Thursdays have to bill and deliver another day. We would double check the projected changes behind them, and then they would implement the changes into the system.

Five years ago, it changed to me making the changes and implementing into the system. The person in Customer Service decided he did not want to continue to do it any longer, so he trained me how to do it. I would go through the spreadsheets (5 in total: Grocery/Frozen, Meat, Produce, DFW area Meat, and DFW area Produce) and make sure everything matched by store by billing, upload into the mainframe, and verify it was correct. Then I would work with Customer Service after they had sent the schedules to the stores to make edits to the schedule as needed.

Now, it is a bit different. Instead of having 5 separate spreadsheets, everything is populated in one spreadsheet. So, all the product types are grouped together by store, which makes it easier to go through. There is a separate team responsible for implementing the schedules into the system, so I have to be quicker in my edits so they have time to get it uploaded and verified. 

Besides all of that, now we have to get approvals from leadership in the warehouse, transportation, and sales before we can send the changes to the teams that maintains the schedules. And...if customer service says that the customers do not like their schedules...OH WELL. No changes are made - we can bill something off schedule, but we cannot edit their holiday schedule. 

As we are in the middle of Thanksgiving planning, I had to rush through and complete the Christmas schedule edits. We are now in the process of getting them approved by leadership so it can begin the upload process to the system. Never ending madness around here!

Making the Most of Untraditional Weekends

One of the things Jeff and I truly enjoy is planning short getaways together. That said, when I talk about our "weekends," I'm not referring to Saturdays and Sundays like most people. With our non-traditional schedules, our weekend typically falls early in the week—and even then, it's not always easy to align our time off.

I work Wednesdays through Sundays during the day, while Jeff works overnight shifts from Thursday evening through Monday morning. Most of the time, we make it work. While Jeff sleeps during the day, I’m able to work remotely in a quiet house. But when it comes to planning a getaway, the logistics become a bit more complicated.

We can’t simply finish work on Sunday and head out for a couple of days like many couples do. Jeff is usually getting up and preparing for work just as I’m finishing my day. That means we can’t hit the road until Monday morning—after he gets off work—leaving us with only Monday afternoon and evening at our destination before we need to return on Tuesday. I have to be ready to start work again on Wednesday morning, while Jeff still has another full day off before his next shift begins.

It’s a tight window, and unless we plan for a destination within day-trip distance or I take time off, we’re often left with very limited options. Occasionally, Jeff can arrange to take Sunday night off, which allows us to leave Sunday afternoon after I’m done with work—but that’s not always feasible given the demands of his job.

Looking ahead, I do hope that one day we’ll have more flexibility. Ideally, that will come when Jeff is able to transition into a less physically demanding role—or when retirement enters the picture. Until then, we’ll continue to make the most of our limited time together and squeeze in whatever adventures we can, even if they’re short and sweet.

The challenges don’t stop with travel plans. Holidays bring their own set of complications. While my remote job allows me to work from virtually anywhere with a solid internet connection, Jeff’s work is strictly on-site—and even more demanding during the holiday season. Every year, the only other person on his shift takes the final two to three weeks of December off, leaving Jeff to cover both schedules for more than 21 days straight. It’s a heavy load, and it often means sacrificing family time.

To his credit, Jeff has spoken up in recent years, and small improvements are happening—other team members have begun to step in and help cover a few of those overnight shifts. Still, more needs to be done to create a fair and sustainable balance, especially during the holidays when time with loved ones matters most.

Until then, we’ll continue to adapt, plan creatively, and hold onto the hope that more flexibility is on the horizon. After all, making meaningful memories—no matter how brief—makes the effort worthwhile.

Hello September...Here We Go!

The arrival of September usually brings stress, frustration, anxiety, and lots of additional work. It marks the onset of "Holiday Season," which is quickly approaching. 

This means decorating for both fall and Christmas, buying and wrapping Christmas presents, deciding if we are going to be able to meet with family for the holidays (we have issues in the holidays due to work schedules), completing delivery schedule changes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's (all to be completed within the next 3 months), making spur of the moment changes for stores' deliveries...

Not to mention planning and executing Fall and Christmas concerts, publicity for the concerts, rehearsals, social media blasts, emails to patrons, designing and printing the concert programs. 

I have already planned some outings with a friend for Friday nights during this time. It will force me to get away from the work, and spend some time decompressing from everything. I'm already looking forward to it!

In October, we will see "Sleeping Beauty" in a whole new way, as the ballerinas wear LED lights, lighting up the stage as they dance!

Also in October, we will see the Houston Symphony perform "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

In December, we will see a parody of Die Hard, called Yippee Ki Yay.

There are some other Christmas themed attractions I would like to see, and may be able to get around to them in November if available to. The Museum of Fine Arts puts out a Christmas Village every year, and last year the friend and I were able to go in January to see a whole Christmas Lights display set up in the local shopping mall parking lot.

It is Getting to be That Time of Year Again...

I start dreading the end of the year, beginning in August. I know within a few weeks I will have to start working on holiday delivery schedules for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and deal with the headache that comes along with it. 

Also, there are so many neat events and shows going on during the holiday season, and I'd love to experience them all. I am hoping that now that we are fully integrated into the National Routing Team, the new OMS system, and have a department who is responsible for updating and maintaining the delivery schedules, that it will make my duties planning the schedules less of a headache.

When we were in the old system, each product type had it's own sign on into the mainframe (dry goods/frozen, meat, produce, Dallas area meat, Dallas area produce). So in essence, I was responsible for maintaining 5 sets of delivery schedules. If I wanted to update a customer's delivery schedule, I had to make changes on multiple screens.

The schedules are all housed in the same area now, and so I just need to look on one screen to see all the different product types for a particular customer. And when I get the spreadsheets to start working on the schedules, it will all come on one spreadsheet now. Before, I had to get spreadsheets from each product type's mainframe. I used to have to go through all 1,000 customers on for grocery/frozen and make changes for holiday billing. Then go through all 1,000 AGAIN for meat, then AGAIN for produce, then AGAIN for Dallas meat, then AGAIN for Dallas produce. 

As soon as I was through for Thanksgiving delivery changes, I had to immediately start again for Christmas/New Year delivery changes. September through the end of December was hell - having to make the changes, and then as we are going through the holiday week, make last minute changes on the fly.

Excited to see how it goes now that we are all in one system!

Aftermath of Hurricane Beryl

What an interesting, scary, and wild week it has been so far. Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda, Texas as a strong Category 1 hurricane early Monday morning. When it went over the Yucatan Peninsula prior to that, it spun the hurricane, and aimed it towards Matagorda...it was originally supposed to make landfall near Brownsville.

The hurricane made a direct path to Houston, and the eye of the hurricane actually traveled almost right over our neighborhood. What an insane experience that was, to be going through hurricane force winds and rain, then all the sudden NOTHING.

The company I work for took on damage to the frozen warehouse, which will now need to be repaired. Both the grocery and frozen warehouses are without power, and work is having to be done manually to get loads out since they do not have access to printers or copiers right now.

Over 2.25 million customers were without power after the storm hit. Centerpoint Energy has restored a good portion of those customers as of today, but many are still without power, during the hottest part of the year. 

So far, the death count is up to 11 in the Houston area due to the storm.

Happy Hurricane Season (sort of)

It has already been quite the active season, and we are only a month in to the Hurricane Season.  I can only imagine what it is going to be like in August and September...hope it does not get more intense!

Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in June - in Mexico. Florida had a few scares as well in June, with some disturbances along the east coast.

We are now prepping for landfall of Hurricane Beryl.  It was originally supposed to make landfall in northern Mexico, but has shifted to the north, and is now aimed squarely at Brownsville. It could turn more and head towards Corpus Christi more, which will put us in an area with more rainfall expectations.

We are already on the dirty side of the storm, and are expecting several inches of rain Monday - Wednesday of next week. If the hurricane turns more and aims toward Corpus, the rain will be much more intense.

We've already been sending water and supplies down to Brownsville to prep for the storm to be hitting them early next week. Here we go!!

A New Creative Chapter?

One of the things I genuinely enjoy about maintaining this blog is having a space to share my thoughts, reflections, and day-to-day musings. Writing here has become a surprisingly therapeutic habit—something I look forward to continuing, even if the posts sometimes feel a bit like rambling. There’s value in documenting the moments, no matter how small.

Lately, I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a second blog—this time with a more focused theme. I'm constantly on the lookout for weekend getaways and short vacation opportunities, especially within Texas. Over time, I’ve gathered a growing list of travel ideas and hidden gems, and I’ve been thinking... why not share that information in a more structured way?

I’ve already started keeping notes in a physical notebook, and I even tried organizing everything in a bullet journal. But keeping it updated—and making it look the way I envision—has proven tricky. A digital format might be the way to go. Not only would it be easier to access while on the go, but it would also allow me to build something more creative, polished, and shareable.

Now I’m feeling inspired to explore design ideas and layout options to bring this new project to life. It’s always exciting to start something new—and who knows? It may become just as fulfilling as this space has been for me.

Caught Between Going Out and Staying In

A part of me wants to go out and do something on my days off. Get out and see the world! Travel! But another part of me wants to just stay at home and take care of the tasks at hand. Lots of things to do, lots of things that need to get done...

We have been away from home for 10 days now between our vacation to Fredericksburg and the Tornado hitting West Houston - causing us to lose power at home for 5 days. That part of my head just wants to stay at home and get caught up on shows, do laundry, grocery shopping, etc.

But another part wants to still get out and see the sites and sounds of Texas and beyond. We've enjoyed the road trips, exploring small towns, eating at local restaurants, visiting local museums, etc. I want to do more of these.

One thing I have noticed is that when I am home...I want to be out on the road. When we are out on the road...I want to be home. Day trips out would probably be our best best right now.  That way I can be home after a while to handle the things that need to get done.

Just Wanting to go Home

For our birthdays this year, we decided to spend 5 days total in Fredericksburg, Texas. We toured the National Museum of the Pacific War, toured the Pioneer Museum, checked out the Old Tunnel State Park, LBJ State Park, LBJ National Park, Enchanted Rock State Park, Pedernales Falls State Park, did 2 different wine tastings, did a beer tasting, went Antique shopping, and walked Main Street window shopping in the stores there. We went by Fort Martin Scott to check it out, but it was closed. Mom and David decided to join us on this trip, and we had a great time with them!

After getting home on Thursday, May 16th, an intense storm came through. A confirmed F1 Tornado touched down in the Katy/Cypress area. It actually began not far from our house and did some extreme damage to electrical lines around Grand Parkway and West Road, about 15 minutes from our house.

Several houses in the neighborhood saw damage to the roof shingles being torn off. As of now, we do not see any damage to our house, thank God! But power has been out since Thursday, and it is not expected to be back on for days to weeks from now. Power lines that feed into the neighborhood have either snapped in half or have fallen down. As of Saturday, May 18th, nothing has been done to begin repairs of those power lines.

Mom and David did not lose power at their house in Brenham, so we have temporarily relocated to Brenham until we can get back in our house. We were home for a grand total of 4 hours before having to head to Brenham. On our drive to Brenham, we passed 5 trees that had fallen over the road, and were being moved off the road by locals.

Bellville had downed power lines as well right at the golf course, and they were repaired on Friday. Several school districts closed on Friday because they had no electricity to supply the classrooms!

Frustrations - Destress or Not to Destress?

The company I work for has a major project under way, which I am very involved in, designated as a Test Lead. This project has been in 2 phases...the first phase went live last year. Phase 2 is what is being worked on right now. There has been some set backs in the project, which has been in the works since the beginning of 2024. 

We were initially supposed to go live with the project in March, but that did not happen. Then they told us the project would go live at the end of April. I thought that would work well, as the band I play in has a concert the first weekend of May and the project would be well under way in production by that point...allowing me to perform in the concert.

Just found out this past week that the project has been set back again. We are now scheduled to go live the weekend of the concert, meaning I am not able to perform in the concert that weekend. I am super frustrated as this is the one outlet I have to destress and decompress from work, and from every day life. 

I really hope that it does not get pushed back again, as we are going to be out of town in the middle of May for our birthdays. My manager knows though about the travel, so he will need to make other plans if testing needs to be done that week.

Yearning to Try Again

Several years ago, I attempted to launch my own YouTube channel. Let me rephrase that - I DID launch my own YouTube channel, but it did not go anywhere. I posted weekly content for a few years, but never got the views or the subscribers to be able to make any kind of revenue from it. I only got one check for $100, in 2-3 years of continuous uploads.

I was seeing it as an option to bring in money for Jeff and I to go on vacations once we retire. We were video recording our vacations, and I was making podcast style videos about vacation ideas, suggestions, and ways to save money, then posting the videos on the channel. 

Then, after I decided that the YouTube channel was not a viable option, I started making actual podcast episodes, and having them distributed through several of the normal podcast listening apps. While the YouTube videos were mainly based around Disney vacations, with some Las Vegas stuff sprinkled in...the podcasts were mainly Las Vegas episodes (including vacation ideas, weekend get-away options, history of the different casinos, etc.) with some Disney sprinkled in. I did this for a couple of years. 

There was an option to have ads run on your podcast, and that would generate revenue whenever someone would listen to the podcast. I would get a few cents for every listen. I never got a check through the podcast hosting site. I did have some change I was building up for payment, but it was less than a dollar and it had to reach the threshold of $100 before a check was cut. 

I stopped the podcasts because the hosting website went under and completely stopped hosting and distributing podcasts.  I would have continued creating and posting them, but I ended up filling my time with other things instead.

I am back to wanting to create something again. My only really sort of consistent creativity outlet (besides performing in the community band) has been posting to this blog...and even then I'm only posting about once a month and took quite a long time off there after my dad passed away. I don't know yet how often I would want to post or what I would want to post about - twice a week, once a week, once a month? What do I make the podcast episodes about - music, vacation information, just random talking, like how I post here on my blog? 

I've taken the time to create a Lone Star Bass Clarinet YouTube Channel, and have an email address with it. I am not sure if I want to create video style podcasts and post on YouTube, or if I want to try create more audio only podcasts and finding an outlet to upload and distribute those. 

I have the first steps taken care of. I just need to decide if starting to research and post again is something I'd really want to put my energy in to and do again.

TMEA: The Love and Heartache

This past week a couple of friends and I headed to San Antonio for the Texas Music Educators Association Annual Convention. It is held on the San Antonio Riverwalk every single year. We use the time to network with other community musicians, purchase sheet music for the band we play in, look for silent auction opportunities, and try out some instruments we will never be able to afford on our own. 

One thing I have made a tradition of is taking photos with the people working one specific booth. These guys dress up in crazy outfits every single year. As we approached the booth this year, we noticed that only one of the two normal people was manning the booth. Then we saw the framed photo on the table in the booth. We instantly knew.

The man with the beard in the photos below went by the nickname "Brooksie," who's real name is Chris Brooks. He co-founded Row-Loff Productions with Chris Crockarell, and the two of them would wear the crazy suits every year. Both are in the photo with me at the end below. He was working on a cabin that he was building on some land he owned, and had an accident there, ending his life.

It was awful to learn of the news, and we really hate to know that we will not be able to see him at any more conventions. We gave Chris Crockarell a great big hug and told him we would be back next year for our hug and a photo. 

Bullet and Junk Journaling - Where is the Time?

I have seen online...mainly on TikTok and YouTube...junk journaling and bullet journaling. I love the aesthetic of both, and think it would be relaxing to do one or the other. Designing the bullet journaling just sounds so creative and fun!  And coming up with ideas for the die cuts and stickers for the Junk Journaling seems like a lot of fun too. I would love to get involved in doing one or both of them.

Here's my issue. I don't have time to commit to either one. I have a bullet journal that I bought pages for from Etsy. I printed out the pages, bound them, and gave a copy to my mom and sister in law for Christmas in 2022. I had a copy for myself as well. I barely filled it out, and I know my mom filled out even less. My sister in law was the only one who sort of kept up with it through out the year. 

I ended up buying another pre-made bullet journal and have sort of been filling it out, but not like I want to. But, I've been active with it much longer than the one that I bought the pages off of Etsy. 

I'd love to have the time to hand-make each page and color it in each month. And have the time to also fill it in each month. However...here it is mid-January, and I still have to complete scrapbook pages from a trip I took back in October (!!), and I haven't even started on the pages for the things I did in November, December, and January to date yet. 

I'm also in the middle of putting together requests for silent auction donations, planning a trip to a Music Convention with my band mates in February, trying to figure out Jeff's and my vacation plans for the year, covering co-workers when they need to be out for various reasons during the year, Band Board Meetings, Rehearsals, Concerts, and trying to meet friends/family for dinners/outings/etc.

New Year...Doing Some of the Same Old Things...

It is currently January 2nd, 2024. Jeff and I have headed out of town for our annual get-away after holiday billing to de-stress and de-compress.  This year we decided to head to Victoria, and stay at the Best Western. I found out that there is a small zoo in town, so we headed there to check out the Texas Zoo.  After that, we headed over to Victoria College, and visited the Museum of the Coastal Bend...located on campus. We also found out that Victoria has a Golden Corral, so we headed there for lunch.

Jeff works some tough days at the end of the year each December, with the only other night shift Line Service Technician taking the last two weeks off. I have spent many, many hours since September planning, setting up, and executing holiday delivery plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas. There were a lot of last minute changes this year that caused a lot of unwanted stress on my part.

Looking ahead, Band starts rehearsals again this coming Sunday, and that means the Annual Meeting. I've been writing down notes for my speech during the meeting. We won't be off again until after the Patriotic concert. 

Lots of work to do for the next three concerts, plus trying to get the Memorial Day Event again in Sugar Land. Also, scheduling next season's concerts with Bob and the church. Busy busy!!