I'm crossposting this to relevant places (and email) to reduce my catch-up time.
I bet some of you are wondering where I disappeared to for so long. I live on Trinity Bay just east of Houston, about a mile from the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel. Hurricane Ike forced a mandatory evacuation of my zip code on September 11, and Ike struck slightly east of home around 2 a.m. on September 13. At my mother's house 35 miles NW of here, we had 65 mph sustained winds and 100+ mph gusts. Galveston got creamed, and I haven't yet seen images of the aftermath other than in the two or three days just after the storm. Last I heard, Galveston residents were still not allowed to return to the island. I could be wrong on this because I've been rather out of touch.
97% of Houston area (which is a big area of 5 million people) lost power. After a week, we got a mass influx of out-of-state power workers to help restore power, and on September 21, we were able to finally return home after 11 days away. (We lost the bulk of four trees, which are still outside untouched because of the backlog of qualified professionals to deal with them. I hope to save at least one or two in the end.) Miraculously, we sustained no structural damage to our home and even stuff on the porch was still there when we got home. (We had expected to have more time to evacuate and were cleaning up when we got the order.)
Cable (our internet) wasn't restored until yesterday, and we didn't have TV until Saturday. (That was voluntary; we had ourselves on DISH Network "Pause.") So I haven't seen a newscast, CNN, or internet news for over a week. I spent about an hour online last night.
So, we lost the Mabon issue of Rending the Veil, but I was able to get online briefly, in time to notify our readers of the cancellation. I have had no time at all to work on the move to the new servers. And the Samhain issue is breathing down our necks now. So — please get your submissions in asap. I've got the submissions for the Mabon issue but anyone who hasn't submitted anything yet should seriously consider it, as we were thin for Mabon when I lost access and I received NOTHING in my inbox during my absence. (I got Lupa's column last night, though I may have had one already.) I've got stuff from Gerald as well, ftr.
Please let me know if any of you are experienced with CSS and are available to help with the move or the issue. I've got a couple of friends / RTV staff helping me as time permits, and I'll be doing all I can in the time I have away from cleanup (we flooded, and have serious mold issues) and regular daily demands.
This has been something of a real life "reboot" for me, and being away so long was disorienting and surreal. I'm trying to get my focus back, but it's going to take a few days at least. There's a lot of post-traumatic stress going around, and it's not an instantaneous recovery, even though a lot of things still look the same (other than missing shingles and 6ft piles of lumber on the side of every street, every day despite pickups on a very regular basis). It's easy to dismiss something like this when you're not affected, but please remember to give SE Texas residents (and residents as far north as at least Ohio) a break – we've all been through a lot.
Sincere regards,
Sheta Kaey
I bet some of you are wondering where I disappeared to for so long. I live on Trinity Bay just east of Houston, about a mile from the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel. Hurricane Ike forced a mandatory evacuation of my zip code on September 11, and Ike struck slightly east of home around 2 a.m. on September 13. At my mother's house 35 miles NW of here, we had 65 mph sustained winds and 100+ mph gusts. Galveston got creamed, and I haven't yet seen images of the aftermath other than in the two or three days just after the storm. Last I heard, Galveston residents were still not allowed to return to the island. I could be wrong on this because I've been rather out of touch.
97% of Houston area (which is a big area of 5 million people) lost power. After a week, we got a mass influx of out-of-state power workers to help restore power, and on September 21, we were able to finally return home after 11 days away. (We lost the bulk of four trees, which are still outside untouched because of the backlog of qualified professionals to deal with them. I hope to save at least one or two in the end.) Miraculously, we sustained no structural damage to our home and even stuff on the porch was still there when we got home. (We had expected to have more time to evacuate and were cleaning up when we got the order.)
Cable (our internet) wasn't restored until yesterday, and we didn't have TV until Saturday. (That was voluntary; we had ourselves on DISH Network "Pause.") So I haven't seen a newscast, CNN, or internet news for over a week. I spent about an hour online last night.
So, we lost the Mabon issue of Rending the Veil, but I was able to get online briefly, in time to notify our readers of the cancellation. I have had no time at all to work on the move to the new servers. And the Samhain issue is breathing down our necks now. So — please get your submissions in asap. I've got the submissions for the Mabon issue but anyone who hasn't submitted anything yet should seriously consider it, as we were thin for Mabon when I lost access and I received NOTHING in my inbox during my absence. (I got Lupa's column last night, though I may have had one already.) I've got stuff from Gerald as well, ftr.
Please let me know if any of you are experienced with CSS and are available to help with the move or the issue. I've got a couple of friends / RTV staff helping me as time permits, and I'll be doing all I can in the time I have away from cleanup (we flooded, and have serious mold issues) and regular daily demands.
This has been something of a real life "reboot" for me, and being away so long was disorienting and surreal. I'm trying to get my focus back, but it's going to take a few days at least. There's a lot of post-traumatic stress going around, and it's not an instantaneous recovery, even though a lot of things still look the same (other than missing shingles and 6ft piles of lumber on the side of every street, every day despite pickups on a very regular basis). It's easy to dismiss something like this when you're not affected, but please remember to give SE Texas residents (and residents as far north as at least Ohio) a break – we've all been through a lot.
Sincere regards,
Sheta Kaey