Lundy Says-Amusing Info from Lundy Wilder

Found this great photo that shows our DAC-ART house on Little Lagoon and the 'Granny House' were we stayed during Hurricane Katrina. Of course, they didn't have these two locations marked with arrows--I had to add those. I cropped this small portion from the much larger, higher resolution NOAA photo . I also adjusted the contrast. This photo can be clicked for a larger one. The golf course is Peninsula.

NOAA RAISES THE 2005 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON OUTLOOK ; Bulk of This Season's Storms Still to Come — A very active Atlantic hurricane season is underway, and with more storms projected, NOAA increased the number of storms in its 2005 hurricane season outlook. NOAA expects an additional 11 to 14 tropical storms from August through November, with seven to nine becoming hurricanes, including three to five major hurricanes. NOAA posting very good aerial photos of the Gulf Coast . On one, I can actually see how much sand is on the grass in front of one of our condos. This link will take you directly to the individual maps-- click the map on the NOAA page.

Sis Cary told me about Click & Clack's website feature where one can enter one's zipcode and see listings w/ reviews and comments of local auto repair shops. Look in upper left hand corner for "Mechan-X-Files" at www.CarTalk.com Might be a good idea to look ahead of time so if you have to call a tow truck, you have some ideas where you might want to have it towed. Better yet--get REAL organized and make notes to put in your glove box--or just print out the web page info for glove box. Thanks Cary. Remember when Brookstone was all about tools ? An online store called the Museum of Useful Tools or "MUT" is sorta what Brookstone once was.....they offer items from about 2 bucks to 2 hundred. Also books about design, most by Henry Petroski, like The Evolution of Useful Things. Maybe he owns the store.

My Birthday !! And my Momma's too !! Thanks for all your emails and prayers and to all those friends and relatives that want to send me big huge expensive B'day presents, consider things that are waterproof and inflatable. I have finally gotten a new page added to the (click) house website w/ Hurricane Katrina photos , most of which have also been put here. But it is for all the people who don't know this blog exists and are emailing me.

Well, I finally got access to Gulf Shores today, took some pictures and got them added to http://www.gulf-shores-alabama.net Most all swimming pools on the beach are full of sand, as in totally FULL.....makes one feel real special, like walking on water to go across them on foot. But full of sand is way better than destroyed. The city has BIG equipment out there working like crazy--got to MOVE THAT SAND--The word I have gotten is that Shrimp Festival IS gonna happen as scheduled Oct 13-16 and the public beach area was still under construction for Ivan repairs. and these guys LOVE to get their picture taken, they grin and wave and never ever run me off, no matter how close those beep-beep-beeps are. I have been getting emails LIKE CRAZY from adoring fans all over the country wondering how DAC-ART and the 'hurricane proof house' did in Katrina. Sooooooooo, I must add some photos of the house to the DAC-ART site asap, or I will get nothing done for answering fan mail, errrr....ema...

Some neighbors from across the lagoon borrowed my pedal boat to sneak onto West Beach to get a look at their house--they took some photos that I should be able to add to this blog tomorrow. First is my neighbor, Mary Louise Brush's yard---she lives about a mile down from me. Ivan broke out all her southern windows and trashed her house interior, so this is a small deal compared to that. None of her windows broke. She had plywood on them. Then a photo of a street a mile or so down towards Hwy 59 (G.S.), as you can see, the houses have water in the lower foors. Next is the pool next door to me once the water receeded. Shown here are some various photos. I drove to Orange Beach today and found several over turned trailers, one smashed by a crane, and a good bit of road errosion near the state park area. The streets are nearly deserted. I couldn't get on Beach Blvd in Gulf Shores today. Thankfully, our Silver Beach condo in O.B. is a-ok and the pool was not destroyed. The newly rep...

Hwy 59 and Beach Blvd GULF SHORES — Hurricane Katrina played havoc with Alabama's coastal playgrounds Monday as Gulf waters churned across beaches and flooded resort roads, but wind damage appeared minimal, at least compared to Ivan. On Mobile Bay's eastern shore, however, stately homes of the well-to-do were awash in brown baywater storming over docks and porches, and into ground-floor rooms. "I've been here 25 years, and this is the worst I've ever seen the water," said Fred Wright, watching muddy waves of Mobile Bay breaking over a seawall and hitting the back of his big, brick home. Homes were flooded up and down the shaded, normally tranquil bayside, and a lot of limbs had fallen from the oak trees that line the bay and have long made the area attractive for the affluent. "There are lots of homes through here worth a million dollars. At least they were yesterday," Wright said. Surging waters Across Baldwin County at the beach resort...

These are just a few shots of Little Lagoon & our yard taken today. Couldn't get down into G.S. --curfew--police ran us off, I plan to sneak in on bicycle tomorrow w/ camera. Phone started working but my back-up dial-up account isn't, sooooooooooooo this is where it pays off to jot down the log-in info when your friends get you to help you with their computer problems, so you can use their accounts w/ other carriers in a pinch--ditto for the log-in and pass for Holiday Inn's etc....you just never know when it might come in handy !! Still no electricity or cable, so laptop is operating on generator power. I reduced the size of these photos so they'd upload on slow dial-up, but you can still click for a bit larger version. Two shots are the neighborhood of the Granny House in the little subdivision on Ft. Morgan and the tall skinny trees it backs up to during the storm. G.S. is pretty badly under water, so we just don't know how bad the beqach errosion will be, or...

Hello all of you in cyberspace- this is Cary, Lundy's sister, reporting to you from Lundy's satellite office in Knoxville, TN. It's about 2 p.m. Central Time and I just spoke to Lundy on her cell phone. They do not have power, cable, or telephone. The rain just let up to almost none so she and Harry ventured out in Harry's little close-to-the-ground Neon to check on the hurricane-proof Italian villa. They have no flooding in Mrs. Wilder's subdivision, or at least the part they are in, and they saw a Police car drive by so they went. The closer they got to the beach front, the windier it got. They were amazed at the how much worse the storm was there. The newly re-built boat dock next door to them is destroyed. That development has ocean water over the swimming pool. There were 3 foot waves at the base of their house with the water up to the bottom step. The part of the new fence close to the lagoon is down and they have new lawn-art of bales of straw, unid...

Well, it is 7 am and we still have electricity and cable tv . I just got up. I was semi-conscious for a while, I could hear the storm and windows making poping noises. We are to expect 10 inches of rain today the local forecast says. Pretty amazing, but the light poles are still standing here and they got bent over during Ivan on this street. More later if I still can get online. Pascagoula has reports of 113 MPH winds. this morning, but we are about an hour away from there. Mike Slidel on tv says we are not near the worst period of wind yet.

Well, here we go again ! What is this, our 7th hurricane this year ??????????? Edit--staying in Gulf Shores for now....canceled Holiday Inn for Sunday nite., traffic is all tyed up and besides, if i am gonna be miserable, rather be miserable w/ something exciting to photograph other than road rage....will ck weather tv at 2 a.m. and f Katrina turns back this way, we will jump in car and head towards Columbus GA. Staying at the granny house in subdivision across the st from Little Lagoon. Car loaded w/ computer stuff is in the garage. Fridge full of beer ! 10:30 p.m., weather prediciton on TV downgraded here from wind at 130 MPH to 100 MPH, so maybe we'll live thru it. So weird to hear the local report say, in it's automated voice, 'rain likely, wind gusting to 100 MPH. " High water predicted to be about 12 or so ft, and that will be close to the door here at the 'granny house' . Went over to my lagoon house few minutes ago and water is over the seawall about ...

Do not fall for this, it is a scam! Let all your loved ones know about this. This is a medical scam. Sent to me by alert friend Marti Choate who did not say if she was taken in by this quackery.....

Amazon's A9 is still in Beta, but you can see storefronts just like you are bicycling down the road !!! I do not know how they have amassed so much data or how they have gotten it all uploaded and properly indexed, can't imagine the work involved. Depending on your monitor, you might need to scroll to see both sides of the street. You can move the little magnifying glass, or type in an address. Have a look at the Blockview Photos of the following cities: New York, NY Los Angeles, CA Dallas, TX San Francisco, CA San Jose, CA Boston, MA Seattle, WA Portland, OR Denver, CO Atlanta, GA Chicago, IL Washington, DC Phoenix, AZ Houston, TX Miami, FL Fargo, ND Austin, TX Philadelphia, PA San Diego, CA Detroit, MI Salt Lake City, UT Sacramento, CA Long Beach, CA Reno, NV http://maps.a9.com

Subway has dropped the stamps w/ purchase for free sandwiches program. Seems people were counterfiting them and selling the stamps on eBay....empty those pockets and purses....hurry if you have any partially filled cards. They are suppose to be getting a special code or something from headquarters to enter into the registers to use to help regular customers make use of any partially filled cards they have on-hand.

Back in June, Tropical Storm Arlene was headed directly here--predicted to hit between Mobile and P'cola (that would be Gulf Shores !!) as a T.S. or a Hurricane and Russ Conn, my web helper, Heather's husband was helping me get my peddle boat up out of the water. We were down in the lagoon battling against bad wind and rain trying to lift that thing to safety...I ended up using a rope hooked to the back of my car to drag it to the north side of the house once we got it up on the lawn. Anyway---in the process, soon as I put foot in the lagoon, I lost my flip-flops in the waves. The second they came off I looked down grabbed the only one I saw and flipped it up in the yard, they were some favorites---never saw it's mate again, (we both looked and looked)---until today. Now, almost three months later, I went down on our mini beach in front of the house to see what was 'happin' (never know what those hermit crabs might be up to) and low and behold, there was my long los...

Well, I had to send this photo up big because this is a big blow up pool. I spotted it at Tuesday Morning way back in something like April. Talk about impulse sale. Well, here it is August and I am just now getting time to get it out of the box and play in it. It is perfect !! About 12 ft across and came with one of those rechargable little pumps that blows this thing up in something like a minute and a half--no kidding. The instructions say--stick it in the valve of your air bed. So obviously , same co that makes those instant matress things. The detachable , floating beer holders are stuck on velcro tabs on the rim in the photo. I loll around reading and tanning. It is wonderful. When my friend Carol Mc flies in we can take turns taking photos of each other reading and relaxing in repose. I tried to put it on the porch, but the porch is just way too narrow--didn't work out--on second day, as I was half asleep, I heard a big swwwwwwoooooosh. The rim dipped over the edge and water ...

Saw this on the Today show--FedEx is none too happy. Don't think they have too much to worry about. Most people are either too lazy or too un-creative to make their own apt furniture out of free FedEx boxes, but a few might--he tells you how. This guy got a new job as a software engineer and writes : "Using FedEx boxes and packaging materials, I constructed a desk, bed, couch, dining table and chairs out of the boxes. I'm currently stuck with double rent (both my new and old apartments), and can not afford real furniture. FedEx Furniture is furniture put together by empty FedEx Boxes, and held together by fedex packaging supplies. All of the furniture seen here is 100% functional." See his house full of white/orange/purple decor at FedExFurniture till they swap him some real stuff in exhange for his taking the site down !

www.BlogBinders.com Can create a bound book out of any English, Spanish, French, German, or Russian blog. They offer three different forms of binding and the prices really are not expensive considering it is a custom order deal. I have a friend w/ no internet access but he can get books and I had already printed out the blog about our trip (after I added the photos) to mail him or I might have used this service instead. And speaking of printing from the web to print the blog, I use a great piece of shareware that I have used for years called FinePrint which allows you to print 2 pages per sheet, 4 pages per sheet, etc...the free version will let you do it free as long as it prints a little line of ad across the bottom of the page. Their other nice little program the PDF Factory makes great pdf files and costs a mere fraction of what the Adobe software to create them does. Plus, when I tested it, the files it made were a smaller file size than the ones Adobe made.

After reading WIRED Magazine's article: The Man Who Shot Sin City --How Robert Rodriguez, the one-man digital army behind El Mariachi and Spy Kids, brought an "unfilmable" cult comic to the big screen, I knew I wanted to see it. OUTSTANDING...esp considering that it is pretty much a one man digital production, done in Austin, TX. If you have a pretty strong stomach--or can look away when necessary , as I did, then by all means, rent or go to the theater to see Sin City. The DVD has a short bit of extra technical info about shooting this ultra-graphic which of course is way interesting. I had read additional articles about the technical side of the production and I think that is more reason I enjoyed it. Not for little kids...... that is for sure. Wanna read folks reviews on Amazon? Sin City

Funny T-Shirts, some of them anyway, esp for 11 yr olds or those who like potty jokes. http://www.sackwear.com