stormchaser06's Blog

Yesterday was quite interesting. Around lunchtime, my mum and I were heading over to Target. I was in the left turn lane stopped at a red light with one car in front of me. A gold half ton pickup pulled up behind me and stopped. A few moments later, there was a deafening "BOOM!"  I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the bed of that gold truck dropping back to the ground and the entire truck bouncing towards me. The car stopped in front took off and I pulled forward a few feet and stopped to get out of the way. I threw my car in park and got out as soon as I could open my door without it being taken off by oncoming traffic. I checked on the people in the truck, they were ok at the moment.

I then run behind the truck to see this little black sedan with the front end absolutely destroyed with antifreeze all over the road and smoke coming from the engine. They had hit that truck at full speed, about 40 mph for that road. I checked in on all four passengers, the driver and back seat passengers were ok, front seat passenger had a small cut on her head and was bleeding a little. The driver was tending to her with some napkins. I called 911 and we had emergency crews out there in a few minutes. I went back to my car and grabbed a bottle of water for the lady passenger in the truck who was very upset and shaken up by this time. My mum was standing in the door talking with her and holding her hand while her husband took care of everything else. I also grabbed a towel to offer to the people in the car if their passenger was still bleeding. I flipped on my overhead lights to warn other taffic that I was stopped there and they needed to use the next lane in order to turn left. (A lady still tried to pull in between me and the truck, I had to stop traffic in order to let her back out again.) We asked a Conroe PD officer if he needed any witness statement from us, which he did not. He said we could leave or stay with the lady in the truck. We opted to stay with her until they left.

The front passenger of the sedan was taken to the hospital and everyone else was ok. The driver of the truck came back and said, "Get this: they're a car full of attorneys." He started to laugh.

A few hours later, my mum and I were stopped at a red light again. A lady in a maroon car pulled out to turn right on red. As I watched her, she started to slow down and nearly stopped immediately after turning, looking for the entrance to a shop she wanted. "SCREEEEECH!" Black car, brakes locked, tires smoking, "BANG!" I just dropped my head back and said, "Oh......... again?!" This one wasn't nearly as bad and nobody was hurt. The guy in the black car almost stopped, just not quite. His front bumper shattered and her back bumper maybe had a dent. But still we pulled over and waited for Conroe PD in case they needed a witness. Wouldn't you know it was the same officer from the first accident that responded? He pulled up and got out, and my mum said, "You again?!" He looked at her, looked at me, and laughed. He said, "Ya'll go home...." We started laughing as well and said, "We were right there again! Don't need a witness for this one?" He didn't and we were on our way.

Now what are the odds of something like this?

Would you still give me a ride?

Has anyone heard of this program? It is something that goes on for two days at high schools up here in Montgomery County. The program was put on at my high school during my junior year. The video for that production is below. I remember standing in the parking lot watching it, and it was a whole new experience for me.

Shattered Lives will be visiting four Montgomery County high schools again this year: College Park High School on March 6th and 7th, Conroe High School on March 26th and 27th, Willis High School on April 9th and 10th, and Montgomery High School on May 14th and 15th.

The purpose of the program is to educate high school kids about how real the consequences of drinking and driving can be. A lot goes into this, you can read more about the program at www.shatteredlives-montgomerycounty.comp>

shattered lives

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My car has been out of action and not running for a couple of weeks. I wasn't too worried, I was sure it would get fixed sooner or later. Then I saw that things were shaping up for a possible severe weather event this weekend around here, and that was a good incentive for me to try and see if I could fix my car. I don't know hardly anything when it comes to this kind of stuff. 

I originally began this video blog as a "Help me troubleshoot/ What's wrong" type of blog, but then it kind of turned into a documentation of this mass effort to get my car running again. You may find this quite entertaining, my automotive ignorance level has got to be way up at the top of the scale.

I came across something interesting when we went to Bush Airport to pick up my Grandad for his visit this Christmas. We went into the Parking Cents parking lot and were following the signs around the lot for where the available spaces were. As we came around a corner I saw this:

Notice the sign on the right by the side of the road. Really? Are we supposed to park down in there? I thought it was really funny, and I had to take a picture. Then one of my brothers said, "Hey! It's overflow parking!" Funny guy....

I had never driven the Westpark Tollway until Saturday. I was coming back from the Blogger Bash and took the exit from Westpark to 59 North. As I went up over the flyover, I said, "Whoa!!" The view was amazing: the sky was clear with the sun shining, 59 running below you, the Williams Tower right in front of you, and downtown in the background. Awesome! I had never seen that view of the city before, it felt like being in a really low flying helicoptor!

Anybody else driven the same flyover from the Westpark Tollway to 59 North and seen this view? What did you think the first time you saw it? 

So this Saturday we have really close friends (we're family-- just not blood-related) that are flying down to see us for a few days. They are flying in from Utah, and they have NEVER been to Texas or any part of the Southern U.S. before. I'm really excited to have them here! They'll be here from Saturday the 27th through Wednesday the 31st.

As I'm the one that does most of the bee-bopping to and from and around the city, I've been compiling a list of different activities for them to choose from when they get here, just to kinda let them pick and choose what they want to see and do while they're here-- it's their trip after all! I would love any more suggestions that anybody can come up with! Here's what I have as possible activities so far:

• Chase Tower Observation Deck (if it's still open.... I think it is but I'm not sure...)
• Galveston Beach/ Seawall
• Moody Gardens
• Kemah Boardwalk
• Galleria
• Alley Theatre (they're into the play/ drama scene)
• NASA
• Woodlands Mall

And also a few other local things closer to where we live.

If you had never been to Texas before and had the chance to come to Houston for a few days, what would you want to see?

So apparently there was a police chase on 45 north thru Montgomery County earlier today, It went right by my house while I was home and I didn't even know it! ha! As some of you may know, my house is only 1 mile east of I-45. This Transtar image was taken about 2 exits south of where I live:

It's weird, because today I decided to leave school right after my class ended. Normally I hang around and do homework or something, but I opted not to this afternoon. Had I stayed for a little while, then there's a good chance that this chase may have come right up behind me, as it was happening at right about the same time I would have been leaving Montgomery College!

Not only that, but my Mum should have been on 45 north about this time, too. However, she was 30 minutes late because she couldn't find a form she needed to take with her to get notarized.

Personally, I'm pretty sure that the way all this worked out with my family had a little "divine intervention," if you know what I mean. :-)

Here's the link to the story:

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail
?contentId=4282828&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TS
TY&pageId=1.1.1

Something always has to go wrong on a road trip doesn't it? We were driving North on I-25, located about 5 miles south of the Colorado-Wyoming State Line, in the middle of nowhere at the time. Everything was running smoothly, then we slowly started slowing down with no warning. My mum was driving at the time, and so she pressed down on the accelerator to try and bring speed back up (even though we were on cruise), still nothing. She put the pedal to the floor with no results, we just kept slowing down, kinda like you do when you run out of gas. Then she looks at me and says, "I've got no power..." So she puts the hazards on and moves over to the shoulder and applies the brakes. Nothing. She frantically looks down and tries again-- nothing. She says, "I've got no brakes!!" I've got nothing!" She begins pumping the brakes with no results. Then the power steering failed.

So here we are in a fully loaded full-size van with no acceleration, power steering, or brakes, coasting down a slight hill on the shoulder. We finally get to the bottom of the hill and manage to stop safely. We all sat there for a minute thinking, "What is going on?" We had plenty of gas and had just changed the oil before we left. We couldn't think of what could be wrong. So we waited for a bit and tried to start the van again. It started, and we slowly began to creep along the shoulder. The pedal gradually reached the floor, but we only made it to about 20 mph. Then the van lurched forward and all the dash lights came on, every single one, and they went out again and the van completely died once more. No power steering or brakes, nothing. Thankfully we hadn't started to go up another hill before it died again, otherwise we probably would have begun to roll back. We put the parking brake on and piled out of the van and across to another dirt farm road that was running parallel to the freeway.

My mum and I get on the phone to make the necessary phone calls. I called the Colorado Highway Patrol and Assistace asking for them to send someone out and at least put some flashing lights behind us to alert the other motorists on the road while we were broken down there, and maybe provide and escort for us to try and limp the van into Cheyenne, Wyoming (the next city and also the state's capitol, only 13 miles north of where we were). I was told that they could not give us permission to drive on the shoulder (which is understandable), but then the lady told me that they would not provide an escort, could not cross the state line, and would not send an officer or trooper out to us at all. The only "assistance" I got in the end was an offer to call a tow truck, which my mum was already doing through our insurance. Isn't their job to protect and serve? Great job on this case... I'm not trying to offend anybody in law enforcement or similar field, but I just wasn't too thrilled with the response I got from them. But still I politely thanked her and hung up.

Then my mum got off the phone and said that our insurance couldn't get any towing companies in the area where we were to answer the phone, but that lady gave us the names and mubers of all of them so that we could keep trying. It wasn't our insurance's fault or anything, they did all they could and were actually concened for us and were asking about our well-being, unlike the lady I had just talked to. They said we would have to pay the cost up-front, but they would re-imburse us after sending in a receipt or something. 

We called one company, but they didn't have a truck with a cab that would fit all six of us in it. Then the guy said, "Well, I normally don't do this, but I'll give you the number of another guy. I know he has a couple of trucks with bigger cabs." We thanked him and called the number he gave us.

Here is where things started looking up for us. The company was Doug's Towing, located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. A lady named Jennifer answered the phone, and after explaining the whole situation to her, she said, "Well, before I send out a truck and you spend hundreds of dollars, try this. It sounds to me like you may have vapour lock." We had never heard of this, and so my mum asked about it, and Jennifer said that the heat can cause it sometimes. After explaining that the van was from Houston and used to the heat, she clarified things and said that it's a combination of the heat and the altitude. It cuts off the air supply to the gas tank and essentially creates a vacuum that shuts off the fuel supply to the engine. She said, "Undo your gas cap and let it sit for about five minutes. After that, put the cap back on loosely to allow airflow into the tank, and try to start driving again." We thanked her for the tip and said we would call her back in a few minutes. We did as we had been told, and the van started up and ran just fine. We got going again and called Jennifer back with our successful results. She was so happy (as were we), and wished us a safe and good trip. We thanked her and continued on with no other gas tank-related issues.

Jennifer did not have to suggest any of this, she could have just sent a truck out and we would have been over $200 out of our spending money. But no, she did everything she could to help us get going again without having to charge us a dime!

So, if you are ever in or around Cheyenne, Wyoming and need a tow truck, call Doug's Towing! They will take excellent care of you and will do all they can in order to help you!

Look at what I found in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Enid, Oklahoma:

This full-size van had an interesting paint job-- Van Goh's (spelling?) "Starry Nights." Oh the things you see on a road trip.... It was kinda cool, but not exactly my first choice. (That would be a "FoxRad" paint job!!) :-D

What about you? What kind of "out-of-the-ordinary" paint job would you put on your vehicle?

I had this sent to me as a forward, so I don't know if it's true or not. However, it is quite frightening, and so I wanted to pass it on to all of you as a warning, just in case.

IDAHO STATE POLICE WARNING-- PLEASE READ IMMEDIATELY!

State Police Warning- Please forward to all agents. DON'T FLASH HEADLIGHTS AT ANY CAR WITH NO HEADLIGHTS ON!! Police Officers working with the DARE Program have issued this warning: If you are driving after dark and see on on-coming car with no headlights on, DO NOT FLASH YOUR LIGHTS AT THEM! This is a common "Bloods" member "Initiation Game" that goes like this: The new gang member under Initiation drives along with no headlights and the first car to flash their headlights at him is now his "target." He is now required to turn around and chase and spot that car, then shoot and kill every individual in the vehicle in order to complete his initiation requirements. Police Departments across the nation are being warned. Their intent is to have all the new "Bloods" nationwide drive around on Friday and Saturday nights with their headlights off. In order to be accepted into the gang, they have to shoot and kill all individuals in the first auto that does a courtesy flash to warn them that their lights are off. Make sure that you share this information with all the drivers in your Family! Please forward this to all your friends and Family Members to inform them about this initiation ritual.

Investigator Shawn Becker (5216)

City County Narcotics Unit/ Canyon County Sheriff's Department

1115 Albany Street

Caldwell, ID, 83605

Office Phone: (208)-453-2282 Fax: (208)-459-0433

Two TV News choppers collided in mid-air and crashed into a Phoenix park while live and covering a police chase. So far, at least one person is dead, maybe two.

Ok SkyFox Crew: How did this happen? What went wrong?

I know that you guys may only know as much as anyone else, but I thought maybe as you do this just about everyday and have for a long time, that you might be able to give us some inside explanations about this terrible incident.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected.

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/ContentDeta
il?contentId=3901154

So I was listening to a couple guys on my ham radio yesterday, and one asked the other where he was located at. He replied, "I am in malfunction junction." The other asked, "The Bayou City?" The first replied, "No, College Station." (No offense to any Aggies out there, I'm only quoting). :-) After a while I got to thinking:

Which intersection or freeway interchange around town would you consider to be "malfunction junction?"

Here's my story in regards to Traffic_Diva's question, the time that I did stop and help. 

It was about 1:00 in the morning on a cold night a few days before this past Thanksgiving. I was leaving from a late night at where I was working at the time. I was coming down 45, and as I started to move towards the exit ramp, (Crighton Road exit), I saw something sitting sideways across it. I looked harder and I could see it was a pickup with the front end smashed blocking the exit ramp. I hit the brakes and put on my hazards and stopped. I jumped out and there was nobody around, except for one guy frantically pacing up and down the shoulder on the phone to 911. I checked to make sure that it was safe to go up to the truck (no gas or anything leaking), it was and so I ran up to the driver's side (Both windows were open and the windshield had been smashed and started to fall out of the frame), and I saw a man unconscious and folded in half. It was awful, his knees were up under his chin with the steering wheel pushed up against them, and the rest of him was under the wheel and part of the column. I could tell that he was hurt (obviously), and I didn't want to touch him as I didn't know if his neck or back was broken. So I began yelling and screaming at him to wake up. Just being as loud as I could in order to get some sort of response out of him. He wasn't moving or responding, but I could see that he was breathing. After a couple of minutes a lady came running up to me and asked if there was anyone else in the truck. I said that I didn't know, I hadn't checked. She went around the the other side and saw that there wasn't anyone else inside, and we couldn't see anyone on the ground anywhere that might have been thrown from the truck. She came back around and told me that she was a nurse and that we had to wake him up. I told her that I wasn't going to touch him, (again for the fear of a broken neck or back), and so we both started yelling at him. After about five minutes, he started to stir and we encouraged him to wake up. Eventually he did, and we kept talking to him and started trying to get some information out of him such as his name and if he remembered anything. We finally found out that his name was James or something like that. He had no idea that he was pinned in his truck or that he had had an accident. We told him that he had been in a little accident, and he said he was fine. We were telling him that of course he was, but there was help coming just to make sure. Eventually the Fire Dept. and police and EMT's arrived. They had to use the Jaws of Life to get him out. The police started getting stories from all of us that were there and figured out who they needed statements from and who could leave. I was able to leave, but during the next week or so, I was able to get the case number from the police to try and find out which hospital this guy was in. I never could find him, so I don't know if he made it or not. I hope he did.