Taming the beast

Just a quick note. Gustav was not even the beast here in New Orleans (Thank God). But I do have to admit part of my adrenaline-junkie was a little disappointed. Nonetheless, I'm appreciative of us being spared from its wrath. Thanks to all who kept me and my crew in their thoughts and prayer. Ike then threaten NOLA a little but was definitely aiming for Houston. Deja Vu of Katrina and Rita.

I'm sick of talking about the storms. Looking forward to the Fall season. The weather is already cooling down and I'm loving every minute of it with my windows rolled down.

However, since the storm, there's this other beast that has emerged it's ugly head in the surface of my life. It's the beast that many would have names such as matters, situation, mood, negativity, problems, etc. I have come to learned this week that I have allowed it to define who I am and how I react to my days. The moment I allow it to dwell around for a moment, it is when I see it engulf my entire day to slug. I have to constantly renew my mind by reminding myself how great the day is and not allow it to bring me down. It's a tough feat when I'm constantly battling crap at work, relationships, my house hunting situation, and my company. It's also another dejavu of how my life was approximately a year ago. I do feel myself spread thin and I'm starting to lose sight of the quality of life.
I can vividly remember how it was like right after Katrina. Have I improved since then. Maybe. But I'm gonna fight harder against this beast. It's a matter of perspective and mind. It takes initiative. I have to intentionally desire to win over it.

This past 2 weeks' score is Edmund 0 : Beast 2. Watch for a come back for week 3. I'm about to tear it apart!!!!!

Arrival of Hurricane Gustav

What a night. It was considerably peaceful compared to Katrina. All night long, we were fighting to keep both of the large units on (1500MW Total). These units are some of the main supplier to the New Orleans Metro area. Around midnight, we were ordered to placed all units on Oil. This is because all gas lines are shut off coming in from the Gulf during hurricane threats. For an hour or so, I was helping some of the operators and maintenance personnel to swap out the gas guns with the oil guns. We managed to keep both units on.

I was awakened by the howling of the wind at about 8:30am eventhough I worked all night. But this gave me a good opportunity to capture some of the footage above. Maximum winds were approximately 110 mph in some of the heavier squalls out over the water according to our gauges. We just might have dodged the bullet. But is the worst over?