TACKLE College Beginnings

Finally.  The electric is restored at Old Dominion University (ODU) after Hurricane Irene.  Child #5's entire room is packed (with her sister's clothes hidden deep in her boxes) and this blonde or brunette or dark blonde (depends on her mood) is off to college.  Only six days later than scheduled.

Irene delayed the beginning days of the East Coast schools that were hit with flooding, tree damage and electric outages.  Students were on standby waiting for their university to give the "go" to move in.

There was only one problem with the 3 hour trip to move this child to her dorm.  It was also my first day of classes at George Mason University (GMU) with a 7 hour day schedule.

I lost sleep over the decision to let her dad take her to college.  My New York daughter told me to blow off the GMU classes and drive to ODU.   I knew if I missed my critical first day, I would start off the semester  behind and struggle to catch up.

My ODU daughter and I went on the college hunt journey together.  Together we researched our schools, visited our schools, went to orientation and now must part ways.  I feel the grand finale is being split in two parts.  If that darn hurricane would have stayed away, I would have drove her to ODU last week, before my GMU classes started.   

The packing consumed our house.  She started to get stressed with the move and academic schedule ahead of her.  Her tone shifted to "snippy".   Her dad assuming the "mover role" began to sound appealing. 

I really did not want to miss this experience of sending my next daughter to college.  However, she seemed ok with dad coming to the rescue. 

At the end of the first day of college, we talked on the phone to rehash our experiences. 

Her dorm is bursting at the seams, she has a job lined up and she is scrambling for books.  I have a headache from all the material and homework in one day.  Thank goodness I did not "blow off the day".

We were both reminded of each other on our first day of school.  She met an ODU Athletic Staff member who grew up playing in our house (with my son).   In my GMU IT class,  I sat next to a girl who played years of High School Lacrosse with my daughters.  The poor girl seemed a bit freaked out by having a mother in class. 

My daughter was thankful to be 3 hours away from her mother's classroom experience.  I am sure she will miss me if her bank account screams for help.      

TACKLE the Statistics of US Home Foreclosures

I almost fell off my desk chair when I saw the rate for the National Home Foreclosures for 2010 shown on Google Maps. 

The devastation of the housing market is far worse than an earthquake or a hurricane.

The rate for US home foreclosures for 2010 was 1 in 46.  In 2008, according to RealtyTrac, the foreclosure rate was 1 in 464 US households. 

Look at the detailed map of Tampa , FL, one of the top five states in the Foreclosure Doom, with 1 in 20 homes in foreclosure.  Each red dot is a home in foreclosure.

Frightening!

TACKLE Hurricane Irene's Aftermath



Myrtle Beach, SC

 Mother Nature had issues with the East Coast this week.  Earthquakes and a week of threats of  Hurricane Irene plagued the citizens. Our family had concerns in 4 regions along the path of Irene.

1.  The Carolinas

Myrtle Beach , Surfside Beach area, SC, the place of our second home, had alerts coming early in the week.

All outside furniture was moved inside to brace for the threat of Irene.  The hurricane decided to skim past our SC beach house community and slam into North Carolina.  North Carolina's coastline juts out past South Carolina causing frequent storm threats.  This coastal spot was hammered by the hurricane.
   

Virginia Beach, VA

2.  Virginia Beach

Next on the radar was Virginia Beach.  Homebound, our college freshman at Old Dominion University was on standby for the school reopening. 

The city and college lost power and flooding.  Our teen was packed and ready to wait out the storm for a rescheduled move in date. 

Hopefully, she will be settled in her dorm by Wednesday to start her college adventure.  Surrounding cities of Virginia Beach were evacuated as well sending our Christopher Newport University college daughter home for the weekend.  The house is full.

Our home town in Northern Virginia was in a safer zone, so our news updates were focused on our other hot spot locations. 

Prime Hook Beach, Delaware's Road 

3.  Delaware

My parent's retreat in Prime Hook Beach on the  Delaware coast was a big worry for the family.  Past storms have jeopardized the condition of the road to the community.  The Delaware Bay broke through to the freshwater marsh area threatening the wildlife and vegetation in the protected wildlife refuge.

Irene decided to destroy the road. The National Guard was called in to assist in a potential two week project to construct an access road for the small private beach community.

SoHo (Manhattan), NYC

4.  New York

Next stop for the path of terror was New York City,  home to our designer daughter.  Her ride to work, the NY Subway, was shut down in a historic decision to keep everyone home and safe.

Her place of business in Manhattan, as well as her home in Brooklyn, were targeted for storm surges.  The fashion industry will want to get back to work as soon as possible to get ready for  Fashion Week in September.  New York suffered greatly when Irene took a bite out of the Big Apple.

Farewell Irene! Unfortunately, the hurricane season
ends November 30th.













Pictures courtesy of the Charlotte Observer.

TACKLE the East Coast Earthquake

Seismogram  8/23/11  Cape Henry Collegiate School, VA Beach, VA

The world is buzzing with news.  Hurricane Irene is barreling through the Caribbean.  Libya is in turmoil.  Obama is golfing.   Now, Virginia is not just for lovers; Virginia is for tremors!

Stories of lamps falling, ground moving and cars rocking were told by East Coast residents.  

Mineral, VA was the epicenter for this 5.9 earthquake that hit August 23, 2011 at 1:51PM, the second largest in Virginia's history.  It occurred along the Spotsylvania fault and was felt up and down the entire east coast.


Listed below are the earthquakes with magnitude of 3.5 and greater, 1974 - 2003, according to  United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program

	State	Number of Earthquakes 1974-2003	Percent of Total
1.	Alaska	12053	57.2 %
2.	California	4895	23.2 %
3.	Hawaii	1533	7.3 %
4.	Nevada	778	3.7 %
5.	Washington	424	2.0 %
6.	Idaho	404	1.9 %
7.	Wyoming	217	1.0 %
8.	Montana	186	0.9 %
9.	Utah	139	0.7 %
10.	Oregon	73	0.3 %
11.	New Mexico	38	0.2 %
12.	Arkansas	34	0.2 %
13.	Arizona	32	0.2 %
14.	Colorado	24	0.1 %
15.	Tennessee	22	0.1 %
16.	Missouri	21
17.	Texas	20
18.	Illinois	17
19.	Oklahoma	17
20.	Maine	16
21.	New York	16
22.	Alabama	15
23.	Kentucky	15
24.	South Carolina	10
25.	South Dakota	10
26.	Virginia	10
27.	Nebraska	8
28.	Ohio	8
29.	Georgia	7
30.	Indiana	6
31.	New Hampshire	6
32.	Pennsylvania	6
33.	Kansas	4
34.	North Carolina	3
35.	Massachusetts	2
36.	Michigan	2
37.	Minnesota	2
38.	Mississippi	2
39.	New Jersey	2
40.	Louisiana	1
41.	Rhode Island	1
42.	West Virginia	1
43.	Connecticut	0
44.	Delaware	0
45.	Florida	0
46.	Iowa	0
47.	Maryland	0
48.	North Dakota	0
49.	Vermont	0
50.	Wisconsin	0
Total		21080

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California and Alaska are the country's leaders in earthquakes.  I lived in California for a year in the past and they feel 5+ quakes at least twice a year.  

East Coast residents are reactors.  They went through hell during the 9-11 attacks.  I am sure many people thought of the possibility of a terrorist attack when they were shaken by surprise.  Broken items and the precautionary shut down of nuclear reactors seem to be the worst of the outcome.  Thank goodness there were no deaths reported at this time.

My daughter was planning to go to Kings Dominion Amusement Park today.  A scheduling conflict cancelled their trip.  The Park is near Mineral, VA.  She sighed when she considered the possibility of riding on a roller coaster when the earth decided to shift 3.7 miles under the surface.     

TACKLE Cheap Books for College

I should become a textbook writer.  My daughter leaves for college on Thursday, so it was time to check out her book list for her classes that start on Monday.

Her Biology textbook for her first class in college had an outrageous cost of $202.  The Calculus book costs $185.  The required book list for her 16 credits of classes totals almost $600.  I know they are complex, technical books, but what a chunk of change!

The college bookstore claims that they rarely sell used books for science and math classes. Really? I searched abebooks.com and half.com and found both books for 1/3 of the price.  The problem: delivery may take 9 days.  Why didn't I think of this sooner?

We considered renting books, but my daughter is not disciplined enough to return books.  Forgotten redbox movies are scattered throughout the house.