Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Hurricane Supplies Have Taken Over The Pantry

June 1 starts Hurricane Season.

June 1 also starts the time of year that I get claustrophobic in the Pantry.

It's a small cramped room to begin with, probably not much more than 8 feet wide and 20 long.

The room has all that "utility room" stuff in it.

It's my laundry room and pantry so along the wall are all the soaps and cleaning supplies as well as the washer and dryer.

It now has the explosion of food that comes into the house every June.   In fact, we're still drinking last year's bottled water to "get rid of the stuff".

Two weeks of food and water for two adults, a dog, and a rambunctious parrot take up a lot of space.

The carnage near the door is coincidental.  There's a stain on the concrete that predates our owning the house, most likely water from Hurricane Wilma back in '05.  I left the dog's toys there because that's where he was playing with them.  Now I have a claustrophobic crime scene with a blinded Chuck Norris doll and partially disemboweled pig doll among all the chaff.

We should have cleared the kitchen table of the excess supplies before hitting the Warehouse Club for the water.  It won't be used until some time around December as a result. 

But we're set.  Two weeks of food and water.   Just squeeze by if you have to use the washer!

It's part of the price of living in Paradise.  There is no place in the US where you don't have some sort of life threatening weather.  If there's ice and snow, good luck standing outside in it for a day without a heavy coat.  Earthquake zones have furniture bolted to the walls and there's a strong preference for "ground floor apartments".  Tornado Alley homes usually have storm shelters that double as a basement or storage.

In our case we've got large corrugated steel shutters, a roof that is strapped to the house, concrete block walls with stucco, and the usual low slung architecture.  Build tall here and you're waiting to get slapped down by an errant flying coconut tree.

Pull up a chair and grab a bottle of (last year's) bottled water!  So, how are your hurricane preps going on?  Got everything you need?

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