Two Hurricanes Will Have An Effect On Each Other, And On Your Week

Whenever Florida gets any kind of big storm, my friends and family, gotta love them, will ask "You ok?".  This time there were three tropical storms in the North Atlantic.  I decided to pay close attention and write things down, in my typical rambling fashion with too much detail.

The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Sunday Morning.   It is about an hour before sunrise.  I'm sitting in a dark house drinking some "jet-fuel" coffee, Home Roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe medium roast if you are curious.  Rack, my faithful sidekick McNab SuperDog is at my right elbow smiling and panting for some reason.

I check Radar trying to decide whether to Inline Skate or Cycle today.  The Pompano Air Park is sitting under a "Dark Green Blob" which means it is currently raining enough that there will be ponding on the trails.  Ok, Cycling it is.

There is a Tropical Storm trying to form into a hurricane.  It won't be "Our Storm" and we will be safe.  Or so I hope at this point. 

There is a significant breeze coming in off the ocean.  This is South Florida after all, this is what the weather is like.  You are a bowling pin and a kid is down the alley tossing a too big bowling ball at you and it may or may not hit you and knock you over. 

You get up, check radar.  Temps are basically like yesterday.  If you liked yesterday, you will like today.  Or tomorrow. 

I am an endurance athlete.  I have to plan for a solid 5 or 6 hours of weather.  I don't have that today.  I'll let you know if I end up getting that water stop at the Jeep or will I have my mid workout "dousing" provided by Mother Nature.

Rack is up, getting curious.  I guess it is time to get up and motivate.

It's Sunday which means amateur day in any athletic pursuit.  The "Civilians" are out clogging gyms, trails, and other active places.  The rain did arrive, all of 5 drops, and the winds are up here but not appreciably so.  Good day for a little wind surfing.


This business of having two hurricanes within a certain distance has the Fujiwhara effect.  (Spelling courtesy of the link, sorry if I botched it)  The smaller of the two gets drawn into the larger.  It means that the smaller one that was heading for us here in Florida got stripped of a lot of its energy.  It also means that the prevailing winds here got turned around and we had a cool morning.  Storm isn't coming here, but the morning was cool and dry.  I guess that's from the North.

I went out into the yard.  Started messing with the irrigation.  During the 1970s a lot of these houses were built with this flimsy plastic tubing for pipes.  My house missed that but the prior owner used some of that stuff for irrigation.  I have been in the house for 20 years.  So instead of spending my morning enjoying the somewhat unseasonably cool 76F morning, I got started chasing after irrigation leaks.  You have irrigation, you will have leaks.  Especially if you used substandard pipes plumbing the yard.

It started a task that lasted all day.  I suppose it would be better off if I did not admit to people that we know how to work on sprinklers, it's a big business here in Florida.  It's also an annoying one to work on.  The glue takes 12 plus hours to set, closer to 24 hours, and it means everything has to be screw fit together or else.


Tuesday, Both storms, Humberto and Imelda, have moved somewhat North of where I sit.  That cool air that they pulled down from the North is still here, but the winds have shifted.  So as I prepare to go to the park to go do circles around the giant gas bag,  it will get warmer.  While yesterday had a low that was lower than normal for us at 75, like it is now at 5 AM, the high today will go up to higher than normal for us at 90.

I go for that workout because, despite the winds gusting over 25, it's dry.  Today will be a day for placing myself with the wind at my back for the longest leg of the workout and enjoy a rest at too fast a speed.

It was gusty but not obscenely so.  One of those days where the gusts would slow you down to almost a runner's pace, and then when you return, you find yourself going at the traffic's pace on the main road next to you with little effort.  

It's one of those days that slow you down overall but doesn't matter because you aren't being a lump on the couch.  But, definitely on a bike.  All the inline skaters were missing on the trail.

For us, this is not a big deal.  I have lived here for 20 years and you get to the point where you can read the radar for the weather, and you end up second guessing the Weather Guys on the TV.  

Why not, I have been doing that since I was a child.  I'm getting good at this.  But if you are North of me, keep an eye out and hone your weather forecasting skills.  You never know if it will save your hide some day.


It is Wednesday.  I usually release this stuff on Wednesday morning.  It's not our storm, nor did we expect it to be.  The storms are off the Outer Bank of NC and are making trouble for Bermuda.  I expect this to pretty much end the hurricane season, at least for a while.  

These storms have "Spun Fish" for enough time to pull colder water up from the depths and cool the ocean surface down.  That's the engine for the creation of the storms after all, warm surface water at 86F/30C.  

Our own forecasts in South Florida are dropping from the upper 80s to the mid 80s for the rest of the week.  

Enjoy your weather, I certainly will be!

Most of Hurricane Prep Involves Being Where It Isn't

 I remember when I moved here to South Florida being in a conversation about the weather.  Why not, right?  Everyone talks about the weather but you can't do anything about it.

When the topic shifted to Hurricanes and Tropical Storms the comment that sticks with me was simple.

"You just have to hope that it isn't where you are."

Of course that has a few other meanings.  Wish it on someone else comes to mind along with hope for a fish spinner.

A Fish Spinner is a storm that is out to sea and never really comes on shore.  It spins a few fish, splashes a few waves, and bothers nobody.

There are a few basic things that are required in order to create a hurricane, and the more of those basic things that you have, the worse the storm will be.

Ocean temperatures of 27C or 86F are required.  That will tend to feed a small cluster of thunderstorms and make them grow.  It does not mean that you will have a monster, it merely means that the conditions are better for the creation of a storm.

The winds have to be favorable as well.   That cluster of storms with a strong shear won't get a start on growth.

Since the Gulf of Mexico has been turned from a body of water into a hot tub thanks to all the carbon we have been pumping into the atmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and especially over the last hundred years, the conditions are ripe for the creation of a monster storm like Milton or any other category 5 storm.

Here I sit, in one of the places in Florida that are going to have "minor" effects from this storm.  It's going to come ashore in the Tampa Bay area, work its way towards Orlando and the Space Coast, and then back out to sea.  I'm near Fort Lauderdale, and I am hoping that this won't be my storm.  I'm listening to news coverage of the "event" where a Dentist was talking about clearing out the rubbish from Helene two weeks before in Tampa and hoping that the 15 foot storm surge won't wipe out his office in an eerily quiet and abandoned city. 

A 15 foot storm surge is not survivable. 

Last minute preparations should have been made the day before.

Here, I picked up the plastic table and chairs, the other light objects that could fly and threw them into the pool in the back yard.  The wind sock on the porch is down, and as a result a bird decided it was time to fly into the front window and end itself.  That is why I have wind socks on the front of the house, to save the birds.

But here, that is about all I will do.  The Bahama shutters are down.  The light plastic items are in the pool and will benefit from the bath.

This isn't Tampa, this isn't our storm.  Good luck up there, you're going to need help recovering. 

Hurricane Nicole Prep, or Bahama Shutters Down Means Weather Is Coming

My own theory of Hurricane Prep is pretty simple.

Do it every day.

No, seriously.  Why keep putting junk piled on the ground in the corner?  Why let your plantings get out of control?   Oh and if you are in an area where the power goes out, get a generator.  FPL Sucks.

When we moved here to South Florida, we knew that this area will get hit.  I sat in my house on top of a Hill in Philadelphia and watched as Katrina inundated New Orleans, as Wilma went across South Florida as a back door storm, and I remember driving over the area that Andrew hit in Homestead in the 90s.

I was driving to the Florida Keys to Key West about six months after the storm hit Homestead.  Really, truly, freaky coming to a stop sign where a stop light should be and seeing the street numbers painted on a street where there were no houses for blocks.

You really don’t want a storm like that hitting you.

It could have.  After moving here, I have been told many times that “Andrew would have hit here if it weren’t for a last minute wobble in the storms track”.

So I put down my shutters on one side of the house.  I also threw Aunt Betty’s plastic furniture into the pool.  When she was closing up her place in Century Village to live back in Noo Yawk on Lawn Guy Lant, she made sure that I took it.  I’ve had it on my porch ever since because it looks good there.  

She made me promise to keep it clean for her and a dip in the pool twice a year does that well.

At this point, on Tuesday, the storm is supposed to make landfall as Hurricane Nicole around Fort Pierce on Wednesday evening.   They are saying that the wind field is extra large and will give us Tropical Storm Force Winds as a result.  It has been a day since I started puttering around on all of this including this blog, and the track has not changed.

I went through that with Hurricane Irma.  It was not a big deal here, 66 MPH winds with 99 MPH gusts.  I sat in this chair that I am writing from and watched the big tree across the street, 30 feet tall, sway in the breezes.

10 meters of Florida Native Tree that needs to be trimmed survived the rain well.

As time went on, we replaced windows with hurricane glass, replaced the roof and brought it up to Code – Miami-Dade code.  The house is a bunker now and we get a preferred rate on our insurance as a result.

If your home is in the cross hairs of this storm, good luck, just go and pick things up since it’s too late to put up a new roof.

But yes, the main thing is really just hoping it hits your neighbor and not you.  I’ll be watching my neighbor because his house is nowhere near as well built as mine.  If his roof ends up anywhere, I hope it is not on mine.

I’ll let you all know how it goes, a Tropical Storm force wind is strong but survivable.   I won’t get worried until I start hearing Category 2 or 3 or that train sound that says there’s a tornado approaching.  Tornadoes are a very different beast as my cousin in Nebraska will tell you.  The first few minutes of the Wizard of Oz before it turns to Technicolor… yeah well different story.

In the mean time, if you have relatives in Florida, check up with them.  I’d say Saturday will be soon enough.

Hurricane Prep Is All About Wishing It Hits Your Neighbor

 I moved into this house a year or two after Hurricane Wilma.

I heard the locals moan and whine about the after effects and how bad it was to be in a modern house without any electric for one to three weeks. 

Then I realized THEY were right and I was not.  I started preparing by bullet-proofing the house.  It took me about 10 years.  I now don't worry about weather.

First generator would power either the refrigerator, the Air Conditioning, or the "rest of the crap in the house".

Replaced the leaky Jalousie windows with Hurricane Glass.  It's "near bulletproof" literally.  Makes the place nice and quiet.

Insulated the roof.  Added sheetrock and insulation to the Florida Room that had zero insulation.

Stood back and noticed that we can hold 76F on a very hot day of 96F in full sun and not worry.  It used to be that the AC was on full blast all day.

Replaced the AC with high efficiency unit.

Got a Propane based generator.

Remodeled the kitchen with a Propane stove, computer controlled electric oven.

Point of use water heater using Propane and no electric except the striker.

Finally a new roof.

Sure the order is mixed up but we are prepared for anything up to a Category 4 Direct Hit.

I won't wish that on anyone.

Hurricane Irma the other year was an annoyance and a dry run.  Sure getting up every four hours to run the generator was a major bother, but it worked.

None of that will help when Hurricane Ian does a direct hit on the West Coast of Florida.  It is a Category 4 at the moment, 150 MPH winds.  The standards for "Miami Dade Hurricane Building Code" would have the roof peel off in that.

Well maybe but it is also why you don't want a house that is more than 1 floor or wood frame in South Florida.

So good luck to Tampa, Sarasota, and Port Charlotte.  It's going to be a mess.

Here... we are making Baked Ziti, the storm never got closer than 150 miles away and the winds knocked over my tree in a pot in the back yard.

I'll have to scoop out the pool this afternoon but I think we're fine.

Call your relatives on the west coast of Florida and make sure they're OK but Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and the Palm Beaches seem to me MOSTLY fine.

Random Hurricane Thoughts on Isiais

This is one of those things that you do if you are a blogger.  You have a self imposed schedule and you put in place holder articles so that you may maintain it.

On the other hand, Nothing really happened here because of the storm.  We're safe here, my friends, my town, my neighbors are all safe.  I understand it's weakening so I believe that the Bahamas should be fine, although I have not seen anything crop up on the news services.

Never mind, I wrote this blather, and I shall let it go live!  Live on!  Live on, little blog posting that few shall ever read!!!!

First off, "ain't nobody" can say that damn name.  Two years down the line, people will still be saying it wrong.

So here it is Saturday Morning, and the storm is working it's way up through the Bahamas.  I expected it to be here, and to be in My Chair By The Window watching the weather but only two feeder bands.

Now they are expecting the thing to skitter along the coast and never quite make landfall here in Florida.  It's already hit the Bahamas, and I haven't heard any reports from there yet.

The joke in my family is that it's going to Clint Moore Road in Boca Raton.  That is the apparent southernmost limit of where the freezing weather can get.  I'm about 8 miles south of that, and that it is just someone at the Weather Service playing around with me and the rest of us here.

Ok, so I am stretching the point and have a bit of OCD about that particular place.  Besides, it is August, and the warmest week of the year starts on August 7th so no worries about freezes.

So far so good.  Here in Wilton Manors, we expect nothing worse than tropical storm force winds.  I have stowed the Orchids that haven't grown the roots to the fence, the Lean-To shade is stored, and I have thrown the plastic yard furniture into the pool.

That furniture bleaches up real nicely in the salt system that we have back there and will be clean for the next one.

This isn't to say that a Tropical Storm can not hurt you.  Please take appropriate care.

If you see this either my power went out or I decided on Sunday Morning that it's better than putting a joke out there.

But since you expect that out of me on a weekend, this is appropriate so it just may stay!


A woman brings her son to the beach

She fusses over him and tells him to be careful when he goes in the water.
Suddenly she sees a wave hit him and the ocean pulls him under.
The woman screams and runs to the water.
Falling to her knees she begs God, “dear lord, please bring my only son back to me. Please lord, he’s all I have in my life.”
Moments later the sun shines down from beyond the clouds and the boy, coughing but alive, steps out of the water.
The mother looks up at the sky and yells “he had a hat!”

When Hurricane Prep and Corona Virus Planning Collide

If you look at things critically, we've been on a emergency preparedness footing since November.  We just didn't realize it.

The first whisperings of a problem were around New Years, but here in South Florida we go through a twice yearly exercise.  In May or so, we begin to get supplies.  Hurricane season is coming, we need to keep at least two weeks of extra food in the house.  The assumption is that in a Power Down situation, what can you have handy to eat without anything to cook it. 

Industrial sized Peanut Butter Jars, Massive bags of Crackers, Giant multi-packs of Tuna.  My own hallway has two cases of water bottles.

Mind you, here in Wilton Manors Florida, the Utilities Management staff is amazing.  The

head here is "Honor Bound" to make sure there will be no problems with turning the tap and having water pour out with the exclusion of when the storm is at its peak for about six hours.  Its just prudent to have extra water on hand.  Nobody wants to stand under the drainspout to get a drink.

We have never had a problem here due to his success and his department.

The drum beat of "there's something wrong coming" got louder in January and February.  Loud enough that by the first week of March, I managed to get to the Big Box Wholesale Club three times and stock the house for the rest of the year of those non-perishable.  Someone else was welcome to stand in line, I'll have Spam for lunch.

Preparing for a hurricane which we are used to here, and a pandemic are similar but not identical.

What happens for a hurricane is that in May, now, we have a giant tree on the property that needs to be "thinned" as well as all the hedges and flowers have to be "rightsized".  The hedges are fine, as are the flowers.  After all, my prize bougainvillea hedges might be nasty to work with having all those thorns, but I'd prefer to do all of that myself.


The Tree is a very different story.  It's a Sea Grape.  Being a native species, we are not allowed to remove it, but there is no reason to have a monster 50 foot tall beast in the corner of the yard with dinner plate sized leaves.  Every year, we have it "lowered" or else it grows into the power lines.   I have had the limbs trimmed back about six feet every year, and they grow back about half that so it's now a healthy 30 plus.

We're about to go through that exercise.  They cut almost all of the foliage off the tree, and the fascinating thing is that the tree is evolved enough to accept that and thrive.  It almost all grows back by "next" year.  So shorten the longest limbs and allow it to adjust.

The problem is that half of my orchids were all shaded by that beast of a tree.  I had some that the elements had eaten away the pots and needed replanting again.  So pull all of them away from their home under the shed's eaves and repot.  I was able to make an extra two pots out of the one largest plant and move them close to the house and out of harm's way.


I guess all of this is an illustration of the "Butterfly Effect" where the flapping of a butterfly in the tropics stirs up dust that forms clouds that eventually form a hurricane.

That dust on my Jeep's hood in the carport is from the Sahara Desert.  If I stand on the beach and look due east, my line of sight following the curve of the horizon skips over one small island in the Bahamas and then comes ashore in Boujador in Western Sahara. 

You folks are welcome to the dust you lost, and here, have an orchid.

How Different Is Preparing for Coronavirus from Hurricane Prep

Image by ds_30 from Pixabay
 

Time for a bit of a ramble here.  After all, this is Ramblingmoose...

I am not so sure how different preparing for a feared quarantine is from Hurricane Prep, but here we go.

I have lived in South Florida since April 2006.  While we have had some near misses, we have to prepare for every hurricane like we're going to be directly hit by a storm that will be strong enough to take the power out for an extended period of time.

Every year, usually in June, but it extends back into May and forward as shopping trips allow as far as August, we start to shop.

Normal shopping shifts from How Can We Fill The Freezer to How Can We NOT Fill The Freezer.  Only get things you actually WANT to eat.

Just Be Reasonable About All Of This.

There's a story of two new immigrants from Syria in the Dearborn Michigan area.  Their country was damaged by the war that is lingering there and they escaped.  They were in the supermarket not knowing each other and one asked "So how long have you been away from Syria".  The other responded "Not long, but look at these fools buying frozen food".  They could tell by looking in each other's shopping carts.

Basically, when the power goes out, most of the effort of keeping things from going wrong in your life will be expended in making sure that your frozen foods don't melt.

So, don't buy them.  Look for temperature stable foods, canned goods, and a REASONABLE amount of toilet paper and paper towels.

If you're buying up hundreds of rolls of toilet paper, you're a fool.  One roll per person per week is my estimate.  Even if you double that, 100 rolls lasts a year.  My own experience is about a roll of paper towels in about two weeks or so.  More if I am clumsy.

Water is much more important but ask yourself how often has water been completely absent from your life.  I can honestly say less than four hours in the metropolitan areas that I have lived in and it was because someone named "Gator" was working on our water supply pipes.

Slow down, for you to lose water service, you're talking a Mad Max kind of post-apocalyptic situation.  Get a case of bottled water, maybe two per person and fill your own jugs when things go bad.

Power is much more likely to go out on a given day than water.  I've had power pops almost every single week that I have lived in South Florida.  Power was two weeks off for Hurricane Irma.  Hurricane Dorian would have been much worse for Fort Lauderdale had it not punished the Bahamas so badly.

Your food in the fridge is now suspect when the power goes out for long.  The freezer has melted.  Prefer to eat your frozen food now before problems arise, put freezer blocks in the freezer once space appears.

Got a generator?  Enough Fuel?  I'm guessing that gasoline will be the next thing people will be chasing after.

But the Russians seem to have us taken care of with that.   After all, they're flooding the markets and pushing prices downwards.  I wonder how long it will be before gas is below $2 a gallon again?

Just be reasonable.  If you are tripping over huge amounts of frozen and refrigerated foods, you're not doing your best work.  On the other hand, extra canned and dry pasta is worth the effort. 

Since it is Strawberry Season, I'll be canning Strawberry Jam this week to go with the Peanut Butter I have from Last Hurricane Season.  After all, fresh fruit doesn't stay fresh forever.

Besides you are really going to be sick of canned meat once we're back to normal in a while.

Anyone want a Tuna Hoagie?  Mmmm!  Can I trade a roll of TP for a tomato and an onion?

Dorian's Florida Sunset

The storm in South Florida was minimal.

It did however ruin Grand Bahama.

I saw a before/after map of the island where about 1/2 of the place was underwater.  There were videos of utterly demolished places with a random wall standing and other videos of where people were standing knee deep on their second floor as flood waters were turning their couches into pool floaties.

Watching the coverage on Bahamian National TV at ZNSBahamas.com you could hear the desperation in the voices of the callers.

And this storm isn't finished.  It's heading for the Carolinas.  Finish your storm prep up there, don't wait.

Even though it is currently a Category 2 storm, it can still wreck your day.

These storms are a way for the environment to move excess heat from the ocean into the atmosphere.  The explanation I heard was that this mechanism was a partial reason why Dorian stalled out over Grand Bahama.  The heat of the Bahamian ocean got lifted into the upper atmosphere and got dumped into North Carolina and broke down the steering currents.

All this caused an upwelling of the cold water in the deeper parts of the ocean and slowly weakened the storm until it got a nudge from the environment and started it moving North again.

After two days.  Imagine a category 5 storm sitting on your house unleashing the hounds of hell for two solid days.

Relief efforts are beginning.  The Major Cruise Lines pledged support.  Carnival and Royal Caribbean both have pledged direct efforts.  Disney has already announced relief efforts.  I'll expect to hear more as the days go forth.

If you can't give to the Bahamas Red Cross or go there directly in a Flotilla like I heard my neighbors were going to do, consider shopping those companies that are supporting the efforts and let them know why you are.

For now, there are four storms in the Atlantic, one more in the Gulf.  The season does not end until December 1 so we can have this happen again in a week or two.

Mushrooms and The Morning After Gordon

It was a noisy night.

It had been raining the day before, and well into the night.  The Radar here showed random clouds that had gathered themselves into something remotely resembling bands, Lines of Thunderstorms to non-Floridians.

This was the normal way a storm develops here.  Pop Up Thunderstorms generate over the warm water East of me, move their way over land, drop their water, then peter out.  Or they end up working their way across the state in one of a dozen directions.

These storms, though, had kept grabbing the heat of the water that was just off the coast and turned themselves into a storm of interest.  That grew into a Tropical Depression by morning.

That also had me wake up at 4AM.  If I am up that early, I'm up.  I would not go back to sleep.

Rack, the McNab SuperDog (TM) was unhappy.  He hates T Storms on a good day and this was well into the second good day.  I could hear him shivering in the dark.

Turning on the phone, launching a Radar program, I was able to see tell-tale banding and thought that this was going to turn into something that bears watching.

Yep.  By now this would be Tropical Storm Gordon, and did hit somewhere near the Mississippi and Alabama border on their Gulf Coasts as a strong Tropical Storm.

Here it was a minor nuisance.  Lots of rain.  The next day I found out it was 2.65 inches of rain.

All the South Floridians grumbling about their Labor Day holiday being a wash out, and so on.

I sat up in bed and looked down the line of pots by my pool and under the Mango Tree I saw

something that looked like it had landed in the yard, but could not tell.  Since it was raining so heavily, I'll wait for Sunrise before inspecting.

We went for our dog walk and a couple hours later I revisited the what was it in the yard.

It turned out to be four very large, six inch in diameter, palm sized white mushrooms.

I have lived here for more than 12 years now and I have never seen a Mushroom in the yard, let alone something this massive.  I guess it was always too hot, but with the cooler air due to the storms, and all that rain, it decided to send these fruiting bodies out and spread spores.

Quickly.

Weird.  It looked like a scene from Lost In Space where the Jupiter 2 had landed on the planet of the big grasses, and one of the other had ditched on its side. 

If it were, there would be fire, people running around screaming, a monster that was a cat with things stuck on it or perhaps a giant 40 foot tall chimp looking thing that went "Bloop Bloop" coming off an attack space ship that was in reality a kitchen utensil.

My money is on a whisk.  If you hand a child a whisk and tell them to play, they're going to make it fly.  Trust me.

But there the mushrooms were.

Since they didn't bother anyone, I let them alone, and went inside.  It was raining again, and would all through the night and into the next morning at 4AM.

Luckily we slept through that.  In fact, we slept so well that I was lucky enough to see the
Sunrise.  The sun coming up over the Bahamas lighting the clouds below, turned them purple and mauve, later changing to some fiery reds and oranges.

It was so stunning a sunrise that along with my mushroom pictures and sunrise picture, many other people on social media showed off their own pictures there.

I mean, come on, how often does a space ship land in your back yard under your mango tree?

Hurricane Irma, The Wait For Power

Really.   If I can sit here on a Wednesday Morning and bust out some blather about the electricity being out and that's about it, then I will survive.

The one story that keeps coming through my mind is a woman on Barbuda in the Caribbean.  She was one of 1600 people there.  She was watching a baby and a tornado hit her home.  The baby was sucked out of her arms.  Baby found dead later when the storm passed.

Really.  So, count your blessings.  If you are reading me, you are better off.

We are without power.  The gasoline supplies are very low, we're waiting on the coast guard to allow tankers into Port Everglades to refill.  I guess we join a long line to fill gas cans like many others.

But we're intact here.

I caught news that the west side of the state, Naples, Fort Myers, and the like got slammed by this horrible storm.  Here, not so much.  We didn't have a predicted 9 feet of water in a storm surge come in.  We did have white-out conditions with rain so strong that I couldn't see the wall of a building 250 feet away briefly.

The eye of the storm crossed Cudjoe Key.  Call it MM 52 - 52 miles East of Key West.  As well as they prepared, anything not nailed down is now not in the house.  Those folks will need help getting onto their feet.

So I'll return to putting the plants back out and scooping my neighbor's tree leaves out of the pool.  Not unscathed, just a bit muddy.  Not really even worth taking pictures of it.

A cycle of running the generator an hour, then waiting three hours to run again.  It keeps the bags of ice in the freezer frozen and the refrigerator cool.

Much better off than many.

Yes.  This is global warming.  Anyone that tells you otherwise is a fool and should be returned to their medications.  Anyone who makes laws or votes to the contrary is a damn fool and probably should not be allowed to effect other's lives.

But after all is said and done.  A few observations.

Gasoline.  I suspect the state has been pretty much drained of this stuff.  We're ok for four days now, after having gotten some.  I'm sure many won't be as lucky.  Some of the lines were blocks long.  Police were thankfully directing people around.

And Gasoline is beginning to flow in which is a major plus.  It will take a while before we start to see supplies even out in South Florida.  There was a report that in Tampa, simply forget it.  Again, Thankful but that could be "helped".

Traffic.  We drove down to Davie about 10 miles off.  I have to say the roads work better with fewer lights.  I've heard a saying that "Every Traffic Light Means Someone Died Here" but I have to question if streets aren't just badly designed and enforcement of traffic laws are simply not stringent enough.  If you follow the rules, you'll have a better time of it.  If you drive a car like an idiot, you'll wreck it for everyone else.

A Traffic Light that is out is considered a Four Way Stop by the universal vehicle code.  Yes, Even For you.

We did make it to Wawa in Davie.  The line was untenable.  Close to 100 cars waiting for fuel.  Might need to get up in the middle of the night to attempt it next time.

Count your blessings.  If you can read this, you're better off than many others.  Now, go talk to your neighbor.  They just may need something.   Mine just put out another bucket of Avocados.  There are plenty left, go and enjoy.

If I could just figure out how to eat the darn things other than sliced on a bagel!  I am thankful even for avocados, weird though they are!

Hurricane Irma, Slogging Through Saturday Into Sunday

But hey, I still have power...

At least through Sunday Morning, I have.

It wasn't until 4PM here that I saw the first rain that left enough water on the ground to sheen the streets.

The county declared a curfew from 4PM through.  I'm guessing the duration.  I don't know when that is.

The only thing that has bothered me is a few power pops here and there.  When power does go out, we're sunk.  I can't say that they'll be by to reconnect us at that point, because there is some wind speed that they stop work at.

I seem to remember 35mph.  We are over that now.  44 was the last check, although it's been gusting faster.

Then you're on your own, cowboy.

Net's up.  Power's up.  Water's flowing.

This isn't a whole lot to deal with compared with Antigua, Puerto Rico, the DR, Haiti, and Cuba.

Now the Florida Keys.

It could be worse, I could be in the Keys.  The Eye of the Storm right now is crossing into the lower keys, and they're still predicting that trip through Key West and up the west coast of Florida.  My heart goes out to them since I can't say I would want up to 9 feet of salt water piling up on my house.  That's going as high as 270 CM.

This map is of the expected storm surge.  Those pink areas are where the 9 feet of salt water comment comes from.  Naples, Marco Island, north up the coast.

I grabbed that map from the NWS Miami Twitter Feed.

I stocked up on rechargeable batteries a while back.

I've also been harvesting old laptop battery packs.

Why laptop batteries?  Each one is a larger and longer cell configuration so they will not fit inside of a standard radio or flashlight.  They also put out more voltage at 3.7 VDC compared with 1.5 VDC for a D, C, or AA Cell.

But.

Each one puts out between 2 and 4 amps.  Connect four together and you get 14.4 VDC.  Run them through a voltage regulator like that cigar lighter thing to charge your phone in the car and you now can recharge your phone a couple times.

So those 18650 batteries will charge my flashlights for months.  Battery operated fans for weeks.  Radios will play.

The air conditioning may not work due to power outage, but I will be able to listen to crappy music.

If you want radar?  Follow this link.  Remember that the highest point in the Keys is on Key West at 18 feet.  The map showing those islands should be considered a suggestion since most of them will be overwashed by storm surge.

That "9 feet" again.

But so far, for me, I'm lucky.  Not even anything worth taking a picture of here in Wilton Manors, and I thank my lucky stars for that.

Hurricane Irma, Burgers, and Cream Biscuits

Ok, on Saturdays I usually put up jokes.

Nope.  Not today.

You may have been reading about this monster storm.  If you're in the path of Hurricane Irma, stay safe, and stay under cover.

At one point the path for this beast had landfall in Key West - 200 miles away.
At one point the path for this beast was literally 3 blocks away from me here in Wilton Manors, Suburban Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Then it moved into the ocean between us and the Bahamas.
Then back to us.
Then to where it is, now, Friday evening.

By my reconing, it would be coming ashore about mile marker 30, the Seven Mile Bridge in the Keys, just West of Marathon, FL.

A second landfall would be east of Marco Island, and then North up the state.

Enough Naval Gazing.

A power outage here can happen because a butterfly farted on a power line.
I have become convinced that the infrastructure here is made from old abandoned barbed wire that was sourced from fence posts on a farm in the Southwestern US.

You know those pictures of rusted barbed wire stapled to a weathered piece of drift wood?

Thanks, FPL, power goes out on a Thursday here.

So I spent the day debating and went on a cooking binge.

Made up 20 hamburgers for the dog because it would free a space for another bag of ice in the freezer.  It's now about 2/3 ice in a freezer that is about as tall as I am.

I'm a big guy.  Tall, built like a gym teacher.

Then I started looking at the fridge.

Found Cream.  Specifically Whipping Cream.

Made 2 and a half batches of:


Cream Biscuits.

2 cups Self Rising Flour.
1 1/4 cups of Whipping or Heavy Cream.
1 tablespoon of table sugar.

Mix, then knead until it becomes semi sticky.  Like modeling clay.

Divide into 10, and bake at 450F for 11 minutes or until golden brown.


Sorry for only Imperial Units, I actually weighed everything to the gram and annotated the weights in my recipe book, but it's late and ...

Hey if anyone wants my metric measurements, Ask!


See, the point is that cooked food has a longer shelf life when the power goes out than "raw".

The other point is that you really do have to analyze your every move in a hurricane for preparation.

So this weekend no jokes.

If I get to have power tomorrow morning, Saturday, I will go through the normal morining rituals which includes putting up jokes for Sunday.  Then I'll write something for the next couple articles.  Nothing fancy.

"If you're reading this, my blog is on auto pilot, blahblahblah, Hi There!"

If no connection to the internet because power is down, well folks, think well of me and I'll get back to you when everything comes back.

When Hurricane Wilma hit here in 2005, my own block was without power for 2 weeks.

If Hurricane Irma goes on that path that will do so much damage to South West Florida, the storm will not be quite as strong as Wilma was.  We here will be safe.

I'll be back then.

Stay safe, no matter where you are reading this from in the world.

Help your neighbor if they need it.  Mine did.

Save your prayers, get off your collective butts and do something that positively changes the world.  Vote for people who will actually DO something to reduce carbon emissions and stop Climate Change or Global Warming.  Millions of people doing small acts of improvement will move the world the right way, away from having two 500 Year Storms in one month.

As the old CB Radio jargon said - See Ya On The Flip Side!

It's The Calm Before The Hurricane Prep Day

When I got up today, it was 4:15AM.  All was silent.  I closed my eyes thinking I can probably get more sleep.

I got into that Lets Open The Eyes And Check The Clock Every Ten Minutes thing.

Didn't work, got out of bed before my normal Stupid O'Clock at 4:40.

Then I pulled my earplugs out of my ears and started getting ready for the dog walk.

It still was silent.  The house was quieter than normal.

Getting out the front door before 5AM there was no wind. Nothing.  Still as a Tomb. 

Rack, the McNab SuperDog (TM) pulled me out onto the front lawn.

Still.  I looked up.  Very few clouds.  Stars.

After the weeks, and more than one, that we have been having, not seeing clouds in the skies felt odd. 

Oh sure, I could find my friend the hunter.  Orion still had his belt to the South and East of the house.  A bright star was shining at me from the lower left of Orion. 

But No Clouds.

Very strange.  I was looking for that "Bow Shock" line of clouds from Hurricane Matthew that was at that point just leaving the far eastern point of Cuba, but nothing.

This is that last day.  One last brilliantly clear day that you get before a Hurricane.  The storms seem to pull all the air toward it, the barometric pressure begins to drop, and you have time. 

I already got Propane and Gasoline.  With one I can cook, even bake bread.  With the other I can drive out of South Florida if I have to or simply run the generators to keep the fridge going.

Mentally, I have noted that since the highs have already dropped below 90, it will be annoying, but we can make do with windows open.  After all, living in a three story "Farm House" in Philadelphia for years with no Air Conditioning, we made do, and sometimes it hit triple digits. 

Think 40C or 104.  Once.  In Philly Humidity.  *SHUDDER*!

So I am hoping the winds won't knock out the power.  We still haven't tested generators to run the house, only individual appliances.

There is more than the expected water. Three cases of bottled water plus four gallons of water in one Quart Mason Jars.  I emptied my canning supplies and filled them with filtered water.

We're expected to get "Hurricane Force Winds".  Something more than 73MPH.  110KPH give or take a K.

After all, I am only 2.2 miles West of the ocean.  3 Km.   I could walk it as long as I had comfortable shoes and time.

Many others are not prepared as well, and my heart goes out to them.  My immediate neighbor's house has no storm shutters and "regular" float glass windows.   I expect to hear that he will have broken windows.  More than one.

With luck his roof won't end up in my swimming pool.

Besides, the fringes of a Hurricane bring with it "Embedded Tornadoes". 

The weather radio has been an endless loop of hurricane preparation hints.  Most of them have been done here.

I hope that if you are reading this and will be effected, anywhere from the Florida Keys to South Carolina, you have made your preparation and will be finishing soon.

As for me I have a very few things to do: 

Finish the laundry since no power means no clean clothes.
Get Aunt Betty's table and chairs off the front porch and tied down since plastic table and chairs make wonderful flying objects.
Move the last few prized plants under cover like Larry's Bonsai.
Finally publish this and put together for the blog next week, a "warrant canary" to say Yep, I'm still offline.  

Good luck South Florida.  Matthew is an unwelcome guest.  At least this storm will stir up the ocean enough to make the next hurricane much less vigorous.  Cold water will be brought to the surface and this should be the end of the season, or close to it.


But I keep thinking that no matter what, it won't matter.  What will happen will happen.

Since my 446 day Duolingo streak will probably end tomorrow or the day after,

Qué será, será. What Will Be, Will Be.

I Hear You're Having Another Snowstorm

My cousin posting a picture of bougainvilleas on Facebook got me thinking. 

No, it's not another rant about how bad the weather is up North.  This would be the week I traditionally would take vacation.   I would haul my bulk into the Jeep, get out of Philly for a week to 10 days, and thaw out.

Literally.  By this time of year, I'd have a nagging "winter cold" that was my body telling me with a stopped up nose, that I was not designed for standing on an elevated train platform in 15F temperatures day after day waiting for the R7 to roll.

The second week of February is the coldest one of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ok, so it's plus or minus seven days either way of February 7th. 

It's been warm this winter though.  We got our two weeks of "cold" already, and I am hoping it happens again.  It helps reset the environment here and gets rid of those ex-pets that snowbirds abandoned thinking they'll do alright outside.

Lets just call them "Invasive Species".

My weather applet says it will be 83 today, my pool water is at 70 and holding.

My concern is that the pool should be down into the high 50s by now.  It's not heated and the deep end is still way too cold for my tastes.

Since we're also three months from the great stock up month of May, and four months from Hurricane season, I'm thinking that it's a bit warm for this time of year.

I'll take a cool February.  It usually means that hurricane season will be weak.

We are overdue for another near miss.

I'm still getting rid of the last of the bottled water and Mac and Cheese from last year.  There's still canned ravioli on the Kitchen table that got co-opted as a pantry.

So believe it or not, while I despise cold weather, I'd welcome some of it now.

In the meantime, go have a swim.  The water's a little cool for us down here but you'll think it's fine!

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?

Now they're naming Winter Storms? Give Me A Break!

This morning, through all the web chaff I wade through, I made a stop to check the local weather for Fort Lauderdale.  The Weather Channel's website went through a recent redesign to make it more social.  The problem is that it made it less useable and more difficult to actually get the information that I want to see on it.

I'll work around it.  It's not pretty but it will have to do.

The problem was that I loaded the page and my heart did that usual little flutter it does whenever I see that "Warning Will Robinson" red stripe at the top that screams there's something to watch out for.    Reading it and dreading a late season Hurricane, I saw these words:

Breaking News:  What Will Winter Storm Brutus Bring?

I will tell you, it's going to bring me laughing at The Weather Channel and refusing to take it seriously.  The Weather Channel is the channel that brings you all hype all the time, I realize that.  After all it had that bobble headed blond Jen Carfagno call the King Kamehameha Hotel in Hawaii the "King Kammey Hah-hah-hah" hotel, as well as quite a lot of misinformation when the Tsunami disaster happened in Japan a year back.

You basically want to hit the weather channel when they do the cut away every 10 minutes for the information and turn to something else when the bobble heads come back with their "news".  My suggestion would be to turn to your family and talk about current events because the hype machine would roll on regardless.  I guess it drives Ad Revenue but frankly it feels a bit irresponsible, in my opinion.

The National Weather Service has just put out a message telling their people not to use these Winter Storm Names because they are not a part of their "product".  It's a pretty good idea not to.  All those names do is give more fuel to the hype machine.

My own reasons are pretty basic.   I lived in Metro Philadelphia most of my life.  I've been through countless winter storms.   Some of them were pretty scary and dumped more than two feet of snow on the roads.  I don't want to minimize things, they can be dangerous.  But adding to the fear of preparation, such as going to the supermarket and "buy Milk, Eggs, and Bread" with your whole zip-code, is irresponsible.

No, really that's the going joke.  Winter Storm is coming, you have to buy Milk, Eggs, and Bread and stand in line for hours.  After all, all your neighbors will be making French Toast the day of the storms because the cities have finally learned it makes more sense to close the main roads so your first responders can clear them and get to people who really DO need the help.

I think I'll make French Toast later, come to think of it...

So I'll be looking for a better place to get the weather information.  I've had quite enough of The Weather Channel's hype machine and screaming red bars for a storm that basically works out to be a strong Tropical Storm and rarely, maybe once a year, a weak Category 1 Hurricane equivalent.  I want to know when the storms will form because I want to know my sister, her husband, and my nephew will be safe in New Jersey.  That goes for my cousins in New York City and The Island too, but the hype has got to go.

Time to change some links I guess.  The Weather Channel has rendered itself next to useless to me.   Since I stopped watching their blather on cable, I've found that I am actually better informed.  They've become the Fox News of Weather Forecasting.

And Friends Don't Let Friends Watch Fox News.

Hurricane Sandy's Gone, All's Quiet in Florida

The wind finally has stopped

After three weeks of rain, a near miss by Hurricane Sandy and the outer feeder bands, and just general blustery days, we're in winter.  Winter for us is a high in the 70s or the low 80s.

There's no wind.  No rain.  No clouds, OK maybe a few Simpsonian Clouds floating by in the distance but that's it.

Having gone out to unlock the fence and give the yard one last pass before the arborists arrive to repair the landscape after the storms, the overwhelming feeling here is nothing more than normal.  The strangest thing about the neighborhood today is that I roasted coffee earlier so my back yard has the smell of a fine Costa Rican roast on the general Floridian organic scent.  It's even cool enough to have had Iguanas falling from the tree, but none of those green monsters are around.

No complaints, Normal is good.  After all I could have been at the Jersey Shore or that neighborhood in Queens, NY that burnt to the ground due to the power station that went up in explosions and flames.  

For us, this was the storm that got away.  At least here, it's a good thing although Fort Lauderdale's Beach got chewed up and flooded which is very rare normally.  Having grown up in South Jersey, I know what a rogue storm like this would bring.  Neighbors of my old home in Philly said "meh. no big deal.  Let the roads drain and back to work".  I'm still waiting to hear how it went closer to the shore.

Here in Florida, we are used to a storm like Hurricane Sandy coming through and being annoying.   The soil is like sand in a colander.  It is actually hard to call it anything other than the Beach Sand it will be again.  Trees have evolved to let the wind flow through them.  When they let go of their foliage, they'll grow it back.  Trunks are in general softer wood so they'll bend before breaking.  In the Northeast, trees don't get storms like this often although the Nor'easters are getting more powerful each winter.   The Ice Belt has moved North and we were saying that winters were more like North Carolina than South Jersey.  I never saw an Ice Storm before the 90s, now you expect one or two a year at the beginning and the end of Winter. 

That Ice causes its own problems.   The Northern forests end right around Philadelphia.  50 miles North or South, the forests are a different mix of trees.  There is a blending there and you can actually still grow certain Palm Trees in sheltered conditions, although the only people who do are obsessed individuals who want something different.   Those hardwood trees like the Pin Oak and the softer trees like the White Pine tree would get glazed and snap under the weight of the winter coat.  Since it is warmer, once past the ice, the snow cover isn't quite as dry as before and there is more of it.

Of course that's all a falsehood since, as the Republican Party says, Global Warming doesn't exist.  It's "Climate Change" now.

Whatever it is, things are a changin'.

Even a Small Storm Does Some Damage

The Key Word Is:  Some.

Oh sure, an 80 mph Hurricane Sandy could have ruined our day.  It could have shifted the 120 miles westward and put itself right over top of the cities of South Florida.

It didn't.

It was a rain event.   Some winds.  Feeder bands here or there.

But past that it didn't wake me up in the middle of the night. 

It was a late season weak hurricane that hit right at the same week as Hurricane Wilma had 7 or so years before it.  That was another "weak" Hurricane that parked itself over top of Fort Lauderdale for three solid days or so and caused a lot of damage.

So basically they all should be watched. 

I didn't spot any damage to the house until well after I got back from the dog walk.  The sun had to come up and show me what happened to my Bougainvillea. 

This picture is of the trellis behind the house.  The Bougainvillea was picked up like a giant blanket during the night and pulled forward off the trellis and the roof.  A few limbs broke, but the plant will survive.

Yep, could have been worse.  But it wasn't.  The plants here evolved to take it, and there's a reason why when you move here you want a 1 floor Old Florida home.  Those taller Mc Mansions will take the brunt for you and act like windbreaks, especially when they're built shoddily like the ones a block away from me.

Oh well, I guess we get to be landscapers this weekend.   I'll chill some drinks and have fun outside in the yard.

Shrug.

It could be worse, then again it could be Monday

I'm writing this Sunday Morning and I am editing it Monday Morning.

The storm has come and it is lingering, but nothing more than a random shower.   Basically a normal Monday in the wet season.

Sunday Morning, I was awakened by the sound of gravel being thrown against the storm shutters that are bolted to the bedroom windows.  It actually was a squall line coming through.   We had been having rain for about a full day at that point, off and on.

The rain had stopped as quickly as it started.  One of those Hollywood Movie Set things where some unseen stage hand has flipped a lever on and off.

Hauling myself out of bed to check radar, I get started feeding the dog.  That in itself takes time since she has to have soft food, and doesn't like that at all.

While I'm sitting in a kitchen Captain's Chair, scooping wet and warm dog food out with my right hand and proffering it to the recalcitrant pooch, another line hits.

I knew it was here when Oscar flapped his wings and said hello, then laughed.

There is no joy quite like a parrot who thinks he's going to dance among the rain drops.

I finish feeding Mrs Dog thinking we're going to get wet.  Listening for thunder, and hearing none, I grab my portable lightning rod.  When the winds gust over 30mph, the umbrella would be useless.  I knew that.

She walks between the cars and over to the lee of them to empty out.  Any other Sunday at that time she'd avoid that spot.  The irrigation had started and the sprinklers were adding to the wet.

Hmm, got to fix that Rain Sensor.  For now, the water we were pumping out of the ground was watering the grass, about a block away once it stops being pushed West on the gusts.

We headed out to the street.

Not as bad as it could be.  The rain had almost stopped.

As she went to do her business, a gust of wind caught her as she was balancing and she went down in a stumble.

It was an interesting couple of days.  Not as bad here as in Key West or when it eventually makes landfall up in the Gulf, but interesting none the less.

At this point, the storm is in the Gulf and strengthening.  It is forecast to make landfall somewhere around Gulf Shores Alabama or westward toward the mouth of the Mississippi.  Lets hope it doesn't turn into another Katrina.

That picture pretty much says what it did to us.  The dog slept through it all, once or twice getting up and sniffing the air, then using her toys as pillows.  No Big Deal.  It could have been worse, and will be when it makes landfall as a Category 1 or 2.  The best thing it did was to fill my pool and wash away some used tea bags in Tampa at their Republican National Convention.

A Strange Sort Of Hurricane Prep

Yesterday I noticed that radar was up and then "Down For Maintenance".

Today, the network in the house was fine, but the internet was having intermittent little hiccoughs.  They lasted long enough for me to notice because the music on the internet radio stopped, then came back.

I guess the little man who went up the pole wiggled the wire back into place.

I'm roasting extra coffee.  After all, you don't want to see me without the daily buzz.

This all happened as I had a series of power pops.   I was also considering what to write about when the internet completely dropped off line for a minute or so.

Life in Florida.  It can be odd here.  I think you could say that anywhere that is tropical.  You have lizards that eat your shrubs, power that never is as stable as it should be because a hurricane hit here in 2006, and you get to know your neighbors deeply.

My one neighbor across the street suggested we run a 110v line across the road in case of power being out so that we can keep our refrigerator running.  Nice guy, really I deeply appreciate the gesture, but I keep wondering what would happen if someone decided to trip on that wire.

This is, after all the United States of Litigious Amurrica.

So as the Ice Machine Fills, I make bags of ice and pack every nook and cranny with some day to be melted goodness.  I serve the frozen foods first, to make extra room.  Those fish fillets that I bought for a British Visitor are long gone, served with those Chips that I learned how to fry to perfection in a skillet.

Medium heat, cook for about 5 minutes and check to see if they're nicely browned, then flip. 

Cooking food in a skillet has become a Survival Skill because the Grill in the back yard has a gas burner on it. 

We'll eat well even if the power goes off for a couple days.

Side dishes are easy if you have a 25 pound bag of Basmati Rice and a bottle of water.

The car even has 110 volt plug in the back.  Fire up the car and we can even use electrical appliances.   We've made Mashed Potato in the back of the car once.   When the power goes out in the middle of making a roast beef dinner, preheat the grill to 350F and then move the entire pan, Broil In Bag and all into the back yard and close the lid to the grill.  Move the potatoes from the water on the burner in the kitchen to the grill and finally to the mixing bowl on the stand mixer in the back of the car in the front yard, add ingredients and turn on the mixer.

You may want to start the motor on the car, just to top off the battery.  Oh and roll the car down the driveway so we don't pass out.  Good, that will do!

So today, just in case the storm doesn't sit over top of Tampa and visit the Republicans like I am hoping and knocks our power out instead, I'll put up some comments on the blog for the next few days.  We're not expecting anything, and the storm hasn't even hit Hurricane force yet, but there's nothing strange about being prepared.  I suspect Monday we in the Fort Lauderdale Area will all be sitting thinking "it could be a lot worse" and watching the coverage on the TV. 

There's bound to be someone who forgot "Turn Around, Don't Drown" and is sitting on top of the roof of their posh car somewhere.   It's always someone who thinks that it can't happen to them.