After all the running around yesterday, waiting in line at the gas station, and waiting
in line at the store, getting all stressed out – nothing happened. I’ve heard exactly *one*
clap of thunder, about 20 minutes ago.

Our afternoon storms are worse than this.

Anyway, a thought occured to me. My state is like excellent in getting us prepared. The
local governments do a great job, as does Jeb Bush. There are shelters all over the place,
now they even have animal shelters for folks with animals. (I’m sure they did before last
year, but they were scarce) – the people who need the shelters use them.

This year, however, is a little different. All the news stations were saying that if you
have a blue tarp on your roof then you need to evacuate.

That’s fine and dandy, except for the fact that every where you look, there are blue tarps!
You hear about New Orleans every time you turn around, but hey: Florida got hit pretty damn
hard last year. Maybe we didn’t flood, but there is still damage and debris and buildings
in desperate need of repair and blue tarps!

Oh, but we don’t have a screwed up government – that’s why you don’t hear about us in the news.

Our roof finally got worked on this past month – but folks, we still don’t have a proper
roof. We have a wannabe plastic thingy up there that won’t hold if a major storm comes thru
here – hell, I hold my breath whenever we get an afternoon storm.

If we were to get hit like we did last year, shelters are gonna overflow. Unless our rooves
miraculously get fixed by Labor Day, Dade and Broward Counties are up a creek. Nearly every-
body will have to evacuate.

But this time, we dodged a bullet.

[tags]hurricanes,katrina,wilma,ernesto[/tags]

Just in time for hurricane season!

A construction crew is coming to look at our place tomorrow to assess the damage and see what work needs to be done inside our place.

Only 6 months after Hurricane Wilma!

As well – I noticed yesterday – huge dumpsters have been put in place on one side of the complex, which gives me reason to believe that they are going to begin work on

…..drumroll please…..

the roofs >rooves?< in the community. Only 6 months after Hurricane Wilma! And hurricane season will be here in about 6 weeks.

You know you live in Florida if…

You have FEMA’s number on your speed dialer.

You have more than 300 ‘C’ and ‘D’ batteries in your kitchen drawer.

Your pantry contains more than 20 cans of Spaghetti O’s.

You are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood covering your
windows.

When describing your house to a prospective buyer, you say it has three
bedrooms, two baths, and one safe hallway.

Your SSN isn’t a secret, it’s written in Sharpie on your arms.

You are on a first-name basis with the cashier at Home Depot.

The road leading to your house has been declared a ‘No-Wake’ Zone.

You decide that your patio furniture looks better on the bottom of the pool.

You own more than three large coolers.

You can wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the least
bit guilty about it.

You rationalize helping a friend board up by thinking “It’ll only take a
gallon
of gas to get there and back”.

You have 2-liter coke bottles and milk jugs filled with water in your
freezer.

Three months ago you couldn’t hang a shower curtain; today you can assemble
a
portable generator by candlelight.

You catch a 13-pound redfish —- in your driveway.

You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner’s insurance
policy.

At cocktail parties, women are attracted to the guy with the biggest
chainsaw.

There is a roll of tar paper in your garage.

You can rattle off the names of three or more meteorologists who work at the

Weather Channel and every single newscaster and reporter at all of the major
stations in town.

Someone comes to your door to tell you they found your roof.

Ice is a valid topic of conversation.

Relocating to South Dakota does not seem like such a crazy idea.

You spend more time on your roof than in your living room.

You’ve been laughed at over the phone by a roofer, fence builder, or a tree
worker.

Having a tree in your living room does not necessarily mean it’s Christmas.

The hurricane shutter guy and your roofer are driving BMW’s.

You know the difference between the “good side” of a storm and the “bad
side.”

You go to work early and stay late just to enjoy the air conditioning.

A battery powered TV is considered a home entertainment center.

A chain saw, generator or a gas grill comes as a free gift with every new
Florida mortgage.

I think Hurricane Katrina took most everyone in these parts by surprise, in that rarely does this area sustain much damage. 1 or 2 trees; that’s about it. Lots more trees lost this time. Not much structural damage.

I was out and about most of the day and part of tonight. Not by choice. I would say that in a 30-40 mile radius everybody lost power – except us – and even my community didn’t suffer much more than a few lost tree branches. Last summer thru all of the hurricanes we went thru – bigger storms, power didn’t go out the way it did this time in this area. I was able to walk into a store and grab a bag of ice, some water. Today ice was gone as soon as the stores opened. There is also no gas.

I hit quite a few stores today. Most notably; any that had power also had water and necessities – even food, no ice. Couple of good deals as well. Most everyone who was nuts enough to be out and about – the stores were freakin packed! One Target we wandered into didn’t have any power: except for a generator – handed everyone a flashlight as they walked in, LOL.

Drivers were courteous, obeying the 4 stop rule at traffic lights that were out, except for one. I almost got broadsided by a huge (new) pickup who didn’t bother looking, stopping or slowing down. He just barreled thru. Luckily I was alert and paying attention.

The real fun came tonight, when on the phone with Mom, complained that she didn’t have anything to eat. Well, she does but being that she has no power she is rather miserable and a tad whiny. I offered to go back out and go to the store. I had also procured a couple of bags of ice. Took her the ice, she made a tiny list and said she wanted a Whopper.

Fine. I’ll get you a Whopper after I go to the grocery store – the only one open.

Got the groceries and proceeded on my Journey of the Whopper. And a Journey it was. I leave the relative safety of the grocery store parking lot and travel into …….darkness. No lights anywhere except for the other cars on the road. None. Nada. Pitch black.

It was scary. Surreal even. To see all stores closed and dark at 8pm is really strange. Driving around in the darkness, other drivers didn’t seem to be affected by the darkness and sped right past me. Never did find the Whopper, much to my mothers extreme unhappiness.