I Have a Bad Feeling About This

TD # 15. Don't panic though, I get a bad feeling about at least one a year. And none have come close for several years.

I've got my eye on you # 15. Watch yourself.

Sick of the Rain

I know it is necessary, that without rain everything will shrivel and die or, as usually happens in Florida, burn. But I don't know why we seem to be receiving a year's worth of rain in a week. We are getting inches and inches of rain. We've probably dumped more out of the pool than we put in it all last year. The grass needs to be cut. The dog needs a bath. And still the rain comes down.

I live in Florida because I LIKE the sun and the heat. Can we get a little bit of that for a few days now? Just 3. Preferably over the weekend!

The Post Where I Get Snarky

But first I do have to say that in the approximately 38 1/2 years that I have lived in NW Florida, I have been incredibly lucky. While the area that I am in now took a nasty hit from Eloise in '75, I was living 2 counties west of here and many miles north. Frederick in '79 was nothing to me except a day or two out of school.
I lost a freezer full of food after Opal, but my parents had power. During Ivan the power and the cable were steady 100% of the time. (House hunting advice: Buy a home as close to the Police Dept, Fire Dept and City Hall as possible. Not only do you get a break on your Homeowner's Insurance, but these are the first areas of a city to receive power after the storm.)

I try very hard to make it a policy in my life that if I have not "walked a mile in your moccasins" then I will do my best not to judge. (Hard for me, I am very judgemental)

So, having said that, don't we, as a nation, as a people, as human beings, have a responsibility to take care of ourselves? Especially those of us who live in areas prone to natural disasters?

I completely understand WHY people do not evacuate, even if they have the means to do so. I do not understand why, less than a week after the storm, the lines are so long for food and water that it may take all day to receive 4 MREs and a couple of bottles. If a person chooses to remain, why aren't they prepared? This has bothered me since I first noticed the trend after Wilma in 2005. Pleople were complaining that they had to stand in line for half a day for one bottle of water, the day AFTER the storm. Why didn't they have water? Why didn't they prepare, plan? Why wait for government bail out?

Again, I know there are exceptions, the person with medication that MUST be kept refrigerated NEEDS the ice that FEMA has, but the rest of us do not. The person who does not live on a flood plain, whose house flooded, may not be able to use their bottled water and food supplies, but they should have had them to begin with.

How many people constantly complain about the government having a hand in everything they do? How many people talk the talk of a smaller national government? In my experience, these are the first ones with their hands out if life veers slightly off course.

Hurricane preparedness is not information that you are born with, or even information you pick up by osmosis, it is learned.* But a person living anywhere near the coast should have access to the needed information for free. At least it is available here: on handouts, on the radio, on the nightly news, in the newspaper. Most of the information is true and useful. Use it.

Am I being too judgemental? Should I keep my thoughts to myself? Those people have been through hell and maybe I should stay off their backs. But there are more storms in our future and we need to be able to prepare and take care of ourselves without depending on FEMA; at least for a bit.


*My first hurricane (as an adult) was tropical storm Alberto in '94. While it was a minor storm (we had had a regular thunder storm the week before with higher winds) I prepared my house in the same way that my parents had prepared our home when I was a child. I did the same things for Opal in '95 and Earl in '98. After Earl (when it appeared that Georges was headed our way) I was talking to my mom on the phone (they had moved to Memphis).
"Mom," I said, "I have done....(listing my preparation.)"
"Mom," I said, "why do I fill up the blasted bathtubs with water everytime a storm is coming? I have bottled water and I don't want to drink water out of the bathtub!"
"Ann," she said, "the water in the bathtub is for flushing your toilet if you lose water."
My mom is so smart. :-)

Monday General Thoughts

After four entire days off DSD is getting antsy. He is working on his resume right now and has started the networking process. Hopefully he will find something soon. Financially we will be fine for quite a while, but I don't know how he will be mentally and emotionally. He likes to work.

Thank you to everyone who left thoughtful comments; we appreciate your kind thoughts.

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Not a great weekend for college football in our house. My Gators didn't play; his Buckeyes took a shellacking (sp?) at the hands of USC; neither of us did well in the football pool.

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My thoughts are with all those in Texas, Louisiana and everywhere else who took a beating from Ike. I have read the horrors that many of these people have gone through and I have read many comments on other blogs and in news stories where people are constantly bitching that the government should not allow coastal living and how insurance companies should not cover those of us who choose to live on the coast. Just for the record, circumstances brought me to the coast and my job keeps me here. And I want someone, anyone to find a place for me and my family to live that is 100% safe from Mother Nature. Yes, hurricanes are horrible and scary, but so are tornadoes, mudslides, wild fires and freak blizzards, and we always get plenty of notice before the storms reach us. Ike killed people across the country and caused flooding in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Where do you holier than thou people expect us to live?

Why Would "They" Name a Hurricane IKE?

Word association, think fast. What is the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the name Ike?

Me: "He sure did kick Tina's ass a lot."

So the National Hurricane Center pulls this name out and sticks it onto a storm. And he is definitely going to kick some ass.

I managed to find several not so scary I names on just one website.

Iago
Ichabod (who is scared of his own shadow)
Ice
Ian
Iggy

Of course, Opal didn't sound scary. Neither did Frances. Frances was supposed to be a Saint.

So, my thoughts are with PissedOffPatricia and everyone on the peninsula. And I will be doing an inspection of my plywood this afternoon, just in case this asshole heads toward the panhandle.

And One For Today

Thankfully missed again.

As I look out the window I see trees being blown around pretty significantly and it is cloudy at the moment, but that is all that Gustav has brought to us so far. I don't even think it has rained since Saturday night. According to the radar the rains are just south of us in the Gulf.

My parents live about40 miles west of us and it has rained there all morning.

My cousin, who lives in New Orleans and didn't have time to evacuate (WHAT!?!) was doing fine as of 8am. He is without power, of course, but his cell phone is charged and his mother is calling him every few hours. There is obviously some in sanity in the family, but I didn't think this particular cousin had it. I am certain he will be fine.

We are outside of what I lovingly call "The Cone of Death" for Hanna, although I am hoping that she doesn't dump anymore rain on the rest of the state, either. There are places to the north of us who need rain, but not 30 blasted inches at one time.

I am ready for the storms to go away now.

Absolutely soaked today!

I guess all the rain we were expecting over the weekend managed to hold off and make it a very wet Monday.

Thank you to all of you who sent me kind thoughts. Fallenmonk, I am glad you are getting some rain up there, what's good for North Georgia is good for NorthWest Florida.

I am ready for some sunshine, though and it doesn't look like it is going to happen for a few days.

And Gustav is lurking.

Not Even Soggy!

For some reason Fay decided to almost completely bypass us with her flooding rains. We may have gotten two inches over the last 48 hours, but I don't think so. Poor Tallahassee was deluged with over 2 feet and seemed (on last night's news) to be on the verge of washing away. It was definitely strange to see it and realize that those poor people were only 2 hours away and we were sitting here wondering why we dumped water out of the pool yesterday morning.

Today the sun is shining very brightly, there is barely a breeze and it is HOT! Normal, post storm weather.

We were very lucky and we are very thankful for it.

Our thoughts are with those who weren't us lucky and those who desparately needed the rain and didn't get it.

News from the Eye!

Last check of The Weather Channel had us sitting in the middle of Fay's somewhat disorganized eye, the weather completely calm outside with no wind. We received a little over an inch of rain last night, but nothing much has happened today.

The wind seems to be trying to pick up out there now, but the sun also appears to be trying to breakthrough occassionally. There is allegedly many, many more inches of rain to come (Tallahassee received over 7 inches in the past 24 hours), but right now it seems to be just another slightly cloudy Saturday.

Hope your weekend is going well.

And, just FYI, if future President Obama had picked Satan as his VP, I was still voting for him.

Where's Waldo?

Well, who cares? I mean, really!

But I care where I am and in yesterday's comments Carl mentioned that he thought I was on the east coast of Florida. Maybe near Daytona. I then realized that not everyone in the Universe knows where the Redneck Riviera is. Shocking!

So I thought I would do a quick post on the RR and my actual location.

I am not positive where the nickname came from, but apparently Tom T Hall was either the originator or he caught on quickly.

Gulf Shores up through Apalachicola
They got beaches of the whitest sand
Nobody cares if gramma's got a tattoo
Or Bubba's got a hot wing in his hand.
From the song "Redneck Riviera"

So, I can be found right in the middle of this area. This write-up is all about it, but it was written in 2001 and is slightly out of date. We are slightly more upscale now, trying hard to mimic South Beach and falling short. Very short.

So, in case you still have no idea what I am talking about, I thought a little visual would help. I had a nice PDF of this picture, with a cute arrow and a "I am here," but for some reason blogger will not let me upload a PDF. But this is the area typically known as the Redneck Riviera, at least along the coast. And if you look at Bay County, I am about two miles off the coast.

And this is Fay's projected path as of 0800EDT.

At least she is up to 6mph and isn't supposed to linger as she has the last couple of days. Of course, she was going to be downgraded to a depression before she got close to me. And, really, doesn't North Georgia NEED this rain? Wouldn't Lake Lanier be better off?

So it is going to be long weekend. Bay County will flood. We have horrible drainage on our streets and there are some streets that flood if there is more than an inch at a time. Last time we received a lot of rain (March maybe?) the Emergency Management Office flooded.

Keep in mind, with the new puppy, I am going to have to get out in this mess periodically. And do the laundry* all weekend for all the towels we will use to dry her before letting her back in the house, and the various outfits we will change into after she jumps on us all wet. :-)

And it couldn't even come on a weekday so that I could get an extra day off!

*We do not normally lose power (knock on wood). We didn't during Ivan 2004 or Dennis 2005. I think it is because we are on the same power grid as the police dept, city hall and the fire dept. Something to keep in mind when you are househunting.

I Don't Need This in My Business

While I am certain we in the Panhandle will have an easier time than central and eastern Florida did, I heard a possible 20 inches of rain this weekend. While it will just make my life miserable, it will cause numerous problems for the city, the county & those who live on lower ground than I do.

Fay, Fay, Go AWAY.

Flashbacks of Opal

Tropical Storm Dolly has moved across the Yucatan Peninsula and is starting to get her groove on in the Gulf of Mexico. As you can see from the projected path, it looks like poor Texas is on the hook again. Maybe she won't strengthen much (or at all) and they won't have a rough time of it.

She is supposed to hit hurricane strength, but at 18mph, she doesn't have a lot of time before she makes landfall again, according to the National Hurricane Center.

But looking at her track, I am reminded of another storm, 13 years ago. According to the National Hurricane Center, she came across the Atlantic, but I don't remember that. I remember waking up one morning and finding a system in the Gulf. I can't find a picture of it, but originally, she was forecasted to move due south. She didn't.

This was the path as it was forecast next and she stayed pretty true to this prediction.
You can read about and see what she did to NW FL here.

It was a very scary time, evacuating, alone, with a 6 year old (thank goodness he was a boy, it meant we only had to get out of the vehicle if I had to go!). I came home to no damage, except the meat in my freezer since the power had been out for days. But I was lucky and I know that.

So, I am keeping my eye on Dolly, and my fingers crossed that she fizzles in the Gulf and never makes landfall at all.

Here we go!

Hurricane season does not officially start until tomorrow, but the stupid storms apparently can't read a calendar.

This one is not supposed to head this way, but the forecasters can never be sure. I guess it is time to stock up on bottled water!

And Spam. :-)

Pre-Wedding Glitches**** Updated**** One picture added

I am certain that there is not a party held anywhere in the entire world that does not run into a few glitches. Maybe the food is late, the flowers are incorrect or the ice runs out. This is stressful for everyone involved in the process and in the party itself.

We were lucky, really. With rain almost the entire week before the wedding and rain scheduled for 3 days after the wedding, we were really holding our breathes. It was scheduled to be an outdoor ceremony! What if the weather was bad? What if it was windy? What if there was Red Tide?

It was amazing to wake up on our wedding day to the best weather anyone could ask for. A few wispy clouds hovered on the horizon, but it appeared that the weather was not going to be an issue.

The alarm was set for 0730 so that the family could get the tables and chairs setup early. We were all staying at the hotel where the ceremony was to take place. DSD jumped out of bed, ran to the balcony to check out the weather and ran back in to the bedroom. (silly me, thinking I could grap 2 more hours). "You better call the tent guy" he said. The tent was scheduled to be setup on the 19th, but the tent guy called that morning and said the weather was iffy. IF it cleared up in late afternoon (the rain stopped by 4pm), they would get to it. If not, they would be there at dawn. Dawn. Doesn't that mean sunrise? Now it is officially fall, but sunrise is still only a little after 6am. At 0730 they were no where to be seen. I called, was apologised to profusely and was told they were an hour away. I called again at 0930. They arrived at 10. That is not dawn!

Due to the fact that they were so late in arriving, the tent people were willing to wave the normal setup fee for the tables and chairs (we had chosen to do the setup ourselves to save a little money) and they would take care of it all. DSD took them the linens and the chart of the layout that we had decided on and I went off happily to get my hair done with my mom. The tent finally left the ground about 3! (This was a BIG tent) Left the ground. It wasn't done, just up. It was not tied down or strapped on and there were no lights yet. There was no way possible this would be done AND the tables, chairs, linens and centerpieces would be setup by the time the guests started arriving about 5. The entire family rallied, throwing tables, chairs, linens and centerpieces together in the shortest amount of time possible. I even have pictures of DSD's dad and brother-in-law helping strap the tent. I am still dumbfounded at the amount of work that was done in 2 short hours. By the time I exited my room, beautifully dressed and coiffed, everything looked exactly as I had pictured it.

Sadly, due to the fact that some family members were still setting up as late as 5, we missed out on a lot of the planned family pictures that were to be taken before the ceremony. DSD's mom arrived just shortly before the ceremony started and my bff, P, almost didn't take time to shower. They both worked terribly hard to ensure that my day was as wonderful as it could possibly be. Thank you both!

I am hoping to post some actual wedding pictures soon, but, Blogger is being a little uncooperative. I will try again later (that means tomorrow!).


****I was trying to add a picture of the view outside my hotel room window, but I couldn't find it on my hard drive. This is a picture of sunset right after the wedding.

I am not happy about this

When I first started watching Karen it looked like she may follow my favorite route of north to nowhere. Now the National Hurricane Center is predicting a not nice little westerly jog between Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I am sure this has something to do with lessening wind shears, but my Meteorology was BORING and I didn't learn much that I didn't already know. So, let's keep our fingers crossed that the jog is more north than west, or maybe even northeast. I like a storm that heads straight up the middle of the Atlantic. That's the only kind of storm I like.

This does not look too scary

YET.

Tropical storm Karen does not appear to be headed for land at this point. Hopefully she will just keep headed north and not bother anyone.

Why are they doing this?

This is Invest 93.

This is not a hurricane, a tropical storm or even a tropical depression. I am not positive, but I don't think it is even a tropical wave. So what is it? A thunderstorm. The image above came from Weather Underground. I have used Weather Underground for several years and this is the first year I have seen an Invest anything. They are tracking these Invests on the local news also.

The other site I use a lot for storm tracking is the National Hurricane Center site that is run by NOAA. They aren't tracking Invests. They track actual, honest to God named storms, not a little blurb of clouds that may or may not turn into anything.

Now I am not a Hurricane expert, but this feels like the Repubs bull shit color-coded terror alert. There is nothing to be scared of, so we are going to manufacture something to keep you on edge.

I lived through the 04 and 05 Hurricane season. No, I did not live in New Orleans for Katrina, and we are in a place that almost never takes a direct hit (last, closest storm was Eloise in '75)*, but the STRESS of those storms swirling around in the Gulf is more than a person can imagine if they have not lived through it. You do not know how many times a week I was waking myself up in the middle of the night by the end of the '05 season. Why? Because I was afraid we had not boarded the windows, because I was afraid we didn't have enough bottled water, because I could not remember if my son were asleep in his room across the hall, what if he were out in the storm? This was when there were no storms!


So I am going to start using only the NOAA site full time. I will check in with Weather Underground IF there are any named storms out there, maybe. And I will prepare appropriately if a storm is swirling around out there, but I can not deal with stressing over something that isn't anything at all.

*Non-direct hits can still be bad. Opal in '95 was a nightmare for the entire county and the eye was over 100 miles away. Ivan in '04 spawned F3 tornados (almost unheard for this area) over 24 hours before the storm came ashore. It is a little scary to sit in the hallway with my son and the 2 dogs while wondering where DSD's oldest son had gone and was he ok while one of the tornados passed over head without touching down.

A Sidebar

Hey Chantal (and all the rest of you!)

Keep your swirling, vicious, tornado laden winds and waters away from land, would you?

We've got enough to worry about!