Hurricanes - I Know, I Know!

It seems like anyone who lives around here is posting about Hurricane Ike and for those of you who live up North, or at least north of us (which I guess is any of you who are not from FL technically) you might be tired of seeing headlines about hurricanes. But let me explain something to you. Last night, I was commenting on how weird it felt and how weird the sky looked. We NEVER have pleasant evenings in August in Fl weather wise because even once the sun goes down, it is still so humid you can about peel the humidity off of yourself. But last night it was pleasant - not complaining about that mind you - but it was pleasant because it was quite blustery - think the hundred acre woods. I was half expecting to see a Tigger go bouncing by me. Anyway... today I got up to gray skies and lots of wind after thunderstorms and wind all night. Now let me remind you, the storm that is giving us these conditions is way out in the Atlantic Ocean and it is not even supposed to start curving into land till about North or South Carolina. We are not even in its outer bands and if I had a good umbrella today, I might just be able to fly like Mary Poppins (although at my weight it would take a SERIOUSLY GOOD umbrella to keep ME afloat!) :) When Tropical Storm Fay made her grand appearance, she was just that - a tropical storm, not a hurricane AND she was all the way across the state from us (the center of the storm system anyway) and you saw the kind of wind and rain and flooding we had - just enough for me to get to make my goofy movie! :) First of all, our ground is still so saturated in many parts of South Florida that I am not sure how much more water it can hold without there being serious flooding - once again, not trying to complain because every other year this time we have been in a SERIOUS drought it seems like - I'm just saying... Thankfully we bought our mobile home new just a few months after the bad hurricanes of 2004 and they had just changed the regulations so that mobile homes have to be 9 ft. above sea level so I'm not terribly worried about our house, it's just that none of us here in South Florida have webbed feet. As you can imagine, if it's that windy and rainy and floody :) in a weaker storm across the state, if Ike comes blowing into our coast, it's going to be pretty nasty. Oh, and this is what gets me - if there's one then it seems like there will be 10 more! I mean honestly, Gustav batters LA, Hannah turns so that she is going to batter the coast ALL THE WAY up, then Ike is like,"I know that Hannah missed you guys but don't worry, I am out here churning along just waiting to kick you guys' butt!" (our geographical butt that is). Being in a storm itself is kind of exctiting in a scary sort of way, it's being out of power for the next week that is no fun at all. When Wilma came through in 2005, we stayed because it was supposed to just be a cat. 1 or a tropical storm and it ended up being a category 2 or 3. I'll never forget sitting on the floor in the living room around the coffee table trying to play a game, and we just couldn't do it because after awhile we could feel the whole trailer shaking under us. So, we entertained ourselves by peeking through some gaps in the plywood on our back doors trying to determine which gust of wind was going to blow our shed into the canal as the wind pulled the roof loose and left it flapping. Amazingly, the shed stayed in place and we since have had a shed built purposely with hurricanes in mind. As a matter of fact, maybe we'll just hole up in there for Ike - JUST KIDDING! All that to say, I am sitting here with butterflies in my stomach this morning when I look at Ike's projected path. I know you probably don't believe it given my light hearted reminiscings of other storms, but I feel quite nervous. Leaving is a nightmare before a storm because if thousands of other people evacuate you just sit on the interstates (we learned that the hard way during Hurricane Francis in 2004). But if you just stay, then you may not have power for a week or two - it's kind of like that great 'ole [country] hymn of the church "Darned if I don't, Dang if I do" (some words have been changed to keep this blog cuss word free). Oh well, I guess if it comes, I'll just bottle up some "hurricane wind" and sell it on e-bay to some idiot who would like a souvenir!