The warnings have blasted us for days. Hurricane Isaac is coming. There’s always part of me that hates all the hype. We have to wait in line at gas stations and grocery stores run out of water. Today, Home Depot ran out of flashlights. It’s annoying and the panic lasts for days. It wreaks havoc, but is part of living in Florida. I remind myself that of all the natural disasters, at least with hurricanes you have an advanced warning.
Then there’s the darker part of me that always hopes it comes near. Maybe not a direct hit, but close enough to be exciting. Sick I know. It’s obvious that I have never gone through a hurricane like Charley, Andrew or Katrina.
So today, we prepared. Not only did we have to prepare our house, but we headed out to the cottage to tidy things up and prepare for the storm. Of course we had a lazy breakfast of donuts and strata at a quaint little bakery we recently discovered.
Some of us ran around and put things away…
and some of us took imaginary canoe adventures on the high seas…
and some of us snuggled in the cottage and caught up on Housewives of Atlanta while under the pretense of nursing the baby…
This will be our first hurricane as Florida boat owners. We took advice of a well seasoned island neighbor and cranked up the boat higher than usual, removed anything that could potentially blow away including the cover and added some ropes in the event that the storm surge floats the boat off the lift. Hmmm… if a storm surge rose that high, the boat would most likely be the least of our concerns.
After comparing to another islanders handy work I suggested that Scott might spend some time working on his nautical knot skills. The boys are joining scouts this year, maybe this is something they cover.
One of these is not like the other…
The entire island was preparing. Some celebrate with hurricane parties and some just close up shop. Plywood over doors is a common scene.
Big or small, they prepare none the less.
They leave no picnic table unturned.
Even the palms got their last minute hurricane haircuts. After leaving the island we headed out to check on the old house and then it was home to prepare the new house. I decided not to stock up on flashlights, batteries and water. Instead, we got some movie rentals, ketchup and cheese. In hindsight, this may have been an obvious mistake.
The rain has started and the wind is blowing through. Nothing too exciting yet except that school was called off for Monday. The boys were pleased.
Stay safe and dry and see you on the flip side of this one.
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