Another hurricane is slowly approaching. We’ve spent the last couple days preparing, making sure we had food and water and gas and whatever else we might need. Like phone chargers, candles, extension cords, etc. Ironically, we just pulled the generator out of the shed about 10 days ago just to run it, and what do you know, we now will need it to run next week. Most likely, anyway. We might get really lucky and not lose our power but I think that option weighs in “miracle happening” column.

The generator works fine, so we should be able to keep our food cold/frozen. I have a gas stove and oven, and we have a natural gas grill, so cooking is no problem. We will likely have Dan’s family here, his brother and mother, since they are in flood zone A, about a half-mile from the Tampa Bay as the crow flies, and the development is situated on a small lake that is part of the inland wetlands down here, designed to take up the slack on high storm tides. Still, 10’ above sea level is not much, as compared to my “towering” 22’ above in flood zone E. They are predicting a LOT of rain, 15” in 24 hours or so, for the Tampa Bay area, no matter which way the storm goes. So flooding will likely be a problem, which could cause our water supply and sewers to be affected. I sure hope not, but we have supplied ourselves with plenty of drinking water to get through the days to come.

Our boat is in my front yard. We have tied it down securely, removed all the canvas, and can’t do much more than that. My son asked me how we’ll protect it, and I told him if the wind is strong enough to pick up 9000 lbs, then we will let it blow over and take the insurance money, lol. But I doubt that is a worry.

Today, I’ve just been cleaning, doing laundry, trying to prepare for others to be here in the house for a few days. One of my friends came over in the middle of the day, and we shared some wine and talk, it was a nice relief from all the hurricane talk. All the news agencies report on the worst case scenarios for the dramatic effect, and usually nothing lives up to those. Witness the last one, Irma, which was dead-heading for Tampa and took a hard right, saving us from devastating storm tides and terrible winds. Though we still had Cat 1 or 2 winds, and lost our power for a week. And, the storm was so strong that it sucked the water out of Tampa Bay, leaving schools of thousands of fish laying in the sand and mud, unable to keep up with the speed at which the water was emptying out of the bay. The flooding was minimal for that storm, but we are guessing that it could be much worse with this one because the storm is moving so slowly and has so much rain with it.

Ah, the joys of living here. A lot of my close friends from up north have been calling and texting me today, reassuring themselves that we are out of harm’s way, and we are, as much as can be. Feel totally blessed by the awesome friends I have. The east coast, where I have some high school friends, is the one getting hard hit. Just hoping for them it is not as bad as they predict.

I’m heading over to Dan’s for a couple nights. I’m trying to keep this house clean until it fills with people. One bathroom with 4 people is a real pain. But we’ll manage. Love and light to all.