I have realized tonight that this hurricane is wearing me out emotionally. Hyper-vigilance revisited. Sigh. Trying to keep up with the track of this mega monster storm is exhausting when it is actually days away. And then trying to figure out what we need to get by, with not just Dan and I, but with his mother and brother with us, in my tiny house. They are all under an evacuation order, and my house is on fairly high ground for FL (20′ above sea level). They are in flood zone A, I am in the lowest level threat zone, E. I am not particularly good with a lot of house guests, but Dan will work as hard as I will at this, and it will be fine. They are good people.

We have a ton of food, and gas to cook it on, and lots of ice. And plenty of drinking water. Today we both managed to find gas, we’d both been looking for 2 days.

Anyway, I’ve decided not to get so nervous and wound up about all the possibilities until Saturday. The forecast could change 10 times by then, so I’ll just wait. They all seem to agree it will hit here around Sunday afternoon.

Dan is telling everyone he’s tying me to a post out front, about 10′ off the ground, so the storm can’t take me. He promises to come untie me when it’s over. HAHAHA.  I think he’s jealous of all the people who are checking in on me, lol.

Time to call it a day, and go rest my storm-weary head.  Love and light.

Up early to head over to my sisters. We want to get over there and finish and head back here by noon. The storm lost a minuscule amount of strength overnight, down to 180 mph, with gusts to 220. It’s a huge storm and even the most easterly track will keep me in the tropical storm range. But tropical storm is so much better than a cat 4 or 5.

I think we’re as ready as we can get. We’ll pick up the food-grade pails today, and get them filled. I want to give the house a good once over cleaning before we lose power which I think is a sure thing. I just hope it’s not 95° for the next few days after the storm, when we have no AC. First world problems, I guess.

Only a short entry this am. A lot to do today. Love and light, all.

How hypocritical is it of me to sign off a post “love and light’ and then….hear one of the traps we set for the fruit rats go off, and hear the rat struggle in the trap for a minute, and be glad.  And then to listen to “The Great Bell Chant”?  Geezus…..

The rats have been in the kitchen, but not in my pantry.  I have a bowl I leave stuff like potatoes and onions, and fresh tomatoes, in on the counter.  They chewed away half a tomato whle I was at Dan’s this past weeked, so when we came back to my house, he reset the traps.  I think it was maybe just one, because there are not a lot of rat poops on the floor.

Feeling a little guilty in taking so much pleasure in the death of a little animal, but I am.

Think I’ll go listen to the chant again….

Love and light, lol.

It’s 1:30 in the morning. I am a morning person, usually. Meaning, I like the mornings. I do my best stuff in the mornings. But not at 1:30. Usually it’s after the sun comes up. But here I am, wide awake.

I suppose I have a little anxiety over the hurricane. I am so grateful to not have to deal with it alone. Just so utterly grateful.

I’ve been through hurricanes before, up north. But generally when they get to New England they are moving pretty fast. Hurricane Gloria, a category 3, passed over us in an afternoon. I remember Hurricane Bob, in 1991, and being down at the marina, putting extra lines on our boat, walking the docks back to the club house as the storm surge rose over the docks and was up to our knees. We waited it out in the clubhouse with about a dozen or so other boaters. That storm actually went a bit east at the last minute, and ripped up Rhode Island pretty well, but was only (only, lol) blowing about 80 mph where we were.

But there’s no experience to prepare you for a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane in flat, low Florida. I am happy that at the moment they are not expecting torrential rain. Of course, those things can all change, but that’s really my biggest fear. Visions of Houston in my head.

We think we have solved the no bottled water anywhere problem. We’re going to go to Lowe’s tomorrow and get some 5 gallon food-quality pails with lids, and fill them with water. Then we’ll get some heavy contractor garbage type bags, and put one in my garbage can, and fill that with water for the toilets, as well as fill the tub. I’ll go food shopping tomorrow.

My sister and brother-in-law asked us to run to their house if we have a chance and see if we can get some of the good furniture raised up off the floor. We’re pretty sure they will have water in the house, they are only 11 feet above sea level. There’s not much else to be done for their house, but to wait it out and see what happens, they are so close to the ocean. Though gratefully, the storm surge will likely be on the east coast, not here. The tide will be high, the storm hard, but maybe the surge won’t be as bad as it could be. I guess we just pray….

I’ve had so many offers from people in CT, and from my sister and her family in Austin, to come there to get out of harm’s way. It’s tempting, really. But I don’t think I can leave my things, my home here, wondering if everything survived. Of course, I’d leave if there is an evacuation order, but I’d just go to an evacuation center. There are 3 close to me. The water will rise, and then fall, and I’d want to be able to get back here and begin to clean up.

Maybe we’ll be totally blessed and Irma will take a hard right out to the middle of the Atlantic and leave us all alone. All this worrying and angst would be for naught and that would be just fine with me. If that happens it will have been a good drill in preparedness.

I’m not sure if writing this helped me or made me worry more. I think I’ll try to do a little meditation to settle down and then go back to bed. There’s a lot to do tomorrow, and I need to be rested.

Love and light….

I’m trying to write

But the conversation keeps going

Places I can’t write about

And then I can’t concentrate.

Ok, I say.

I know what is on your mind.

I know you are patiently waiting for me

Finally(!)

I am worn out.

Ready to lay down my head

And go to sleep.

For real.

By Deborah E. Dayen

It’s looking like a high probability we are going to get hit with a Cat 5 hurricane next weekend. I guess it’s time to get some bottled water, and make sure I have food. I’m a little nervous about this.

I don’t live in a flood plain, but if it rains like in Houston, the entire state will be under water. In that case I don’t know what to do. There’s no where to evacuate that might be higher ground. Dan’s condo is in a flood plain, though it’s never flooded. However, it might be higher ground than my house. I’m not worried about the storm surge at my house, just the massive rains that may come with this storm.

It’s too early to know much. All the trajectories appear to cover FL, and the storm is powerful enough and large enough that a storm on the east coast is going to still be a hurricane on the west coast.

I’m worried about my sisters beautiful home on the island. She’s so close to the water, a storm surge will affect her, and the subsequent flooding could be horrible.

Lots of other stuff going on. We had a cookout for Dan’s family yesterday, which went very well. It was fun, and it made his 90 year old mother really happy. Dan and I did all the cooking.

I’m going to the dr today for my arthritis, which has flared a lot more and spread to my knees now. So, if I want to go to Italy, I need to get it improved so I can do a lot of walking. We’ve been talking to the travel agent, getting more information etc.

We were going to go to the Tampa Boat Show next weekend. I don’t think that will be happening now. There really isn’t much to think about with the threat of that hurricane looming in a few days. We’re talking, trying to figure out the best place to stay, at my house or his. He has his mother next door to worry about. But I have a 2^nd bedroom she could stay in, and I will have cooking facilities because I have gas. I doubt that we would lose water, but it’s possible I suppose for the city water to shut down temporarily.

Well, more later. Gotta get in the shower and head to the store to see if there’s any water left. Love and light.

Today I had a conversation with Dan about a quote I read on FB. His response was that the quote had originated with someone else. He said, “I KNOW. I mean, I don’t know, but I KNOW.”  (We looked it up and he was right, so he did KNOW.)

Which meant, quite simply, that he followed his intuitionn (until he actually knew). Which is something I often admonish people to do, in real life and in my blog. (Although Dan needed no prodding from me in this regard.) We had a discussion about what we know, based on facts and learning, and what we know, because our guts tell us it is true.

Later on, I found this quote by Rumi on the same subject.

Rumi says it is helpful to know what to ignore, if you want to actually know things. True. Like it is helpful to ignore the lies people tell you, or the drama they create to get you to believe things that aren’t true. And that….comes from your gut, your intuition, does it not?

It’s important to know what you know, to know what you don’t know, and to ignore what you are asked to believe that just doesn’t sit in your psyche comfortably. The truth rings. If it doesn’t, it’s probably bullshit.

Just some thoughts for today. Love and light everyone.

Waiting for brownies, salted caramel brownies, to cool, so I can cut them, and send some to my son in a care package. When I told him that I’d made cheese dip the other day, he started jonesing for it, and he knows how to make it. Well…Velveeta cheese is the main ingredient, and it doesn’t need refrigeration until it’s opened.

So, I’m sending him a care package with enough Velveeta (half original, half jalapeno) to make the dip, along with a can of Rotel tomatoes and green chilies. He’ll have to buy the sausage, hamburger, and a jalapeno pepper, along with the nachos. Also including a gladware container of freshly baked white chocolate macadamia cookies, a jar of Wickles pickles, a new toothbrush, lol, and the brownies. Oh yeah, and a check for $50.

He’s been doing real well lately. Dealing with some issues at work, and coming through with shining colors and a promotion. Dealing with a self-centered roommate. But he’s working through it all, learning to solve the problems that come with life. Like I told him, welcome to being an adult, lol.

I’m quite proud of him. He’s a gutsy kid to move 2000 miles away from everything he’s ever known, and create a new life, successfully. Love that kid to bits.

Once the brownies cool enough to cut, I’ll wrap up the box and take it to the post office here in town, which is housed in one of the touristy gift shops. After that I’ll head to Dan’s, where we can go in the pool if we get too hot, since the heat index this afternoon is around 110°. These are the days that run up the AC bill. It will cool down a bit in about 6 weeks though….and then the weather is gorgeous til next may.

Off to check the brownies. Love and light, all.

This afternoon we had just gotten back from my sisters house when my friend Beth stopped by just to say hi. She was a professional singer at one time, and we were talking about open mic night tonight. I have been trying to get her to sing a song by Beth Hart for a long time, because she has the voice for it. She does blues really really well.

This afternoon she told me to pick one and she’ll try to do it. I quickly printed off the words to “I’ll Take Care of You” by Beth Hart, with Joe Bonamassa playing blues guitar. She listened to it twice on my phone, with the words in front of her, busily making notes. She was wondering out loud, who, if any, of the “house band” on open mic night could play with her. Then we gave her a ride home, and planned to pick her up later when it was time to get to the open mic night.

At open mic night Beth was there with the print out of the words to the song, and also a page I’d printed showing the guitar chords for the song, in case she could get someone to play with her. She considered doing it acapella but we decided that the song really needs the accompaniment to sound good. We had thought of one of the guys we thought could do it, but he doesn’t always come to open mic. He came, and agreed to try the song. They went off to practice it. It was his first time hearing the song. When they went up to play it, another guy played his bass, even though he didn’t know the song either, and someone drummed the one small drum they have. So there are 4 musicians about to perform Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa who have never practiced it together.

It went perfectly! They did the song justice. The audience cheered like crazy.! One of my friends turned around to tell me “Beth owes you, that was perfect for her!” It was the hit of the night. And it was a night of a lot of good performers.

It was so much fun, and I was so delighted to hear her sing that song, because I love it and she sang it so well. The musicians were fabulous, and the audience loved it. I’m putting a video of the masters, Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa, doing this song live.

A fun night was had by all. Love and light, all.