The Sky is Falling, the sky is falling...

Oh wait... that's just the news reporters trying to terrify Floridians again. In case you haven't seen it... there is a storm a brew'n out in the water again. In fact, it got named... Dean. "They" expect it to be a hurricane by Friday.

Darn storm. School starts next week. It better behave itself. This is the first time my child is attending Kindergarten.

T.S. Florence

Another one has been named. Yes, folks... there is another Tropical Storm out in the Atlantic. You can see information on it HERE.

2 Sheets to the Wind

I will be washing bed sheets, the clothes from yesterday, baking, getting a root canal today, and basically getting ready for a 'hurricane'. I don't believe it will be that strong, but no matter what, it can cause limbs to fall off trees and power to be lost.

As much as I don't want to waste the gas, I don't want to go 3 or 4 more days in pain. Yes, my tooth hurts... by the end of the day I am in a lot of pain. Add to that my two boys being sick and no sleep. I'm not much fun to live with right now. I am working on making that better. It would probably be nicer for the family if I was 'two sheets to the wind'... though that was a pun on doing sheets in the laundry and Ernesto. Wish me luck on my root canal and getting ready. Not enough hours in the day and not enough sleep. Luckily Tater is feeling better... we just got to get Tot better.

See ya tomorrow if I have power!

A B C ... D and E

Seems Debby is almost a goner but Ernesto is heading towards the Gulf... What? You haven't been paying attention to the Hurricane forcasters??? Soon they will be 'in your face'... if Ernesto actually makes it to the Gulf. Only 2 1/2 months to go... what are the opening bids on the letter we will get to this year? Do I hear M?

UPDATE: I woke up this moring to see that Ernesto is now a hurricane. Ahhh... the fun begins.

Chris Graphics

Not a hurricane, but looks like we are going to get a ton of water....

Tropical Storm Chris

Ready Set Go ->Hurricane Season

Go ahead and take a look at our first tropical storm HERE.

And I promised to link to all of those that got the picture correct in Art 101... And the winners are (in the order they answered):


Oddybobo of Bobo Blogger
CalTechGirl of Not Exactly Rocket Science
Marie of PractiGal

I Must Be Dreaming

My sister called me about a Tropical Storm. After she finished laughing about how I almost superglued my finger to the Steam Cleaner when I was trying to fix it along with all the other accidents (see post below) she told me about a Tropical Storm. I thought she was joking. She's not. Here is what I saw at the National Hurricane Center at 11:50am EST.

SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1100 AM EST FRI DEC 30 2005

SATELLITE IMAGERY INDICATES THAT AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE IN THE
EASTERN ATLANTIC HAS DEVELOPED INTO A TROPICAL STORM ABOUT 1000
MILES SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF THE AZORES. A SPECIAL ADVISORY ON
TROPICAL STORM ZETA IS IN PREPARATION AND WILL BE ISSUED IN AN HOUR
OR SO.

Please tell me it is just a nightmare and will be gone soon.

I Must Be Dreaming

My sister called me about a Tropical Storm. After she finished laughing about how I almost superglued my finger to the Steam Cleaner when I was trying to fix it along with all the other accidents (see post below) she told me about a Tropical Storm. I thought she was joking. She's not. Here is what I saw at the National Hurricane Center at 11:50am EST.

SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1100 AM EST FRI DEC 30 2005

SATELLITE IMAGERY INDICATES THAT AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE IN THE
EASTERN ATLANTIC HAS DEVELOPED INTO A TROPICAL STORM ABOUT 1000
MILES SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF THE AZORES. A SPECIAL ADVISORY ON
TROPICAL STORM ZETA IS IN PREPARATION AND WILL BE ISSUED IN AN HOUR
OR SO.

Please tell me it is just a nightmare and will be gone soon.

Hurricane Epsilon

What a season... did anyone mention to the weather that hurricane season is OVER? I guess now since we now have:

Hurricane Epsilon

I think it's time for me to go and have some hot tea and M&Ms. This is just crazy. I'm just glad it is not headed for Florida.

Hurricane Epsilon

What a season... did anyone mention to the weather that hurricane season is OVER? I guess now since we now have:

Hurricane Epsilon

I think it's time for me to go and have some hot tea and M&Ms. This is just crazy. I'm just glad it is not headed for Florida.

Delta? You Gotta Be Kiddin

I thought I would fall over laughing when I saw these headlines on Nov 19th. Only our newspaper could get so carried away.



But I'll be darn if there isn't a storm named Delta out in the Atlantic. She has been hanging around for the last couple of days. I keep looking at the newspaper to see if the headlines are similar to Gamma's. No luck so far.

(Yaa, posting light... hard to type when you are rolling around from all the food)

The Grocery Store

We went to the grocery store at 8am in the morning yesterday. The gas line was long enough to be getting in the way of the grocery store. Only to find out those people were being directed to go out to the road and get in line. More on that later.

We all went. Dad, kids, mom and half the town. Over all it was not a bad experience. Tot cried and wanted to be held. Tater wanted to pull stuff off the shelves. They were out of bananas, chicken and decent meats. We got most of what we wanted. And Hubby found some quick frozen chicken cutlets in a bag. I'll take it.

They were also giving out free ice. The man passing it out, actually offered it to me. I said no. Just because it's free doesn't mean I need to get it. I wondered though how many were getting because it was free and offered to them. I'll never know. If you want a good rant on people taking stuff for free, check out THIS POST by Bou or THIS POST by Sticks (Though Sticks is whining, she has good points and while there, wish her a happy birthday).

Before we left, Tot stopped crying, Tater quit taking stuff off the shelves. But monkey see, monkey do in this family. While waiting in line to check out, Tot started taking candy bars off the shelf and putting them up with the other food. I think I took at least 3 bars off. I finally told the cashier if she saw any candy bars to put them aside and I would put them back.

Hard to believe it was only day 3. I am certainly hoping it gets better in a couple of more days.

Doing the Happy Dance

Everyone stand up and cheer:

We Have CABLE

Not that we watch that much tv, but they only wanted to watch the SAME video over and over and over and over again. Tater knew the words to very line of it. UGH.

Wilma - the Aftermath

Remember that little opening in the soffit? It became a big hole. Take a look:




And I was not happy when I saw this limb fly over my house and land beside my car. I really thought it was going to scratch and dent it.




Notice the top of the tree is gone. I can't believe it didn't hit the roof of our house and take out shingles.




Take a look at the banana trees. Now go back and check the picture from a couple of days ago. Yep, they really did get pushed to the completely to the other side.



This is my neighbor's yard. What a mess we all have.




These trees border my property. What you see on the road is similar to what you see in my yard. Ugh.




The wind was still blowing hard enough to make ripples in the water like wave.




Here are those tree that you saw on the road from my house:




And here is part of my neighbor's fence around her well. Yep, it blew over our 4 1/2 foot fence and about another 80 feet.




Ok, no more Wilma pictures. Back to kid pictures and stories soon.

Wilma - During the Eye Wall

It was recorded that we had over 100MPH winds in my area. I can believe it considering the damage that was done. I am VERY happy that she was hauling her be-hind out of here so quickly. It would have been devastating if she had been moving slow.

Here is one picture from when the first eye wall we got... notice the little opening in the soffit under the roof... and the direction the limbs are leaning.



Here is a picture of when the winds started to pick up for the second go 'round.



And here it is when the winds really were whipping around! Take a look at the cocoanut tree in the back ground.



Today my hubby is out cutting broken limbs and trying to make sure we didn't sustain any more damage. I'll put up more pictures tomorrow that I took right after the storm passed.

Now the Fun Begins

This news tidbit from one of the local news stations (highlighting is mine):

Turnpike service plazas in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Martin counties have fuel but motorists are experiencing long lines of up to three hours.

Gasoline purchases are limited to $20.00 per vehicle, NOT per person...

As of 4pm today, Florida Power and Light reports:
           Without            With            Total customers
Palm Beach 644,300            19,200            663,500

Bou has power!!!

Update as of 6am 10/26/05:
           631,100            32,400            663,500

This is just scary. The news and FPL are both reporting that it may be up to 7 days before 1/2 that number get power and a month before the rest.

Wilma -the North Side

Pictures from after the FIRST eye wall activity and while we could run around in the Eye of the storm:



Notice the direction the banana trees are in THIS picture... in a day or two you will get pictures as the second side of the eye wall came by...



Tree limbs... I don't need no stinky tree limbs:



More photos over the next day or two. And some stories to go with them.

I was going to post pictures

It's almost 10pm and I am off to bed. It has been a long couple of days. I tried to upload my first set of pictures to image shack and it failed every time. I give up. I'll try again tomorrow... but I don't know when. I will be entertaining two children who have no outside activities to do. I will have to keep them inside most of the time until the snakes, ants and other critters get settled. I have no cable. Power, yes. Cable, no.

Thank you everyone for stopping by and leaving a comment. I really appreciate it.

Flickering lights

It's 7:35am. The lights are seriously flickering. At least Tater got cold cereal and Tot got his hot oatmeal. Need to fix a cup of coffee before we lose it all.

Take care... see you in a couple of days.

It's Harvey's Fault

We have reached a new record. Harvey said in a comment that he was hoping we would get to Alpha. And we did.

Tropical Storm Alpha is here.

**Shakes Fist at Grandpappy Harvey**

Good thing it isn't headed to Florida. ;-)