As Ready As We’re Going to Be

Yesterday we finished most of the last-minute preparations in anticipation of Hurricane Dorian making its way up the coast. The latest weather predictions are telling us that our worst days will be Tuesday and Wednesday. As of the 6 o’clock update yesterday, the hurricane was still wobbling a bit further west than it was. The forecasters say it will still stay out to sea, but be a bit closer to land, which means a lot of wind and rain for us.

Electric companies from as far away as Canada have sent trucks and personnel here to help get power restored as soon as possible after the storm. These guys really deserve everybody’s appreciation. They are leaving their families and may be gone a month or more, and will be working 16 hours a day, with crews on the job around the clock.

Somebody in one of the local Facebook groups made a point of saying that those linemen are making a ton of money when they come down here to work after a storm. Great! They deserve every penny, as far as I am concerned. They work hard to earn it! How many of you want to spend hours up on a pole in the heat and the pounding rain and the wind? I darn sure don’t!

As for us, with the help of our friend Jim Lewis, we mounted a window air conditioner in our living room, which we will power from one of our Honda generators. Don’t look at the outside of my house, it really needs power washing, but my back just hasn’t been up to it in a while. Hey, I wonder if the storm will wash it for me?

Then we moved my kayak and its trailer from the carport into the garage. Between the pontoon boat, five kayaks, Terry’s Pacifica and my Mustang, along with everything else we have in it, that 1100 square feet garage seems a lot smaller than it did when we bought this place and it was empty

With that done, I brought in anything small and portable from the outside that could go flying away and hurt somebody or damage something in the high winds we are predicted to have. These included a plastic trellis and the plastic lattice cover surrounding our propane tank. The tank itself is about four feet tall, and I plan to disconnect it and put it away in the garage just before the storm hits.

Terry also cut up several insulated foam boards that we had, to fit inside of our windows. That way if the glass breaks, hopefully, between the wedged foam board and the two inch wood blinds, it will help contain any broken pieces from becoming missiles inside the house.

While I’m not worried about the storm surge, I am concerned about all the rain we are going to get. This overgrown drainage canal next to our property has never gotten full, but I fear that it might and become a problem. If that does happen, I hope the sandbags we filled the other day will keep water out of the house and garage.

I told Terry and Jim yesterday that if we get through this thing in one piece, we will know for sure if we ever plan to sit through a hurricane again or if we’ll run like hell the moment they predict one! But we still have a ready bag packed to go if we, or the hurricane, decides the issue.

Congratulations Phyz Peck, winner of our drawing for an audiobook of The Green Pearl Caper, the first book in the Damien Dickens mystery series by Phyllis Entis. We had 55 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon!

Thought For The Day – While it’s technically true that you were never named the village idiot, you were certainly on the ballot.