October 24, 2005

Ok, I'm gonna go off on all the new channels for a minute.

Last night, both tbo.com and wwsb.com, were reporting that Sarasota was going to get nailed hard. We were to expect massive power outages and damage because we were going to get hurricane force winds of up to 115mph.
They were really hyping the shit here.
We are 50 miles north of Naples, the target zone.
Now I know, hurricanes are unpredictable, we have all learned this but holy fucking shit, they made it seem like this was going to be the biggest bad ass storm to hit for us in a long time.
They said it was going to hit for us around 2-3am and to expect loss of power right away and all that jazz.
I was up, I was waiting for it because I hate it when I get woken up by a trash can hitting the house of something like that.
We got wind and rain but not even close to what they said. Not even close at all. They had tornado warnings, said there were water spouts over SRQ bay etc etc.If that shit happened at all, it certainly wasn't my part of the county. It's gorgeous here now. Sun is shining, breezy, perfect beautiful weather.
Maybe 60mph if that at all.
Nothing is knocked down, blown over or anything where I live.
They just said that about 20,000 people in SRQ are without power.
Where? Further south like Venice which is part of SRQ county?
There is nothing at all here.
I'm so fucking tired of the armageddon style reporting and yes, I know what happened in New Orleans and what happened in Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda/Arcadia last year. But I'm damn tired of them saying SRQ is gonna die the death of a thousand deaths with each new hurricane that comes and nothing fucking happens.

People panic, people from out of state worry and call me frantically because oh my god look at that map on CNN! It's right over Kat's house for gods sakes! She must be dead!

I was awake until 5:30 am and then just passed out and then the phone started ringing at 9am sharp.
I had already been on the phone since 3am till 5am with Jenni. I don't mind, I was up at that hour waiting for the shit to hit the fan that never came, but I was trying to sleep.
If anything had happened at all here, I swear, I would have called people.
I would have called Jenni to update the blog, I would have called my folks and Shell and my sister to come save us but if you don't get a call from me, just assume it's ok, ok?
I'm not meaning to be a bitch, I appreciate all the love and concern but I swear, I would/will call people if it ever gets bad here or something happens to me or the kids.

I'm just so tired of the way they report this stuff. You're all gonna die.
The storm is over and they have been on all day so far reporting basically nothing, a few areas of the state with trees down, power outages, a gas station fell down in some really, really far south town and they are asking people to email them pictures of anything that got damaged during the storm.
Like begging for them so they can hype this even longer.
It's annoying.
I should go take a picture of the gorgeous blue skies and the kids who had gotten the day off from school cuz this was the end of the world, playing happily outside.

October 24, 2005

I'm fine.

Please, no more phone calls, I'm fucking tired.
Nothing happened here as usual.
I was up most of the night waiting on shit they said was going to happen and it didn't happen and I've had 4 hours of sleep.
If you call here, be prepared to get yelled at out of pure frustration because I'm really fucking tired and you should just check here first anyway.

Yes, I'm getting irritated now after 5 fucking phone calls since 3 fucking am.
Knock it the fuck off.
Sarasota is the safest god damn spot in Florida.

October 24, 2005

Waiting on Wilma.

I'm wide awake waiting on hurricane Wilma.
I can hear the winds and rain outside my windows now as she gets closer to making landfall.
It's supposed to hit about 50 miles south of me but we will still get hurricane force winds here and there have been tornado warnings and sightings all night.

Woo hoo!
Aren't ya glad ya don't live here?...lol

I love it here, I can deal with the canes. It's not a huge deal to me. I go to the store, stock up on canned crap food I won't eat anyway but the teens will, get gallons of water and smokes and soda and I'm good to go.
Then comes the boring part, waiting it out.
By morning, we will actually have stronger winds and stuff. I just can't sleep knowing it's so close to landfall.
Not really out of fear, but I hate waking up to loud banging noises and one of my neighbors usually doesn't secure their yard crap before these things hit so naturally, my house gets pelted with trash cans or gay lawn ornaments.

I wish I had a better camera. I'd be outside right now taking pictures of what's going on.
I can hear my neighbors wind chimes whipping up a frenzy. Kind of soothing actually.
Tomorrow during the daylight hours, I'll go grab some pics if anything coolish has happened.
Usually a tree or two falls down but that's really about it.

October 23, 2005

And so it begins.

In the grand tradition of hurricane blogging, I am thrilled to announce, it has begun.
We have wind and rain.
Not too bad yet.
The stations are coming in a little bit shitty but so far so good.
We have food, water, flashlights, batteries, candles, the goods to get through.
I will stay on as long as the power does and when/if it goes, I'll give Jenni a call from the cell and let her know so she can keep you guys updated.
It's supposed to hit south of me but we will feel winds up to 70mph they said so it's a wait and see game what happens.

Later days.