Hurricane Houseguest

Well, as many of you know, we have a massive hurricane about to hit Florida in a few hours. Now, for the past few days we Orlandians have been a little complacent about it. Most models had Orlando getting the brushed side of it. Nothing more than 30mph winds and lots of rain. Not a problem. We’ll make some food in the crockpot, watch movies until the power goes out.

As of this morning I woke to the news that Hurricane Ian had decided to make a beeline for Downtown Orlando as a storm with 100mph winds, definite early power outages that will more than likely take days to repair and flood causing rain…..

Well, shit….

The weatherman said to “be in place” by 9am this morning. So, I made a mad dash to 7-11 (and it was already beginning to get windy) and snatched a few cans of chili, some cans of tuna, some chocolate pudding and a bottle of wine. Don’t panic, that’s just our food for when we run out of our fridge and freezer food. It’s our “prepper” stash.

We only have two candles. A citronella and a prayer candle with the burning heart of Jesus. (No bugs and no bad vibes! I like!) But, when you’ve been through a hurricane and the power goes out for days, by the time it gets dark you just want to sleep anyway. You’ve spent all day in the heat cleaning up debris. You just want to eat your pudding cup and crash.

We’re in an 80 year old home. I like to think that this house has been through a helluva lot more hurricanes than I ever have. It’s solid concrete block, but all of the windows are cracked. So, Phillip and I are going to the smallest room at the end of the house FURTHEST from the giant tree that hangs over us, cover the window with whatever we can, plop a mattress on the floor, grab the cats and just ride the whole thing out, which will be about 36 hours. Once the storm passes we estimate being without power for three days. So, I probably won’t be online for the next five days and didn’t want any one of you to worry if you hadn’t heard from me, or I haven’t returned any emails or messages.

We do hurricanes a lot in Florida, and as long as you follow the rules and know what to do, you get through them with ease. Wish us well! I’ll talk to you soon!

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