Larry Vs Charley-the results

Tropical Systems -0 Me-3

I don’t know when I will get to post this; this is my third near miss with a tropical system.

First one with a hurricane expected to make landfall in my area (just like before it went to the north or south of me)

Watching TV, hearing the weathermen on the 8 different channels I was watching ( 3 tampa stations, 2 sarasota stations, the weather channel, cnn, and the Spanish station from tampa) it amazed me that 8 stations all had 8 different hurricane tracks

And thank god they all ended up being dead wrong.

The only thing “civilized” we lost at my homestead was the high speed online, but I wanted to at least write the bulk of this down while the feeling and ideas were still fresh in my head.

My mother and I got our gear and did out best to move everything we could the night before. I tried to move my storm shutter on my window, fearing that it was going to be attacked to hard if the storm came our way. I also was worried about the sliding glass door we had, and I didn’t have anything really to shutter it with.

This was fine with the track until the hurricane, as hurricanes coming to the Tampa Bay area often do, wussed out me doing my most solid Lt. Dan impression. My mother’s friend (our occasional masseuse/ acupuncturist) called about giving her “treatment” to her- a code for being evacuated to our location. Randy, his two kids, and their dogs were coming in and my mother was busily cleaning. Cleaning about 10 am with a storm that was supposed to hit the area about noon, it was a most bizarre moment. As I went out and patrolled the area for potential debris projectiles I was reminded of something great about this country, something great that brings us to the most American of spirits.

We have a neighbor across the way that is a solid jerk. His house looks like a redneck factory exploded in it. But yesterday he and I talked a little bit about what we needed to prepare for the coming storm. Another neighbor and I found some old debris in a ditch near his property, some kind of aluminum siding stuff. We were trying to figure out where to put it to try to minimize our risk. While his wife was more concerned with who it belonged to, he came out and joined us in putting the stuff between a thicket of trees.

No matter how we had conflicted, our neighbor was willing to put these things behind for the common good.

I walked down the streets a lot checking for debris. A little later I did so fearing my cat had gotten loose. I got to meet more of my neighbors then I had in some time, we were all helpful and all offering to do what we could for each other.

And we are all lucky here. To the south of us in Sarasota county some of the worst of the storm hit (my Lodge brother and one of my best friends Drew has some trees and branches down near where he lives) and areas immediately to my north have power outages. The ritzy island community near me lost sewage.

My mothers house, which she bought for fewer than 80K and has now doubled in price, its just fine.

I haven’t made a larger swath to investigate things around Sarasota but the section I live in with some of the highest ground in the county stood strong. This is why old money lived at higher ground and inland, though that isn’t doing the folks in central Florida any good with this storm.

We had calls coming in from relatives, calls going out to friends in the other parts of the state, watching almost surreal broadcast news wall to wall hurricane programs. Watching as stations varied greatly on just about everything you could think of about the storm, it makes you wonder how far we have really advanced from sheep entrails.

It was about 3 o’clock when it felt safe to watch something else; flipping back and forth between the news and other programs again I was amazed at the dichotomy. CNN said how this hurricane is handled could effect the Florida voting in November, the other heads in the house were more concerned then I. I have a faith, based on an examination of history

This area has missed numerous storms; it’s an area that seems to have to so many residents this special feel to it. As I was walking around the neighborhood, it was that specialness we all felt that saved us again.

“We dodged a bullet” the chorus I joined with many of my friends and neighbors.

But who really dodged a bullet was the City of Tampa and Pinellas County, had the storm hit there major harm to the economy would have happened. Millions could have been hurt or killed.

The bulk of the storm went between the population centers in Ft. Myers and Tampa and all ended up being the best.


I saw John Kerry and George Bush commercials during the storm, and it really gives you a sense of perspective. It really helps you to see how small some of the things that divide us as a people truly are, and really when things REALLY matter how little they really divide us.

My sore throat, well more my swollen glands bugged me the whole day… but I got an excuse to sack out over the weekend –I was originally going to have to work- so I can take some time to recover
I finished the 9-11 commission report and I think before I mention why I am voting for George Bush ( and why it is John Kerry’s fault) I need to cover some of the pluses, and the minuses. The report from a fact finding p.o.v tells me little I didn’t already know.

As I go to bed, free from the worry of the hurricane, I wonder if the storm is going to hurt a lot of folks in Georgia and the Carolinas, like they think it is going to.