Frickin' Frances

Pam posted, Tammi linked and posted on it and Bug has a picture of it. We’re taking this real serious down here. No kidding folks, we Floridians take this stuff pretty serious in general, but after just having seen Port Charlotte and Orlando take a beating, we’re really agitated now.

Bug and I have already been on the phone twice today talking about generators and evacuation. If this sucker turns out to be a Cat 5, we don’t want to be here. We’re already comparing hurricane shopping lists, I’m giving her tips on what to keep with small children and she’s giving tips on shopping for the right generator. We’re both talking about long term: how we evacuate if it’s a Cat 5, the problem is… if you want to get off this Peninsula before a hurricane, you have to evacuate 3 days in advance. I called my folks tonight and told them to be aware that come Friday or Saturday I’ll know whether we’re hunkering down or moving North. I’m making list after list and tomorrow is all about preparation.

Meanwhile, we have "issues" with hurricane shutters. I laugh as Bug is going through a similar situation, but unfortunately I have upped her on it as far as potential bad scenario. When you get your shutters, they label the shutters starting with one window and working around your house. Now if I had been smart, I would have taken a permanent black marker and marked every damn window to my house with the corresponding shutter number. But NOOOOO, I took the master schematic he gave me, with the numberings and I filed it. Somewhere. Unknown. Bug did the same thing. So now I don’t remember what window opening is #1. And I don’t remember whether he said he worked clockwise or counterclockwise around the house. Did I tell you that shutters are heavy? We live in Florida. That means we have A LOT of sliding glass doors. And transoms! I have 4 sets of sliders. Two to 4 is pretty standard on a Florida home. That’s a bunch of aluminum to be hauling around just to see what slider matches what opening.

OK, let’s move on to what makes my scenario a wee bit different. I had an addition put on. I have another schematic that came in the mail last week and I DO KNOW where that one is located. But I have a few more windows added and a few taken away and so now my closed system of windows is broken with a new loop of windows and I don’t know where they fit in my old number scheme and I am aware that some of the windows from my old schematic are now no longer there!

I think it’s going to take me a few hours to sort it out… but who in the hell wants to do that since that means I have to haul 20 tons of aluminum out of my garage, trying not to get crushed to death, laying them out on my lawn. I’m not doing that unless we’re bracing to take the hit. I’m not kidding. As much as it’s great to have in the back of my mind that we finally got it all sorted, I’m not doing it unless I HAVE TO.

I was buying flashlights this evening and as I was checking out the 18 year old bag boy said to the girl next to him, “I’m doing my hurricane shopping tonight.” I looked at him and said, “You don’t think I’m going camping do you?” to which his reply was, “No, M’am, I know EXACTLY what you’re doing. I’m doing the same tonight.” Now when a testosterone driven bullet proof boy of 18 tells you he’s hurricane shopping, you know we’re potentially in a world of hurt.

I’m ready for Hurricane season to be over. We’re not even mid-way through it yet. Bah!