Dances with Hurricanes

“We arrived at Cancun on Sunday, 9/22, about the time Hurricane Isidore decided to take a sudden detour south and hang out over Mérida, the state capital of Yucatan, thus ensuring about 3 more days of nasty weather in Cancun.

Things I learned on my Autumn vacation:

1. Mexicans are among the nicest folks on the planet. 'Nuff said.

2. People will go hang out by the pool even if the wind is blowing 40 mph and pool furniture is flying through the air into the pool.

3. It's possible to fall out of a hammock and injure yourself, even if you haven't been drinking alcohol.

4. According to the Weather Channel, the Spanish word for storm is "tormenta."

5. Some people can be real idiots when they're drunk.

6. Sometimes the drunk idiot comes along on the snorkeling trip the next day, throws up in the ocean, and feels miserable the whole day while you're having a great time.

7. When tons of seaweed washes up on a beach and sits in 90-degree heat, it really starts to stink after a couple of days.

8. Apparently, every American outside of California smokes cigarettes. They visit Mexico because the Mexicans don't mind if people smoke.

9. When sand from a beach is blown through the air at 40 mph and hits your body, it hurts.

10. Often, when sitting in a hotel room during a hurricane watching the Weather Channel, you can discover that it's 75 degrees and clear in Seattle, a place where it is supposed to be raining.

I learned more, but that's all I can think of right now....”

“I hate beach resorts, thanks for reminding why.”

“MartyB needs a vacation from the vacation.”

“Sounds like you had a great time!

Heck, it could have been worse, you could have been home posting on TT”

“you could've been there during Spring Break! eeeeek!”

“One time when a hurricane or tropical storm, I forget which, grazed Florida in the early 80's, my brother and I constructed a sail out of a bedsheet, broomsticks, and other scrapwood, and we windsurfed down the street on a skateboard. Some things I learned:

1. Mothers don't like holes in new bedsheets (grounded for a week).

2. Mothers don't like their sons out in nasty tropical weather (got yelled at pretty bad, and decided not to tell her about the flying cow we saw).

3. Sailing down the street on a skateboard with a bedsheet for your sail is REALLY cool!!!

4. I'm 30 years old and would do it again in a heartbeat, but would probably use my own bedsheets and just not tell my mother.”

“Lol, Artex you hellion!”

“Artex, you and me both.

Ah, the finer points of growing up in Florida.”

“Yeah, but Artex rassles wild boars for fun and makes jerky out of 'em and uses their tusks for toothpicks.”

“Yeah, but my mom let me do that when I was a kid. ;-)”

“She must have had mixed emotions about you - save you from the hurricane, feed you to the boars???”

“I have also had wild boar encounters as a kid but nothing near as big as the one Artex took down.”

“Yeah, but I'm still trying to figure out whether he was rasslin it or tryin to mate with it, LOL! The story gets into a little gray area there, somewhere around the point where he was laying on top of it and pinning it to the ground.”

“Well there I was lying on this boar and, well, you know, one thing led to another and, well, ya see, badda boom badda bing......jerky!”

“LMAO!!! :-)”

“Is you-da man!”

“Heh, heh....

Well, the truth is, we actually had a fun vacation - the negative stuff turned out to be kinda funny (like the poetic justice of #6). The only thing we were not able to do was climb the stairs of the 'pyramid' at Chichen Itza, due to the wet conditions. Will post photos on Webshots this week....”

“I love stuff like that martyb!! Very funny!!!”

“Did you use ductape like skully?”

“Congratulations on #6. Gotta love that Instant Karma (even if it IS sometimes delayed 10 or 12 hours).”

“I'm missing out. I move back up north, and now Hurricane Charlie is presently threatening Tampa. Just for that, I think Mother Nature should owe me a couple of blizzards.”

“Huh?
Sounds like you got out just in time... you UNGRATEFUL BASTAGE!
lol!”

“Too bad, Artex. Maybe you can get a cheap flight down there and rig up a skateboard with some sheets again....

Thanks for resurrecting my old thread, too!”

“Yeah, but there's a sick sense of fun with impending natural disasters. Not that I'm insensitive to the potentially destructive nature of said catastrophes, but the possibility of being able to kayak down Dale Mabry Highway is quite alluring.”

“HPM patched together maps showing the paths of both storms. I'll see if he'll post them. It shows what my weekend will be like.”

“You guys stand to be somewhat in the middle of both storms, treebait. Stay safe!”

“Yeah, I know. most of my prepping has been getting potted plants down to ground level and hoping my trees will be ok. These trees seem to like me since they only drop small branches on me. ;)

I don't think we'll have utility problems here. Not that it'll be that big of a deal with all the right gear, ya know.”

“
Wet Willie anyone?”

“two words:

gallon jugs

I'm keeping a few galls of water on hand just in case - the kids think i'm crazy.”

“So much for that Phils-Giants series this weekend....”

“Roam, you could just get some empty jugs - whenever you need water just hold 'em out the window for a few minutes!”

“lol, that'd work wouldn't it.”

“Here is a pretty, color-enhanced view of the storms, recently. You can click for three other color-enhancements.

And here is Central Floridaj, including Melbourne. We've been having sunshine, but the afternoon clouds are growing.

I suspect that these images will update periodically, so the storms' movements can be watched. One could save or print the images for tracking.

Yours for better weather.”

“Oops, that one way south is a new one to me. Need a different view to cover it.”

“Well Paul, looks like Charley may go right over you. Hold on tight!”

“Here comes Charley! Looks like it will hit as a category I to 2 at the most so far.
If our prayers are answered for it to hit further north I wish to apologize in advance to
HPM and Treebait. and the rest of you up there... Man... now that I think about it, if by chance it misses Naples then I would probably get one of Blizzard things like Artex is goin to get..... I want mine with M & Ms in it.”

“Oh man, I just read the old part of this thread. I think I've got some old sheets that would work GREAT as a sail. hmmmmm, now to sneak my kids skateboard out of his room without him noticing what I'm doin.

He'll never let me have a turn if he catches me.”

“Lol, Roam!”

“Ya I caught that too. When we were kids a long time ago out in Kansas we would do it on roller skates. Two kids with a sheet tied to sticks. Would go like hell. I believe back then Skate boards were outlawed? Anybody remember that? it might have been a state law.”

“Hey HoundDog!! How's it going?!”

“I knew a guy who tried to parasail, using a skateboard and a truck.

He lived.”

“HPM was a skateboard rat, HoundDog.

Last time a TS zinged by us we went to the beach to check the surf and test our raingear. Raingear worked great! The funny part was we had to wade through knee deep water (well, knee deep for me) to get UP to the beach.”

“Hay Yam!

Nice to hear from you!

I been doing a lot of traveling around lately and haven't been on the computer that much. I missed the TT people and am looking forward to catching up”

“

The above is an interesting site for observing storms.

I don't like the looks of Charlie. It is predicted to pass too close to Melbourne. I rememver Irene, which, also, crossed the state to here. It was supposed to get weaker, but it came in strong and did considerable damage.”

“Hang in there all you Florida TTers. Itsa gonna get wet and windy so don't pitch your tent under any dead trees, or maybe even live ones either. (that means you my dear Treebait)

Actually I really really enjoy tropical weather. Especially when the big storms get close. It's just awesome.”

“Hounddog--
travel? way cool!
i hope you've made it in to the dentist recently.....i worry about yer fine teeth!”

“Yammy, Even if they all fell out ... they would still be smiling at you!

Have fun in Main! Wish I was going. But I'll have fun too a least I'll a Hurricane to play in.
I was thinking about sleeping out in my tent, you know, kinda give the it the old test, Talk about an adventure.

Remember to watch out for the Red Rocket FELLA up there in Main, I'm sure they kicked his a$$ out Florida for a reason!”

“well, this'll be my first big storm experience in FL, I'm lookin forward to it, i figure the concrete block construction should hold up pretty well and the way the builders do things nowadays, there aren't any trees more than 10 feet tall anywhere near the place.”

“Well, we'll have to see how much rain these guys will bring to the Delaware Valley. 'Round here, winds aren't much of an issue; they've usually died down by the time the storm gets here. But if the front that drives it out stalls out, it can rain hard for days and days and days (much like it did with Floyd in the fall of 99).

That being said, kayaking the NJ Turnpike anyone (Maple, I know you want to...)? Hmm, I wonder if I'd still have to pay the toll in that case...”

“It's time to go shopping in order to be ready for the Hurricane Parties. The ABC Liquor stores should do a great business today.”