Now for Frances???

“hang on treebait.

I have a hunch its gonna skinny up the coast too. BUT, I ain't willin to make that big a bet on it.”

“'da Capn says,

Batten Down the Hatches!!!

arrrrhhhhh!!!”

“Now our local "weather forecaster" says the remnants of it will be likely heading to Tenn. by early next week. Hope it doesn't do like Camille did to West VA. It killed more people there than it did on the coast of Miss.”

“If the current scenario holds, I plan to head SW toward Marco Island. That way I may be able to return late Sunday to see if I have a home. Otherwise, From the north the storm will block a return until late Tuesday and the roads in that direction may not be passible for several more days.

treebait - You might enjoy reading this article down to where the guy writes his own obituary. It made me laugh aloud this morning and took the stress away.
Shoplifting class worth taking ”

“Oh, brother! Funny story NS!

On the flipside, southern comfort isn't TOO bad in diet Dr. Pepper. I figure 10:30 at night is a good time for it. The problem is I drink so little so infrequently that I'm still not sure how I'd be drunk. Not really a good time to find out, but at least I can loosen up just a little. We have some preparations almost complete. Paperwork is mostly accounted for, medications for everyone but Buzz the cat are all re upped. Yes, Buss takes lasix ( a diuretic) and diltiazem ( a calcium channel blocker,) same stuff that humans take. Hopefully he won't stress out and die while evacuating. He doesn't like car trips at all. It'd really suck to have to bury him way off someplace else. Yes, I do think about stuff like this. Maybe I should keep him at the vet, but my vet may have to evacuate too. Flood plains, you know.”

“chill treebait, it'll be allright!

sooo, the tv just buzzed and the National Weather Service just issued a Hurricane Watch for all of S. Florida. "Hurricane conditions may be present in the watch area over the next 36 hours.

thats a long time!”

“For the broadcast: DUH!

I'm trying to chill, really! I even have a fan going and the A.C. cranked down! LOL!

I can't finish the DDP/SC beverage though. 1/3 of the way through and I already have a stomachache. Oh yeah, that's why I don't drink! It hurts!”

“you know, the strom center now seems to be moving more north than west. But they aren't really changing their projected track into FL.”

“Y'all know how opposites attract?

I'm the calm one.”

“somehow I figured that.

lol”

“ From NOAA it hasn't changed much - actually hitting just a smidge south of previous track.

There are no D batteries around here and many gas stations are out of gas. There are no generators and Home Depot is rationing sales of 10 sheets of plywood per customer. The lines for the wood are 2 hours long. There was no bread, no soup and only 4 bags of ramen (thank you very much) left at my Publix. There are no battery operated radios at the local radio shack.

I'm waiting for Mad Max to come walking down the street.

People who have no business knowing what a Jetboil is are buying them.

I've got a StoveStomper homemade jetboil.

The night is clear - the waning gibbous moon taking one last look.”

“Hey HPM, did you get my email a couple days ago?”

“Holiday Inn, Tampa, is where I'm headed with my daughter and granddaughter for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Then next week I'll be traveling up and down I-95 looking for my trailer.”

“One word NS - bungee!”

“Coop, sounds about like here. I've not been to Home Depot, but on the radio this morning they announced that they expected to run out of plywood around noon. I heard this afternoon that fights were breaking out in Home Depot amongst customers over things like generators and supplies.

I'm sure our grocery stores are running low on stuff - they did a couple of weeks ago with Charley.

I do know that gas is gonna run low. The tanker that was supposed to dock at Port Everglades has refused to do so today because he is afraid that he won't be able to unload and get back out to sea away from the storm in time. So we are gonna run out of gas in most of S. Fl.

I'm hitting the road tomorrow am and headed for Greenville SC to spend the long weekend with a good friend of mine. I'll see yall next week - I'll probably check in a couple of times over the weekend.

Hope every one stays out of harms way!”

“Good luck Roam!”

“Yes, HPM got your email but hasn't had a chance to respond. HE's a tad overwhelmed, these days. And that's without being Scoutmaster.”

“" and i will send unto you a messenger...a great comforter"

so here comes Frances with a wake up call.....probably...maybe...

i remember floyd....sattelite images of the gigantic storm headed straight west towards florida are permanently recorded in my memory... it didnt matter where it was going to make landfall...the thing was gonna cover the whole state....we were all freaked and grocery stores /walmarts were emptied of bottled water and bread and batteries, etc.....everyone was braced and huddled at "hurricane parties" with loved ones and pets...for "the big one"...
then at the last minute....it just turned and went up the east coast and out...

that was wild....but it brought a lot of people together in one mind and spirit for a few days, just like any disaster, natural or political often does.

i love the sattelite images of the big hurricanes and the "message" they bring
....puts being an earthling in perspective for me. we are just spinning around on a little ball out in the middle of nowhere for a few decades...creators idea of disney world....

huddling for a few hours with family, pets, neighbors at a shelter or at home while the storms rages over is a beautiful thing....

okee dokee...moon is rising...so,.i am going out to be grateful and seize some moments in the spa, heck, i may just turn on all the jets..~~~~for who knows...in the next couple of days.. maybe no moonshine and Frances may take the spa with her as she passes thru.”

“hmmmm...yikes!!..now that is a different perspective......looks like a mitey big weener pointing at the sunshine state!!!!”

“And no Happy Trails! Truth is always best, I believe.

I'm just praying NE, NE...NORTH EAST!”

“It tickd a little south again. Not good for the Palm Beaches.

Yeah om - Floyd got schools and work cancelled and it turnd out to be a balmy and pleasant day off for everyone but a pier owner in Daytona.”

“the center of the storm is moving more north than south now, but the projected track doesn't reflect that trending at all.

doesn't seem to make sense to me.”

“They have too many models, all pointing in different directions. So they still have no idea where the hurricane is going to hit. You can tell by this.”

“This doesn't look good for the southeast. Stay safe and get out of harms way.”

“Tango, that's a lovely photo of the storm. Something I've thought of doing over the years is taking some of the cool images of hurricanes and turning them into jewelry. Enamelwork or something like that.”

“worst case would be to cross to the Gulf enough to keep up strength and move north.”

“Looks like no matter what track it takes we're going to get seriously soaked here. Going into the Gulf would be bad.

The hotels around here are already loading up with evacuees. You Floridians take care and try to stay ahead of it! Homes and cars can be replaced.”

“Some folks are already clearing out up here. Traffic was kinda light this morning.

Home Depot started rationing supplies yesterday morning.”

“I heard this morning that Home Depot only has ply wood at their warehouse, none at the stores.”

“There isn't any to be had in stock on hand at any store in the impact area so they ship it in to the stores truck by truck. Usually it comes straight from the mill or from stock on hand at stores outside the impacted area. Once it gets there the long line of people camped out get their ration and go. So yes you can get ply, you just have a wait a few hours + for it.

I am quite sure that most of what is being shipped is coming straight from the mills.

When we boarded up for Flyod the shipment of ply was still singing and contracting from the heat of the laminating process. Stuff was so hot you needed to wear gloves.”

“Yo Roam and Nowslimmer, When are you bugging out?

Didn't both you guys get evacuation orders yesterday? (The Voluntary part is a nicety that no one believes)”

“A couple of posts have talked about going to the Keys. That just doesn't sound like a good move to me at all. Looks to me like you have to go north and inland.”

“OK cool, just wanted to make sure that it didn't get caught by a filter. Nothing urgent.”

“They are going to force me out of here this afternoon. I don't want to leave until about 4 AM tomorrow. My daughter just called again(from work). We settled on leaving at midnight tonight and driving to Tampa to one of her girlfriend's home. So first we'll have time to see three more guesses by the weather folks at 11 AM and 6 and 11 PM.. Our motel reservatin in Tampa is for F,S,S nights.

The current plan above was extracted from my rantings
here.”

“I-4 has a lot of construction work, so traffic on it will be slow.”

“One of the big issues in Central Florida is the piles of debris from Charley still sitting on the roadside in front of almost every house in many neighborhoods. The regular city pickup has been focused on getting big stuff out of the roads - not cleaning up the smaller stuff. All of these branches are going to be bounding around the neighborhoods. Also, there are a lot of broken branches that never actually fell out of the trees, just still sitting up in the canopy like the sword of damocles ready to be blown down. Also, many trees are now leaning oddly in damp soil and ready to be knocked over by wind from any direction.

I am going to be running branch piles from my and my neighbors yards tonight and tomorrow, but I can't get all of it out - so being outside in this thing will be a real danger.”

“Glad to hear you are getting out of Dodge NS.”

“You'd think that the city would allow or arrange for burn piles for tree debris.”

“I know - we thought of blocking off our street and setting up a massive Charley pyre - instead they have setup large public areas for us to take everything to drop off - which is what I'm doing tonight.

The people that live near those large public drop off sites are not happy now that all the ammo is in a big pile next door. The city is going to "put the heavy stuff on top of the piles" and somehow wrap them to minimize debris.

These pile drop zones look like a scene out of LOTR.”

“No kidding, schrapnal waiting to happen.

The quickest thing to do is chip it or burn it.”

“lol at "put heavy stuff" on the piles. That's so asinine. Why the hell don't they burn it?”

“How's the weather there now? GEtting windy yet or rainey?”

“Nope, beautiful and sunny!”

“Easy breezy day.”

“Hey all, what's the new stuff, I just woke up.”

“Nothing new.
We're all screwed.”

“THAAAAAANKS!”