Happy Sunday

Invincible Summer - Albert Camus

Thank you all for your prayers, concern, emails, and comments. I am taking the day off to relax and rest and refraining from a regular post with all the devastation and loss of life. 

I think everyone comes to know that nobody gets through life unscathed. It's a matter of how you respond to loss and adversity. Resilience. Staying strong.

I will recharge today and return to normal posts tomorrow. 

Take care.

We Are Fine

CCC

This is the scene from my front door not even close to the height of the storm from way inside my home. Can you see my street that is a river covering the roadway, verge, sidewalk, and yard? Do you know the expression "If the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise." Well, that is the largest creek that overflowed its banks where I live.

We were in the edge of the left eye wall of the hurricane that was just shy of a Category 5. (That is not good). South of me places like Ft. Meyers, Captiva Island, and such are devastated. My thoughts and prayers are with those who lost lives, homes, and belongings.

We lost internet and reliable phone service late Wednesday and just got it back.

It is not over. I-75 in Sarasota is closed right now in both directions because of flooding. A major river in Sarasota is on the verge of overflowing and people there are to shelter in place. A levy in Sarasota might be failing.

I have spent two days cleaning up my yard. My gardeners are due over any minute to help with the downed live oak in my back yard. Tiles off my roof, but not bad.

Please consider donating to the American Red Cross for those devastated by this historic storm. 

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

 

Hurricane Ian

Hurricane 

 

I am writing this on Tuesday evening as it is likely we will lose power during the night. I'm sure you have heard that Venice is at the epicenter of Hurricane Ian. And Venice has never taken a direct hit from a hurricane in its history! If it does make landfall as a Category 3 or 4, it will be pretty scary for sure.

Thank you for all your comments and emails. My friends and family have been texting and calling all day as well. I even heard from the lovely couple who built my home and they reassured me that they weathered 5 hurricanes in this house with no problems.

I am scheduling this to post automatically tomorrow morning in the event I am without power. If I still have power, I will post an update as to how things are going.

I appreciate all your well wishes and prayers more than you know. I have read many people saying it is not as bad as you think it will be. I hope so! The builders of this home had very good advice to stay in bed with the pups and try not to look out the window. That is clearly safer and also less likely to get me freaked out.

This too shall pass.

Update - it's 6:00 am and I still have power and internet for now. The hurricane is now a Category 4 and we are expecting wind gusts of 140 mile an hour mid day and 10 - 20" of rain.

8:00 am - still have power but the winds and rain are getting stronger. We are almost to a Category 5 - just 1 mph shy of a 5! 

2:30 pm - still have power and internet - winds are 80 miles an hour.

9:30 pm - The good news is we are safe and my house is standing and we never lost power or internet (fingers crossed). The bad news is that the streets turned into raging rivers running the wrong way filled with sharks and alligators and debris and flooding the sidewalks, driveways, and lawns. The flood waters got feet from my house, and I spent hours getting as much as I could off the floors. Luckily it did not flood the house. I had put down the garage attic stairs and was ready to escape up there. No first responders because the police station and fire stations are under water and the streets are all flooded. And a massive live oak in the preserves fell and missed my house by yards. And did I mention wind gusts of 180 mph and 20 inches of rain? 20 inches of rain in Florida is a 1 in 1,000 yer event. Just another day in paradise - LOL.