kbois

Just a quick update. It's raining and very breezy right now. The storm is now slightly south, which is better, but still not great. Hopefully I won't get the flooding from storm surge at my home. I'm more concerned about broken windows. There was still a ton of debris that hadn't been collected all over my neighborhood. I'm as safe as I can be. Fingers crossed the storm slided a little bit further south.

I've evacuated from our condo which is on a canal adjacent to Tampa Bay. I'm staying with family and they are far enough inland that storm surge won't be an issue. The storm is supposed to lose steam as it approaches the coast, down to a category 3... which is still pretty significant from a wind standpoint. I doubt I'll be sleeping tonight. We have plenty of water and food. My brother has a generator and we have gas. I'm as safe as I can be under the circumstances.

I made it through Helene. Lost power for 3 days and had to evacuate. Other than losing some food in the fridge/freezer, we didn't have any other damage. Now we're gearing up for Milton which could be a direct hit. It's still too early to say exactly where. I'm already planning on heading somewhere safer once the track becomes clearer.

I made two mistakes tonight. First, I checked the score of the FSU game. Sigh. Second, I checked the status of the "tropical disturbance" they've been watching. Double sigh. On the positive side, there's only 8 weeks left of hurricane season!

That is awesome!

I'm not going to lie... it wasn't fun. We evacuated when the canal we live next to started rising fast. I had a safe place to stay... and more importantly a place that had power. Losing AC in Florida is just as scary as a category 5. Now we're just soggy and it looks like more rain is in the forecast this week. I'm on vacation in 11 days and will be on a plane even if I have to drive to Atlanta or Miami to catch it. Lol. I can't wait.

Well THAT timeline has been thrown out the window. It's been a rough year. I'm 7 chapters in, so at least there's progress.

I didn't know I had a target date.

I'm hanging in there. It's nice today, the humidity has backed off a bit, but tomorrow and most of the week looks like it's going to get pretty soggy. Anyone know where I can rent an ark? Hope everyone has a good weekend!

As most of you in the US and Canada are aware, and probably many of you in other parts of the world, the southeastern United States was hit hard by Hurricane Helene over the course of several days. The storm developed quickly and made landfall as a category 4 storm in Florida's Big Bend. On its way up the west coast of the state, it created devastating storm surges. I live on a peninsula that juts out into Tampa Bay. During my 17 years in Florida, most of it was spent in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. We were extreme fortunate in that we only lost power for three days. The canal we live on rose almost to our steps. Yes, we did evacuate, and I'm glad we did. Many people around us lost a lot of their belongings. We only lost the contents of our fridge and freezer, which amounted to about $200-$300. It could have been much worse and I'm thankful it wasn't. My heart goes our to those who live and have businesses on Anna Maria Island. We spent many hours out there with our boys when they were young. Many an evening was spent sitting on the sand and watching the sun kiss the horizon in spectacular colors. The island suffered catastrophic damages that will take months, if not longer to recover from. The same holds true for parts of North Carolina. There are many organizations that are accepting donations. Should anyone choose to donate to any relief organization, please do your due diligence and make sure the money actually goes to those who need it. Unfortunately, there are plenty of scammers out there. If you live in any of the areas affected by the storm, be wary of contractors approaching you. Any reputable business won't hesitate to provide their license and insurance information. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Stay safe no matter where you live.

Hi Starry! We finally got power back last night, so we high-tailed it home. It was absolutely a beautiful thing to sleep in my own bed. My dogs finally settled down too. We were fortunate. I'm on a peninsula that sticks out into Tampa Bay. I saw today that our little slice of paradise had 5-7 feet of flooding. The water line on our condo building came up to almost our steps. I'm glad we are the furthest unit from the canal. Not even a half mile up the road were condos that got flooded. There was so much stuff that people were hauling out of their homes and garages. Once salt water saturates something like furniture, it's not salvageable. I did lose everything in my fridge and freezer, probably $200-$300 worth of food, but my chest freezer still had gallon water jugs that were mostly frozen so everything in there should be ok. It was mostly veggies. It sucks but I'm grateful it wasn't a lot worse. Where I used to live got hit hard with flooding. The barrier island with the beaches we go to was absolutely devastated. It's heartbreaking to see the damage. One of my maintenance guys volunteered over the weekend and said all the sand that got pushed in from the surge looked like snow drifts. He helped clean out 7 houses where people lost everything. So, I'm happy that we are all safe and sound. I'm also going to keep a close eye on this next storm to see how it develops. We'll leave a lot sooner and I'll pack my car with anything important if we need to evacuate. In the spring when our lease is up, I'll be looking to move inland. Thanks for checking in. I hope everyone has a good day!🩷

Thanks for the good wishes. Still no power but hopefully today... fingers crossed!

For once I'm thankful that my sense of smell has greatly diminished over the past 10 years. I know I have ground pork and bacon that is most likely gross by now. I wouldn't subject any dog to what's lurking in there.

Update: Still no power. Tampa Electric's website says they're down to just under 18K people in our area and most power should be restored by tonight. At least I have a place to stay that is air conditioned. I'm not looking forward to cleaning our the fridge. At least this happened before I went grocery shopping. I'm still most likely going to lose about $100 worth of food. That sucks. I hope everyone is having a good day

Well, we weathered that one by the skin of our teeth. Decided to evacuate at 10pm last night after the water in the canal we are on started rapidly rising. Our parking lot was half flooded and the one road out of our area to the main stretch was dicey. The highway was fine. Luckily the worst of the winds were past us. We got to my work at 1045ish. Power and wifi were working. I texted my admin to let him know I was there. He offered up the park model next to him as his neighbors said they could use it if they needed. It was hot AF for a few hours until the AC kicked in. It also had a bed, which for me was useless because I didn't sleep more than an hour. I checked online and three million people in Florida without power and we're one of them. I'm hoping the water recedes by this afternoon and we get power back. My husband was supposed to fly up to Mass yesterday and so far his flight had been pushed back twice. All his stuff is at the house. Anyway... I'm tired as all hell and hate being displaced. Fingers crossed we can get home this afternoon. I need coffee.

Get in line!

Sigh. Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe the "cone of uncertainty"? Hubs is scheduled for a flight out of Tampa Thursday morning. Let's hope this storm stays to the west side of the dreaded cone.

Thanks for giving this a go and reading through to the end. It's still difficult to look back on this story. I wasn't in a very good place mentally when I wrote it. Things are better now. My son is still living at home but he has a job and is in therapy. We have neuropsychological testing set up for him in November. He still struggles but is getting better at coping. Getting away from a toxic roommate and drugs and alcohol has made a huge difference.

One day. One hour. One minute. Every second counts. Hugs, my friend. 🩷

Happy Sunday all! I saw this simple bagel recipe that I need to try 1 cup yogurt (any kind) 2 cups self-rising flour Berries (any kind) Mix yogurt and flour then add berries. Form into bagel shapes and brush with an egg wash. Pop into the air fryer at 350 for 20 minutes. In the video I saw they looked just like deli bagels. If you don't have self-rising flour you can make your own by adding add 2 teaspoons of baking powder for each 150g/6oz/1 cup plain flour. I'd make them today but I'm out of berries.

My mom was an avid reader and she took me with her to the library with her pretty much from infancy. You couldn't get a card of your own until you were five. Of course, I had to get mine as soon as my birthday rolled around that summer. They also limited the number of books you could get to five. We were at the library at least once, if not twice a week. I only remember one of the first five books I checked out all by myself using that brand-spanking new paper card with my name written on it in nice, neat cursive. It was The Five Chinese Brothers (there's a theme here I never realized until now 🤭) It was based on a Chinese folk tale about identical brothers each having a special power. The first brother could hold the sea in his mouth and one time he did so to allow a little boy to gather fish. When he gestured for the boy to come back because he couldn't hold the sea much longer, the boy ignored him and drowned when the man was forced to expel the sea. He was accused of murder. He was sentenced to be beheaded and convinced the judge to let him go home to say goodbye to his mother. His brother with an iron neck took his place and couldn't be beheaded. Each time the judge sentenced him he went home to "say goodbye to his mother" and the brothers swapped places. They couldn't drown the brother with the stretchy legs because he stretched them to the bottom of the sea. One was impervious to fire, and the other could hold his breath a long time. When nothing worked the judge said he must be innocent and let him go. No wonder I like reading weird books.

I love this word.

I got the stuff to make them. I'm going to try my hand at baked beans tomorrow after soaking the navy beans overnight. I've got chicken to do something with too. Glad I've got 3 days instead of 2. I'm off to the Y to get some water walking in before our daily afternoon storms roll through. Ankle rehab... here I come! Have a great weekend everyone!

Chili and cornbread should satisfy those bears of yours. 😁

The only thing I might add to the great advice you've gotten is to write a couple of paragraphs in your native Romanian and then translate into English using Google translate. That way you can see side by side how the grammar is structured. Hope that helps. Keep on reading and practicing speaking as often as possible. It will really help.