So, it's finally happening, our first real hurricane as Floridians. Sure we've had a tropical storm here and there, or a cat one hurricane that skirts us and we hardly get anything. There was that time we got to play tropical storm slip n slide , and that time we got days of rain with Debbie way back in 2012. But this one is different. First of all, for most of the last week, Tampa was pretty much in the clear. Models kept shifting east, keeping the storm just off the east coast of Florida, and our impact pretty minimal. But, then they started shifting back west. And while we still won't even get the worst of it, the more it shifts west, the greater our impact will be. (Sidenote: as I was writing this, the 5 pm update shifted it west yet again. What we don't want to happen is that it shifts west enough that it stays out in the warm gulf waters until it hits Tampa.)
In the meantime, it's been sort of bananas here in the Tampa Bay Area.
Our first indication something was amiss was Tuesday. Calib had told me we were out of bottled water (something I normally keep stocked pretty well), and asked if we could go to Costco to get some. He actually asked me a few days prior and I put it off, so that turned out to be a mistake. I wasn't watching the storm real close, and missed the part where our area went from 'just keep an eye out' to 'holy crap, buy up all the water.' We got to Costco Tuesday, and there were tons of cars and zero carts. Now, I know that on a random Tuesday that's just weird. And by the time we made it to the entrance, they were announcing 'we're out of water.' On our way home, we decided to stop at Publix for lemonade and water since it was BOGO, and it was more of the same. The shelves had been cleared. People even bought up most of the diet tonic water.
I figured there was no sense worrying about it, and put a plan in action to start saving empty bottles and jugs to fill if we needed to. I mean, we have that fancy water softener and filter, so our tap water is just as good. We went down to the pool, and found zero people and all the umbrellas gone from the tables at the pool. It was really weird. Places were either packed, or total ghost towns.
Wednesday we planned on going to Disney. We had just gotten our fancy new Magic Bands in the mail! (Thanks for another year of Disney Magic, Mom!)
Asa and I went last week just to renew the passes. It requires a trip to Disney Springs, since we renew with AAA and it's always more complicated than it has to be. The boys never want to come for this not-so-fun trip, so we made the best of it and had a mini lunch crawl. We split a burger at D-Lux Burger and shared some cold noodles at the Morimoto Asia Street Food window.
Oh, and we finally tried the orange blossom honey cake at the Polite Pig. This thing was amazing. The after taste with the sweet honey and the tang of the orange is amazing. But, nobody can ever, nor should ever eat this thing by themselves. It's DENSE. We didn't even finish it. But, we did decide it would be great for the 5 of us to split one piece.
While I'm on other non-related hurricane events, Calib got his bottom braces on last week, and Hayden felt this was cause for celebration on the chalk board.
And, since Adventure Island (Busch Garden's water park), closes during the weekdays after Labor Day, we got one more trip in. It was glorious. There was nobody there, and the lazy river was practically empty! I sure hope my amusement parks fair well in all of this, they are all closed tomorrow afternoon through Tuesday. If Disney is closed, that's a pretty big deal.
Ok, so back to it, Disney on Wednesday, but then we heard about how terrible traffic was, and about the gas shortages in Tampa. I had more than half a tank, but we weren't sure if Asa would need it to go into the office or not, and I figured it wasn't wise to use it unless I had to. That meant we had to figure out dinner, since we had planned to be out and about. We decided something easy: quesadillas, and went to the store to try and get some cheese and sour cream. That's when we noticed not only was all the water gone, but a whole slew of canned goods had flown off the shelves over night. But, side note: nobody wants creamed corn or canned spaghetti.
Thursday was payday for us, and all I wanted to do was my usual grocery trips. Meal planning has been a bit of a struggle for this next week. We can't plan on having electricity and I don't want to spend money on meals that just might go to waste. All I wanted to do was make sure we had the stuff for a couple of countries leading up to the storm, and something for Sunday Football if we should be so lucky to still be able to watch the game. But, even that stuff was difficult to find. If you wanted 5 grain gluten free bread, you were in luck though!
And then there was gas. Even though we had some, I figured it couldn't hurt to fill up if we went past a gas station with gas. A lot of them were out (they just say 0.00 on the sign if they are), but Racetrack on 54 had some, or so we thought. We waited in line, only for them to run out. Asa was annoyed (just look at his face!)
I suggested we regroup, so we went to lunch at Culver's before heading over to Costco. And Costco was a godsend. We picked up almost everything we could need. We even hit it just right to get bottled water! It was going fast, though. We picked up the essentials, including some run, vodka and sangria to get us through this mess.
Asa also had been planning on a new pair of shoes on payday, so we stopped by the outlet mall. Things were open, but all the outdoor furniture was gone, and some stores had started with the sandbags. Asa got his shoes, and I got some cookie dough (because in a hurricane you need cookie dough!)
In our neighborhood, we have a roundabout that's a pretty popular deer hang-out spot. When we came back from Costco there were nine of them- in the middle of the day! That's super unusual (I feel so bad for them with the storm coming!)
Last night, around 10 pm, we were watching football (because football is back! whoooo!) when Calib started talking about the stick/log pile we still had in the backyard from when we took out a ton of stuff for the fence to be put in. It was then that I realized the last pick up day before the hurricane would be this morning, so we had to get it bundled up and get it out of there. Calib and Asa decided to wait until after the game. I mean, it was already dark, so whatever. But then, it started pouring down rain. They powered through and it was all picked up this morning. I just documented the event. (If Calib looks freaked out with the bag, it's because he was convinced there was a snake in the pile).
This morning the track hadn't shifted much, but we figured we needed to start bringing in everything from outside. We were supposed to get storms in the afternoon/evening (though not hurricane related- it's pouring rain now as I type, so they were spot on about that), so we wanted to get it all in before it got went. The boys, however, are very concerned about the random cat that wanders the neighborhood and likes to sleep on our porch. We'll see what happens, we might have to find a safe spot for Herman.
But in the meantime, we had to bring everything in. My hammock stand probably would be ok outside. It's pretty heavy. But, I was taking no chances. I got the thing like a month ago, so Calib and Asa brought it in for me.
Luckily, we have a huge living room, so my 17 foot hammock stand fit just fine in there. We put a beach towel down, because even though we cleaned it up the bottom was dirty from being in the grass. Hayden is super excited about the prospect of watching tv in the hammock. (He was so excited about it, days ago when we started talking about it, he made his own hammock in the livingroom out of the bungee chairs.)
Things are kind of all out of place and all over the house. Asa decided he wanted to ride bikes down to the lodge on his break. I said there was no way he was getting the bikes out of the garage. He took it as a challenge, and next thing I knew there were bikes in my kitchen.
The lodge is pretty shut down. All the furniture is piled up together. The pool is closed. All the shades and curtains are drawn, and even the swings are zip tied to the poles of the swingsets.
Now, everyone keeps saying we should be more concerned with the wind, and less than the rain. But currently, weather underground has us predicted for 6 inches of rain on Sunday/Monday, and our retention ponds are really high. Even the lake is higher than I had ever seen it. (The left is a picture I took a couple weeks ago, the right is today).
Our new house isn't on a pond, so hopefully it won't be an issue. The closest one is a few houses down and on the other side of the street. Fingers crossed.
But, we are prepared. We don't live in an evacuation zone, so we'll be staying put. (They have ordered lots of other evacuations around Tampa, though). We've got lots of water and food ready to go if need be. (I feel like I have to keep telling the kids they can't have 'hurricane snacks' and 'hurricane drinks' like Gatorade until the actually hurricane.)
We're also freezing jugs of water, and we've got lots of candles, lanterns, headlamps and such ready to go. My cousin, Erin, lives in Houston and had just been through this, so she was messaging me giving me tips last night. I appreciate it, Erin, so thanks!
The pets are all prepared too. Porkchop's thunder jacket is in the washer (as is all our laundry, so that if we lose power for days at least all our clothes will be clean!), and Ellie just got her new bag of rawhides delivered. Fun fact: Costco stopped selling them at their stores, so she hadn't had any in awhile. As soon as it arrived, Asa opened the box, she heard the noise of the bag, and she knew what was going on. Ellie sure loves her rawhides (and they help her a lot when she's stressed!)
We did pick up lots of library books, and we have board games and card games on stand by if we lose power, including the 'Journey of Dragdar' a game Hayden spent days making in case it was needed.
We're hoping Sunday we'll get to watch football. Right now they are saying the worst for us will be Sunday overnight. If it works out, we're hoping to have a taco bar (that stuff was easy to come by- except for the chips and queso) for the first Sunday of the NFL Season. Unfortunately, we won't be watching the Bucs, as thanks to the hurricane we have to wait another week to see them. (They were supposed to play in Miami). If we don't get our tacos because of a lack of power, at least we had them last Saturday for the first day of college football.
Most things are closed here through Monday. Calib's Monday night class has already been cancelled, and Asa gets to work from home for the duration. I'm not sure what happens if we lose power there. Fingers crossed. Either way, we'll be ok. Even with the 5pm shift, it's still only projected to be a cat 1 or 2 by the time it gets here. I'm sorry southern Florida, but it would be ideal if it spent the maximum amount of time on land before it got to Tampa. That really determines how strong it will be when it gets here. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly rattled by all of this. But, everyone is doing good here and I'll try and keep you guys all updated. I appreciate everyone's concern and good thoughts sent our way.
Up Next: Weathering the Storm!
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