Batten Down the Hatches!

Most of you have been seeing my Facebook posts, so you've seen plenty about our day. But, we're getting closer to the time when I'm just not sure how much access I will have to the internet, and by the time I get it back, I probably will have forgotten most of the pre-storm madness, because I'll have lots of druing-storm madness and post-storm madness to tell you about. 

Our current situation, with the 8pm advisory,  isn't much different than it has been all day. The storm is still projected to come through here and be a Cat 3. That could change, obviously. Again, what we're hoping for is landfall as far south as possible (sorry Naples), and then staying over land to slow the storm. I think we're past the part where we hope for it to just swing off to the west all together, because that's just not going to happen. 

We are, however, under a Hurrican Warning, meaning hurricane winds are expected within the next 36 hours. That happened around 6 this morning. I know that because every phone in the house started making a god awful noise that had me up after sleeping for an hour or two (the 2 am advisory came out just before I intended to go to sleep, and it was sort of terrifying, which made it pretty difficult to sleep). So, I'll be trying to go to sleep soon. I was hoping for a nap, but that never happened. Really, what we've heard over and over again is that we should expect to have the worst of it Sunday night into Monday, so sleep tomorrow night will be very hard to come by. 

Making matters not so great is a cold that seems to be circulating. A few days ago Hayden got sniffly, then Peyton's throat hurt. And last night Asa was complaining that we didn't have nyquil. So, I knew that we'd have to go out one more time this morning to get supplies, because who knows how sick everyone will get, and when the next time we'd even have access to OTC medicine will be. (Holy geez, this storm is getting real expensive and it isn't even here!) 

Asa got up before 9 and we headed out. As soon as we stepped on the front porch, you could feel a sort of tense vibe in the air. Neighbors all around me were busy pulling things inside and making last minute preparations. We took a minute to talk to some of them and see how everyone was doing, it was a lot of nervous tension, but nobody around us had any intention of going to a shelter, or  evacuating (really, that should be left for people in evacuation zones). 

We got in the car and headed to Costco. But it was weird. Except for the sand bagging area at the Rec Center, and a few stores that were open (Publix, Walgreens and Costco), there was nobody on the road.  Those stores were only open a few hours today, though, so by now if you don't have something, you're not getting it. 

About every 5th house in the neighborhoods we passed were boarded up. Gas stations that had gas still had lines, but the roads were pretty clear. The sky was beautiful with whispy white clouds, but they still had an ominous feeling to them. It was slightly breezy, a trend that continued all day. 

Costco was pretty empty too. We were there for things like kleenex, nyquil and airborn. But we did figure it couldn't hurt to pick up more bread, and Gatorade something they still had plenty of. The store was making preparations though, moving all the TVs from the front entrance and wrapping up the checkout lanes they weren't using. There were few employees working (the food counter was closed), but we did score a rotisserie chicken we put in the slow cooker when we got home for dinner tonight. 

We made a stop at Publix too, and we were able to get plenty of ice, silk milk and some fruit that will last awhile. Shout out to Publix and Costco employees for keeping what they could in stock and always being super helpful and friendly! (And shout out to my favorite Publix employees Jen and Kayla who checked in on us to see if they could get us any last minute hard to find items!) 

We hadn't gotten the boys up before we left, because we think the next two nights could be rough for them. But, when I got back I found Hayden without a care in the world, sitting in the hammock in the living room watching TV talking about 'this is the life'. 

There was work to be done, and as tired as I was, I really didn't want to do it. But, we all worked together to pick up anything left in the yard and back patio, and clear out our closet so we would have a safe, interior room to go to tomorrow night. We could all fit in there, but I also have an abnormally large toilet room (which I used to be like 'why in the world is this so big?' and now I'm like 'oh good, another safe interior space!) So we'll probably split up, but we'll have to see how it goes. 

We also filled up some containers with more water. Hopefully we'll have enough warning to fill the bathtub (full of non drinking water), but I didn't want to be caught off guard and not have anything to help flush the toilet. Fun fact: A couple of weeks ago, Asa told the boys he would give them each $5 if the next water bill was $20 cheaper than the last one. (He figured he'd still gain $5 out of it). Since then, they've been obessed with water usage. So now they're all 'the water better go out or you're really running up the water bill, mom!' 

We have our last load of clothes (the stuff we all wore today) about to go in the washer and then everything we have will be clean. I also cut everyone's hair so they would have shorter, cooler haircuts if/when the air conditioning goes out. The plan is to turn it way down tonight and not turn it back up tomorrow and just keep the house as cool as possible, so hopefully it will buy us some time before the inevitable. We also cooked some plain pasta, so we'd have that in a pinch. 

You might notice that headset. Yes, Asa is working from home. The help desk is at Storm Con 4, which he had never seen above a 3 before, meaning you have to work from home if you're coming in. His boss has been in touch and very nice about it all. So, as long as we have electricty, he'll be working. Once it goes out, so does the pay (we've discussed how he's out of vacation days). So that won't be ideal. But, we'll deal with it. Peyton, meanwhile, is soaking in the computer and internet while he still can. 

Delano (our tortoise) was the last thing to come in from the patio. His cage is also out there, but he's like never in it, because he just wanders the screened in area. That's obviously not going to work for the next few days (or depending on how the screen holds up, weeks), so he is safely inside along with his cage. (The cooler is also stocked with drinks, but we're waiting to throw the ice in until tomorrow). 

We've lived in this house for less than a year, and we haven't quite formed relationships with our neighbors like in the old house. Teresa, two doors down has always been very sweet to us (and this hurricane situation is no exception--- she's offered to help keep us fed), but on one side we only really ever talked to them about the fence. (She wanted to make sure she could keep her bushes, so now I'm hoping since she loves them so much, they weather the storm ok!) 

But, we chatted a lot today. Wade grew up here, he's a seasoned hurricane vet. He was giving us tips and tricks. He was boarding up his front window, and offered to use his extra plywood to do ours too, since we had no idea how to even begin with it (stucco is weird). We said to let us know if he had extra, and we'd love to have it for our front window, and then mid-day we all just heard a drilling noise, and there he was putting it up for us. So awesome of him! Our backyard neighbors checked in on us, as did some of our friends. It's a little tough when you don't have family around, but we knew that's what we signed up for when we moved here. People are good to us though. Fun fact: I also live down the street from a guy who grew up down the street from me in Fremont, Ohio. Crazy world, right? We checked in on each other too. 

  

So, back to the windows. All of us agreed the side windows were probably good. (I mean, ours has to be- we don't have anything to cover them up- but we will stay away from them just in case) With the houses so close together in this neighborhood, we're all sort of protecting each other. 

We have a few small worries. In the overall scheme of things, they aren't big deals. But, Asa's papaya tree he's had for years just finally got out of it's pot and into the ground in June is growing fruit. It'd be really sad to see it go now. 

And our back screen has been in rough shape since we moved in. I'd be shocked if it makes it out ok. (I'm just hoping the frame stays in good shape). Calib told me to look on the bright side, I've wanted to replace that screen since we moved in! 

My biggest outside concern, besides anything happening to the roof, is the Fit. We only have room for one car in the garage, and I had to make a judgement call. The Accord runs better, has a realitively new transmission and newish tires. But, the Fit was my dads. It was a head over heart decision there. We parked it as close as we could to the house in an effort to protect it a little. Send good thoughts for this one, please! 

After dinner tonight, we stocked our spaces, with lights and snacks and drinks and games and kleenex and such. (Asa was like 'oh my gosh, I always want a bowl of snacks in the toilet room!' He's weird like that). They are saying tropical storm force winds could begin here around 8 AM, so I don't want to be scrambling. Our safe spaces are good to go in a pinch if need be. 

We had some wind on an off today, but we had a pretty sunset through the clouds. 

We took one last look down the street, and I took some pictures (in case there's need for before and after shots). I am really hoping Land O Lakes and Tampa make it through this as unscathed as possible, not just for obvious reasons, but because I really love my city. Like, I just really, really love it. It's home. 

Tomorrow we're hoping we'll be able to watch some football. Losing power isn't really a matter of if but when. Of course, part of our hurricane prep involved setting our fantasy team rosters. Priorities, you know? And if we can, we're going to try and squeeze in tacos. But tomorrow is a great big play by ear type of day. 

I will keep everyone as updated as I can. Facebook is easy, because everyone can see it at once. We are making sure everything is charged tonight, but there's no guarantee I'll be able to post for the duration of the weather. We really appreciate everyone keeping tabs on us and checking in. 

 Next Up: Hurricane Irma is going to make landfall somewhere. Hope for as far south as possible! 

Prepping for Hurricane Irma

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!