Preparations?

What I'm reading: Phantom Prey, by John Sandford


June brings the onset of hurricane season. Having grown up in earthquake country, it took some getting used to watching and tracking the possibility of a calamity.

Earthquakes just show up. In all my years in southern California, I experienced only one earthquake that created any impact on my life, and even that one, due to the orientation of our apartment, didn't do much more than slosh some water out of our aquarium. Then again, we made sure we weren't living directly on a fault line.

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When we moved to Miami, we were careful to avoid low-lying neighborhoods when we finally were able to afford our first house. Many of our friends opted for cheaper housing in newly built communities, but my husband refused to risk living on what was essentially landfill. He looked for areas with pine and palmetto, because those wouldn't survive in salt water, meaning they hadn't been exposed to tidal surges. And once we did buy, we installed Bahama shutters on our windows, and bought aluminum panels to cover sliding glass doors.

I remember our first real hurricane threat – David. Hubby was out of town, so it was up to me (and the 3 kidlets) to get the house ready. As neighbors scrambled to buy plywood, cut it to size, drill holes into their houses, and cover their windows, I merely twisted a few thumbscrews and lowered our shutters. The aluminum panels weren't much more trouble, and by then, hubby was home.


We'd watched and tracked the storm for days, and finally went to bed figuring we'd hear the storm when it made landfall. We didn't live on the coast, so we weren't too worried about flooding, but the lawn chair that the neighbor forgot to secure, or the flying tree branches, or the wind itself were all potential sources of damage.

We awoke the next morning—later than usual because the shutters blocked so much light, but the storm had approached land, then made a hard right and came ashore well north of us. A lot of prep work that technically wasn't necessary.

When we moved to central Florida, hubby decided we were far enough inland and on "high" enough ground not to need the Bahama shutters on the windows. Still, when hurricane season arrives, we make sure we have all the necessary supplies before the storm shows up. How hard is it to have canned food, bottled water, batteries and the other essentials on the lists provided by NOAA, as well as every television news station and newspaper? Why would anyone want to deal with crowded stores and empty shelves at the last minute.

We made it through 2004 when Mother Nature proved she could set a hurricane anywhere she wanted to. Our neighborhood was lucky—again, we were saved by orientation. This time, it was the direction our street faced. Some trees blew down, but around the corner, almost all of them did.

Friends weren't as lucky—they were trapped by fallen trees, unable to get out of their neighborhoods. They lost power, some for almost 2 weeks. We lost some shingles on our roof, and over the course of 4 hurricanes, were only without electricity one day.

All in all—I'll take an earthquake. If something's going to happen, I'd rather it come out of nowhere, do its thing, and then be gone. The anticipation of hurricanes, and all the uncertainty of their paths—not for me. However, like everything else, to a writer, it's fodder, and my Wild Rose Press short story, HURRICANE BREEZE drew upon my experiences.

Do you have a preference? Would you rather deal with an out of the blue disaster, or spend days getting ready, more often than not, for nothing?

Tomorrow, my guest is Helen Woodall, and editor with Ellora's Cave and Cerridwen Press. She's going to take us on a pictorial and culinary tour of Australia. Be sure to stop by.

On the Road, Day 1

What I'm reading: Forever Blue, by Suzanne Brockmann

After three checks to make sure the air conditioner was really off, we headed out, fingers crossed that Fay won't wreak havoc in our neighborhood while we're away. There was no hurry, no pressure. We opted for my car, a Honda Fit Sport, rather than hubby's Toyota pickup. More comfortable, and a heck of a lot better gas mileage. We're hoping we won't have to do too much driving in the rain on the way back, because it's a low-slung little baby, but we've long since learned there's very little point in basing any decisions on weather predictions. Seems that most weather forecasters would be hard-pressed to give accurate reports on yesterday's weather, and hurricane tracks are always full of surprises.

For some reasoning known only to the local school board, they've switched start times for the high schools and middle schools. Something to do with saving money on busing, but I didn't follow the initial story. Seems to my mind, if you have X number of students to transport, the time of day you do it shouldn't matter. Nevertheless, it's a done deal, and that meant that we hit the first day of school traffic backup at the high school. After that, traffic was never an issue, at least not in our direction. We did notice numerous convoys (or caravans?) of utility trucks headed south toward central Florida, to be ready for any storm-related problems. It's nice to see TPTB taking action, and realizing that central Florida is a logical place to stage disaster relief. We hope it's not needed, and they'll be using it as a test.

We rolled into Charleston on schedule, checked into the hotel. Since this is a government sponsored meeting, they had the say in the hotel and the room blocks. No king room, and no desk, only a small round table and two uncomfortable chairs. A dearth of open electrical outlets. I'm working from one of the beds. Tiny bathroom, but we're on different schedules, so that's OK. Points for the free bottles of water, pretzels and chocolate chip cookies. Bonus points for the lighted magnifying mirror in the bathroom, even if there are 3 appliances (hair dryer, mirror & coffee maker) and only 2 outlets. Minus points for absolutely no hooks in the bathroom. So much for my handy-dandy toiletry case that's designed to hang over a hook. No real closet, just a 'wardrobe'. Loud air conditioner that seems to have two choices: meat locker or clammy. And drapes that don't cover the window so the street lights outside shine right into my eyes. I woke up and thought I'd had an amazing night's sleep, looked at the clock and it was 2:33 AM. Shades of Alaska.

Nice view from the bar atop the hotel. We took advantage of their happy hour prices and watched dolphins in the river below. Free bar snacks. Should have had more and skipped dinner, but we didn't. Luckily, we brought our cooler and I saved half my dinner which will be today's lunch. After years spent finagling per-diems to cover expenses for two, I know to bring enough breakfast and snack items, and can usually get by buying only one meal a day.

I slept in, went to the hotel's fitness center, and hung in the lobby while the maid cleaned the room. The Olympics are tuned to the men's triathlon, something I would never have paid attention to until my daughter decided to become a triathlete. But now, it's nearly noon, and time to tackle the WIP.

On the Road Again

Back to the dreaded packing, this time for a 5 day trip. At least we're driving, so none of the airline luggage restrictions. And it's hubby's workshop (it's Kogia workshop, in case anyone's interested, or even knows what that means--points if you do). It's in Charleston, SC, so it'll still be hot & muggy. I'm planning to hole up in the hotel room and try to fill in some newly discovered plot holes. Hoping the hotel television doesn't get too many Olympic channels, or I might succumb to spending too much time watching. But heck, it's only every 4 years. (Don't remind me that the US Open Tennis will pick up right after the Olympics are over--another addiction.)

And, speaking of hubby...I ran into my neighbor yesterday and asked her to have her kids keep an eye on things for us while we're gone: making sure the paper and mail really don't get delivered; check the porch and driveway for deliveries, etc. I mentioned the air-conditioning episode, and she said the air was off, that she turned it on for us Saturday afternoon, thinking we'd be home Saturday night, not Sunday night. Well, hubby had told me they were not getting back from Africa until after we got back, so when the usage details on the thermostat showed usage for both Sunday and Saturday, we could only assume it had been running the entire two weeks, because how else would it have been turned on? And, since hubby couldn't remember turning the a/c off before we left, and admitted if it was on, it was likely his fault, we accepted it. However, they got back before we did, and being wonderful neighbors, took care of things. That explains the much lower electric bill that showed up yesterday. So, here's my public apology: Sorry!

But we both thought the air had been left on. You can be sure we'll both be checking before we leave from now on. With Fay on the horizon, we also have to make sure everything is battened down, and that all important computer data are backed up -- to flash drives or some other system we can take with us. No point in having everything backed up to devices that are in the house. For the most part, we worry more about flying debris than direct hits, although 2004 demonstrated that even though we're far inland, hurricanes will come calling.

If there's a decent Internet connection, I'll continue my normal blog routine next week.