What is up with all of these crazy storms? I find it odd that people are tweeting and facebooking to tell the world they are in the path of a tornado. Put the laptop down and take cover crazy people! But then again maybe they are hiding in their closet with their smart phone with nothing else to do. Who am I to judge? I just hope everyone is safe and sound after the madness.
I seriously hope to never see a tornado…ever. But I have been through 3 hurricanes…all in a 4 week period. It all started in August 2004. We were living in a condo in downtown Orlando. Charlie was the first one. Charlie was never meant to hit Orlando. I think it was sometime around 3 or 4pm that day that he switched his path and decided to come straight at us. I think he arrived around 8pm. I remember watching the local CBS reporter live somewhere south where it first made landfall. The roof of a building blew off and hit the poor guy in the face. He was bleeding everywhere. But he kept on reporting. It was awesome. We emailed him to tell him that. I think he even responded to thank us…after the storm of course. All of the sudden you could hear the wind. The trees were swaying to the point they were literally laying on the ground. The glass in the windows actually bent inwards from the wind. I am still surprised they did not break. I have never seen glass bend like that. You could see a blue flash of light every 30 seconds. Those were power line snapping and those little boxes popping. Every few minutes you would hear a loud thump and the ground would shake. That was trees falling. Charlie only lasted about an hour. We actually went outside when the eye was over us. You could not see the roads or sidewalks because of all the trees. We had to climb over trees and downed, live power lines just to cross the street. We were really smart back then…can’t you tell. The house across the street had a huge oak tree right in the middle of it. We walked across the street to a little lake. I remember hearing a duck crying. It was the strangest, saddest thing. We could not find him. I like to think he survived and was maybe just calling out to his babies. We did not attempt to drive anywhere because it was dark. But the next day we dug Dave’s car (this was in pre-porsche times) out from under the trees and headed to 7/11 for ice. Little did we know we would be without power for 2 weeks…in August…in Florida. The awning that covered the gas pumps at 7/11 was lying on it’s side. Somehow we managed to find ice and gas. Later that night we had tickets the Orlando Improv to see Bobcat Goldthwait. We nearly died laughing. He was there during the storm in his hotel. And he went on and on about how the only people who stay in hotels during a hurricane are people who live in trailer parks. It was hilarious.
2 weeks later just after we got power Francis arrived. She lasted 3 days…3 days of hurricane force winds. She also hit on a Friday night. Dave was supposed to leave that Friday for Sweeden. They pushed it to Sunday because of the storm. The damage was not so bad with this one and thank goodness we never lost power. But it was enough to make us stay home all weekend. I think it was Monday before the airport was open. Dave finally got out of Orlando. But his first layover was in Atlanta. Francis was now a tropical storm…lingering over Atlanta. So he got stuck there for another day in the same storm. He eventually made it to Paris. And somehow got stuck there for a day too. He made it to Sweeden on his last day of schedule events.
2 weeks later Dave was on his way home from Denver. Irene was approaching. So I asked him to buy some battery operated fans in case we lost power again. Would you believe someone stole one out of his suitcase! Irene was a lot like Francis. She lasted a few days but did not do too much damage.
That was enough hurricanes to last me a lifetime. Since we bought our house 7 years ago we have had no major storms. Goodness knows I would be a nervous wreck thinking about my Pottery Barn furniture blowing into the pool. The silly reporters on tv say the pool is the safest place to put patio furniture in a hurricane. My teak wood furniture disagrees. And so does my pool for that matter.
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