The Tropics

Well we have dodged Hanna and it looks like Ike will be a miss aw well. Of course I would not have been adverse to parts of Ike as we have an audit this week. Oh well. I have spent the last week trying to get us ready for the audit. Hence there are not any pictures of Hanna sitting off our coast this past week.

I counting down the days until my day off. The reward I got this week for the Labor Day weekend was that I not only had to work the entire weekend, I only got one day off and 12-15 hour shifts. Somehow that just feels wrong. I would be fine about working the extra hours and having to work on the holiday except that as a person being paid salary, I do not receive holiday pay or extra pay for the extra effort. I will gripe a lot about working holidays in the next few months since we have Thanksgiving and Christmas coming. Maybe we will win the lottery and I can quit:)

Violin starts up after school for Meghan on Monday. The school system has changed the rules about what grade is allowed to participate in the school program. So now it is limited to 5th and 6th grade so once gain she will be the youngest in the program. She has one more year of being the only kid from her grade in the school strings program. The bad thing in all this is that she will have another year before she can participate in the all county thing sponsored by the school system.

Getting Back to Normal

Things are getting back to normal as the flood waters have subsided on the streets. There is lots of sand in the road where the flooding was the worst. The rivers in the area are still increasing and many are now above "flood stage". School resumes tomorrow for Meghan.

Friday afternoon as the outer bands of Fay moved through, I was struck by how beautiful the sky is in the aftermath of one of these storms. Meghan and I saw a rainbow that went straight down instead of having the classic arc that is normally seen in rainbows. The sky was fill of the grayish white clouds that were part Fay. The cloud cover that these storms create in their wake have a texture to them that is impossible to define. Normal clouds day to day seem almost one dimensional compared to these clouds. As the sun set in the west these clouds created a swirly vision glowing light through the clouds themselves and shades of pink in the areas between the clouds. Unfortunately I did not have a camera with me and my cell phone with the camera met with disaster with another type of water source earlier in the week and was not completely operational at the time. (Better luck next time)

Fay Is Still Here

Meghan woke up this morning and in a very disgusted tone asked why Fay was still here. This is one guest that has most assuredly out stayed her welcome. Fay will not let us forget that while she is not a hurricane, she is still a tropical system and has dumped astronomical amounts of rain. In just under 40 hours we have received close to 20 inches of rain. Much of our area is flooding including our street; however, cabin fever set in so we went out and took pictures to share with all of you. So scroll down and enjoy.



Alan trying to get in his truck to move it so it is not sitting in water.
Our front yard and the street in front of us.

Our street as we returned home this afternoon.

Meghan playing in the water at the foot of our driveway.


This picture is of I-
95 as we went over the overpass this afternoon.

This picture says it all. The first day of school was the 18th and they have had school cancelled now for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

This is the picture of some poor soul's front yard and garage.

Bike riders are a dedicated bunch when it comes their riding. Tropical storms and rain cannot keep them from riding.

A Pounding From Tropical Storm Fay

Fay continues to make her trek through our part of Florida. So far we have not lost power but many streets are flooded around us. Fay has proven to be hard top predict like so many tropical storms. She stalled earlier tonight to our southwest. The prediction on where she will exit the state has changed continually throughout the day. The most recent prediction has her exiting somewhere between us and Vero Beach. Based on current forecasts, she will exit off the east coast and hang out in the Atlantic and be a hurricane sometime tomorrow and then hover off our coast and gather strength before returning to visit Florida again. I hope she does not return to us at for a second time.

Meghan is out of school again tomorrow. Not bad go to school one day and out two. The bad thing is they are using up hurricane days right at the beginning of the school year.

Here Comes Fay

Well Meghan returned to school today but due to Fay churning away in the Gulf, school has been cancelled for tomorrow. What a start to the school year. While as of right now school is only cancelled for tomorrow the chances are high that it will be cancelled for Wednesday as well.

While we actually reside on the opposite side of the state from where Fay is expected to make landfall, we are currently under a tornado watch until sometime tomorrow morning due the part of the storm are expecting.

While we do not look forward to these storms, they have their place in pleasant memories for the time we spend together as a family. Despite the stress of dealing with the preparations and the days without electricity, there is a special feel to those days when the outside world really ceases to be intruding on family time.

Of course, you have not lived until you eat spaghetti that you made on the grill. I was not talented enough in 2004 to make a cake on the grill but one of the people that I work with did.

Hurricane Jeanne 2004

While I enjoy the storms that Mother Nature sends, it does not hurt to remember the fact that she remains a force to be reckoned with as this picture taken 12+ hours after Hurricane Jeanne made landfall in 2004. This is the street we live on - poor dog.

Clouds

Like any place you live there are many great things about the place that make it unique. For me I find the sheer beauty that can be found to awe inspiring. I enjoy the phenomenal sunsets that we see. I understand the sun rises are equally impressive but I am not usually in a good place to witness those. And days off - I am the only truly morning person in this house. The rest of my household thinks mornings are highly overrated and are content to sleep til noon. (anyone that knows my husband well is aware of his penchant for sleeping late. My daughter does not fall that far from the tree. Even the kitten thinks mornings are overrated so needless to say, I see very little of the sun rises. I love the ocean and the way you can feel the different moods of nature by standing on the beach.

This time of year here in "sunny" Florida is not for the faint of heart. ( For the uninitiated, this time of year sunshine tends to be in a liquid form by afternoon) If Mother Nature in all her stormy glory scares you then you might not want to be here. Me - well I find the storms to actually be soothing and awesome to watch. Unless of course that lightening strike is a little too close - I have a healthy respect for the her abilities and power. While I enjoy the storms in all their fury, I can do without another up close experience with hurricanes for a little bit longer.

This of course brings us to the reason for this post and that is to share some pictures of storm clouds that where in the area today when I was at work. They were moving so fast that the most dramatic views had moved before I remembered that I have a camera on my cell phone:) So enjoy the photos and will try to remember to take more as the rainy season progresses here in the "Sunshine" state.

Fires Nearby

For those of you that are aware of where we live, recent reports on the news may have caused you to question what our situation here is. We were about 8 to 10 miles away from the brush fires. The only danger we faced from all this was smoke in the air and the fact that these were arson related and the arsonist was not caught until yesterday. We saw fire trucks from all over Florida as assistance from across the stay poured into our city to help fight these fires. It is sad to see on the news peoples homes burning but it boost your faith in people to see the overwhelming out reach toward these people. To see people assist those in need is mighty powerful thing. Fortunately, none of our friends faced any problems from the fires.

Meghan missed 2 days of school because of the fires. We will see if that has any effect on the last day of school.