Floridopers: The Wilma Watch Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
141

There’s the understatement of ther year (well…for the greater Tampa area, at least. Other parts of the state certainly had their climaxes.)

Here I was, all set to live through my first hurricane, and it turns out to be no more intensive than a typical north east storm with just a tad higher winds.

But on al unrealted note, this hotel’s alarm clocks sucks ass. Both me and another one of the guys I am taking some training with both slept in late because we thought they were on, but not. He was smart enough to have a ake up call backup…I was not. Also, throw in the HORRIBLE directions the company gave me, and I was thrity minutes late. Here’s a hint for them in the future: Always include the DISTANCE one has to drive, not just direction and street names. Especialyl when the street signs aren’t easy to see and that little business park sign I am looking for is half hidden by a tree.

142

You know, it’s downright cold now! Ivylad loves it, so he’s got all the damn windows open, and I’m sitting here typing with numb fingers.

Yes, dammit, 58 degrees is cold!

143

Monstro and any South Florida Dopers, please check in here when you can so we don’t worry about you.

You should have asked me or Bambi for directions.

144

Indeed. Shibb works in that park, and I live basically across the street. Any other directions you need, and I’ll be happy to help.

145

Whoa… weird being back here…

Pardon the middleman, but my sister, *ladybug has asked that I post on her behalf and alert you all to her status.

She’s safe and all. She e-mailed me from work. Her apartment is currently without power, water and phone. But she’s-ah okay. XD

Needless to say, there will be much AFKage from my spotted, sex-legged sibling.

billows cape “…and away!”

~TAFKAPB~
The Artists Formerly Known As Pollo Boyo
“Those who forget Mister Gobles are doomed to repeate it.”

146

I can’t wait for her to explain this bit. But goods news that you’re okay, Ladybug!

147

Hope you’re the kind of brother she can thwap upside the head for that one.

Hope she gets back up and running soon, on all sex of her legs.

148

but what the heck:

You Know You Live in Florida When…

1.You have FEMA"S number on your speed dialer.

2.You have more than 300 “C” and “D” batteries in your kitchen drawer.

3.Your pantry contains more than 20 cans of Spaghetti O’s.

4.You are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood
covering your windows.

5.When describing your house to a prospective buyer, you say it has three
bedrooms, two baths and one safe-room.

6.You are on a first-name basis with the cashier at Home Depot.

7.You are delighted that your patio furniture looks better on the bottom of
the pool.

8.You own more than three large coolers.

9.You can wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the
least bit guilty about it.

10.You have 2-liter coke bottles and milk jugs filled with water in
your freezer.

11.Two years ago you couldn’t hang a shower curtain but, today you can
assemble a portable generator by candlelight.

12.You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner’s
insurance policy.

13.You have had tuna fish more than 5 days in a row.

14.There is a roll of tar paper in your garage.

15.You can rattle off the names of three or more meteorologists who work at
the Weather Channel.

16.A battery powered TV is considered a home entertainment center.

17.You don’t worry about relatives wanting to visit during the summer.

18.Having a tree in your living room does not necessarily mean it’s
Christmas.

19.You know the difference between the “good side” of a storm and the “bad
side”.

20.You go to work early and stay late just to enjoy the air
conditioning.

21.Your bathtubs are always filled with water.

22.You only drink boiled water.

23.Your mailbox spends more time in your garage than on it’s post.

Feel free to add more.

149

  1. Your Firefox “personal toolbar” has at least 5 links to weather blogs.

  2. You can tell which meteorologist is writing the NHC discussions based on their writing style.

…and finally,

  1. if it’s 60 degrees out and you’re wearing a sweater!
    BTW, for anyone who is curious about my parents’ house in Marathon, we’ve heard it got some water (don’t know how much yet, but obviously any is bad) and some palm fronds blew off the tiki hut. Our house is on the ocean side though, so the surge washed over the other side. The airport is on the bay side, however, and that’s where the mini-van is. We’ve heard it had water up to the steering wheel! This was reported by our neighbors down there, who are conchs, and pretty tough people. I’m not a pessimist, but I figure it’s gotta be worse than a few downed palm fronds! Of course, I guess Dennis & Katrina took care of the weaker trees/structures.
150

Their house has an airport? Cool.

151
  1. You wince everytime you hear “hunker down”.
152

You don’t have to live anywhere near Florida to wince every time you hear that expression…

153

Checking in from Boca. I’m at work, where we’re on generator power, with telephones and coffee and everything!
Things are shattered here – just shattered. Concrete power-pole snapped. Enormous trees down, along with everything in their paths. Wires and cables of uncertain nature draped across roads and sidewalks. Most glass-paneled buildings now look like a blinded Argus.
At least the stars are real purty at night. And, apparently, we’ll have 'til about November 8th to look at them!

154

Shibb, you’re so silly. No, their house doesn’t have an airport. There’s an airport in Marathon though, about half a mile down US1 and across the street from where their house is. Pops is a pilot though, so he flies into that airport. It’s a notch down from having the airport in their backyard, but it’s still quite handy. :wink:

155

Wow. When TAFKAPB told me he made “a really bad typo” in his post, he wasn’t kidding! :smiley: That’s one way to get noticed on this board.

I got my power back just after 11 last night. I was sleeping at the time, and only realized it when I heard the “WHOOOOOOOOOOO!!” shouted from my neighbors’ apartments. Just four hours earlier we’d heard that about half of the people in Palm Beach County will be without power until at least Nov. 8, so we had reason to celebrate. :slight_smile: Many of my coworkers are still without power. Fortunately our office is up and running and has showers available.

Actually, being without water was worse than being without power. Some of my neighbors had to take buckets of water from a nearby pond to flush their toilets (I thought ahead for that possibility and filled my bathtub the night before, thank Og). We’re under a boil water alert until we hear otherwise.

One major problem right now is the lack of gas. Even though the stations have fuel, they don’t have electricity for the pumps. I can get back and forth to work for the next week, but if the power doesn’t come back before then I’m in for a long walk.

156

The stars have been gorgeous the last few nights, haven’t they? That was one of the few upsides of the power outage – I don’t think I would have seen them with all the lights in my parking lot.

I’ve heard that conditions are really bad in south PBC right now. Stay safe, and be extra careful on the roads! Most people are treating the intersections as four-way stops, but a few idiots are just driving right through.

157

I was amazed last year and am amazed again this year at just how successful the whole four-way-stop situation seems to work, even with the handful of jerks thrown into the mix. Even at major intersections, where you have three straight lanes and 2 turn lanes in all directions, there’s no major snarls.
Ladybug, you’re up in northern Palm Beach County? Congrats on your power on-age!

158

Glad to hear you’re up and running again. I wonder how many of those estimates are Star Trek-engineering-exaggerations-so-you-can-look-like-a-miracle-worker estimates?

Gov Bush was a bit ticked that South Floridians were not more prepared. He did take blame for not getting FEMA supplies down in 24 hours like he said he would, but I wonder how many people were goofing off instead of stocking up on food and water for three days, like was recommended? Yes, I know everyone was not able to, but if enough able-bodied people had stocked up, wouldn’t there be more help available to the elderly and disabled? What’s your sense down there?

159

They keep insisting that those date ranges are worst-case scenarios, but when you see the wholesale destruction, it seems highly probable.

I’ll admit it: this thing caught us flat-footed. In an earlier post, I noted that my wife was freaking out; to humor her, I did the whole stocking-up thing, and boy am I glad I did now! The general consensus was that the west coast and the Keys were going to be much worse off – think back to the lead up to it, if you were watching the Weather Channel: how many of those broadcasts came from the East Coast? It does amaze me that some people made absolutely no preparations, but in the end, even if everyone had packed their freezers full of ice, it would have only lasted x amount of time anyway, and then we’d be looking for more.
And don’t get me started on the gas lines …

160

They showed projections of this thing heading across the state. Your wife is a smart lady. I sympathize about the gas lines…pain in the ass when there’s no electricity.

No signs of looting?