Hi, I’m fine. Idalia basically missed Central Florida. We had rain that woke me at 4 a.m., a little wind, a little more rain, more wind, etc. etc. We were lucky.
The Gulf coast got BLASTED from bottom to top. I work on a remote team and our day started with roads closed and bridges flooded out down around St. Pete, south of Tampa. Bayshore Blvd. in Tampa was underwater. The storm surge was epic. Then it came ashore up in the Big Bend, and a lot of little beach towns got blasted by both the storm surge and the wind. It was UGLY there, but we’re all fine here. We didn’t even lose any large tree limbs, let alone trees, around here. We have worse weather on a random Wednesday afternoon.
Our moment of Idalia excitement did happen very early this morning. We were up and out a bit earlier, because I did wake up early when one of Idalia’s outer bands pounded my bedroom window so hard I wondered if it was going to hold. It did. But I couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up a bit before 5 and took the dogs out after it passed.
Eddie met a raccoon, sort of. The raccoon was across the street. Eddie saw it and was fascinated! He didn’t erupt in his insanely loud “DOG! I SEE A DOG! THAT’S A DOG!” barking he still does at the sight of any dog, even a quarter mile away, but he did bark and talk softly. (Eddie is a talker, it’s so cute.)
And the raccoon didn’t run away. It went behind a large oak across the street and peeked around at us (seriously, so fucking adorable). Eddie kept talking to it, and the raccoon came out from behind the tree. And started walking toward us.
So, it’s before 6 a.m., it’s dark, it’s wet, I have had no coffee. My phone is in my pocket and I’m holding two leashes, one with a dog who already peed and pooped and would like to go inside thankyouverymuch, and one happy young extrovert who REALLYREALLYREALLYWANTSTOMAKEANEWFRIENDPLEEEZEMOM?
Mom is mean. I dragged him home, glancing over my shoulder as the raccoon crossed the street after us because the attraction was mutual and I was disappointing two cute animals. If only I had a third arm and could have gotten video.
I wish I had pictures of this adorable nature scene, but phone in pocket, one dog wants to meet new friend and the other is hell no, it’s wet out here, so I’m following one and dragging the other. The raccoon stayed back but definitely thinks Eddie is a fascinating new friend.
It didn’t follow us up the stairs. I had visions of a wet raccoon at the door asking if it could hang on the couch with Eddie, because Eddie is cool and the weather sucks, but it had second thoughts. Thank God.
All of this before coffee. But the power stayed on and we’re all fine and I’m SO grateful.
Good to hear from you! Our friend in St. Pete was lucky, flooded streets, rain, wind but no real damage to his property. Raccoons are interesting to watch but interacting with them is quite another thing. We use to have them in Virginia Beach they really did “love” my garden! Take care and of course September is hurricane month.
I keep a healthy distance from raccoons, and now I’ll have to keep an eye out for Eddie’s new friend. He was quite friendly.