Really, Ian??

The last time we got clobbered by a bad hurricane, it’s name was Irma. My neighborhood had no power for six days, and we were definitely among the lucky ones. It was bad. I do not want to do that shit again, but it looks like we might. Still hard to tell how bad the winds will be, but it sounds like we will definitely get a metric shit-ton of rain (an official term here) from this SOB.

Many, many inches of rain falling on already saturated ground can be a big effing deal. We’ve had a ton of rain this summer, and even though FL is basically a giant sanitary pad made of sand and can absorb inches of water in a single storm, even our sandy soil has had enough. So, when that happens it doesn’t take a lot of wind to bring down trees, just sustained wind for many hours on trees already sitting in wet sand, and when trees come down so do power lines, and…so. Yeah.

We shall see. Tomorrow I’ll get gas and water and storm snacks (and a couple extra bottles of wine, probably). Ellie and Gidget are all set, I have food and treats and potty pads and tons of cat litter. I am not so set. I have a haircut appt Monday evening, but I don’t think Gidget’s Wednesday salon trip will be happening.

I’m hoping this shifts a bit westward and moves on outta here before our expensive MNSSHP on Friday night. Right now the forecast shows we may still be getting storms from the trailing end of the system. So, along with whether my employer will need me for storm duty after the storm passes, whether we’ll get hit badly, lose power, lose trees, etc. etc., I’ve spent hundreds of non-refundable dollars on a party that I carefully selected for later in the season, hoping to dodge the daily bad weather. Yeah, this is just awesome. If it’s so bad they have to cancel the party that will be a shame, but Disney generally keeps rolling through stormy weather if it’s not actually hurricane-ing over their heads, so the event will probably go on, and it’s paid for, and we will be there.

I’m rooting for Ian to go west (GO WEST, YOUNG MAN!) and lose strength before landfall somewhere less populated than one of our major cities. Not that I’m wishing ill on any other part of the country, but the smaller coastal communities up toward the panhandle have a lot more practice at dealing with a hit than, say, Tampa, where a whole lot of apartment dwellers and businesses and all that will be in panic mode and not prepared for a week or so without power.

But tomorrow will be preparation day. Experience has taught me that in addition to assembling food, water, snacks and entertainment, it’s crucial to try to collect as much cat hair off every surface as you possibly can, because when you’re sitting in the sweaty dark on day three suddenly every cat hair in the house adheres to your skin, compounding the misery. Do ALL the laundry, dust all the things, vacuum everything in sight, and then, We Wait.