It's a good time to go on a diet.....I might just grow fins instead.
Central Florida is in full panic mode. For many years, lots of people have been ho-hum about a hurricane supposedly coming. Lay in a jug of water, maybe some canned soup but no biggee. I'll admit I've been one of them for years. I remember my first hurricane after I moved here in 1978. Among other things, I bought 20 cans of Spam. Why? HURRICANE COMING!!! END OF THE WORLD!!!! BUY SPAM!!! LOTS OF SPAM!!!!
The Spousal Equivalent just headed up to Wally Mart and Home Depot to try to get some water and plastic drop cloths. I'll bet there won't be hide nor tail of either. He carries and I made him promise he wouldn't draw on anyone trying to take the last jug of water from him - lol. The TV just showed a big warehouse store in Jacksonville with lines from the back of the store to the cash registers and they're not letting people in until a lot of people leave. Yesterday we passed a line of cars at least three blocks long waiting to get into a Costco.
It's always a crap shoot on whether to prepare like hell, prepare like heck or prepare very little. If you prepare like hell and nothing happens, you're stuck with 20 cans of Spam you'll never eat and ten years worth of candles. We're not boarding the windows. I will fill up my huge municipal wheeled garbage can with water to use for flushing the toilet. At the last minute, I'll fill up every container in the house with drinking water. My walk-in closet is the safest place in the house with no exterior walls, so I'll clear the floor and throw some pillows in there in case we have to hunker down. We have a small grill and some charcoal. Having just come back from North Carolina, there's not much in the refrigerator and freezer to spoil, so that's good.
And then there's always the "moral dilemma". Dear Lord, don't let it hit us.....but if it doesn't hit us, it'll hit someone else. Should I pray for that? I have no animosity toward the Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, New York, Massachusetts coasts or Texas, Louisiana, Alabama. I wouldn't want it to hit them, either. I guess the only thing I can pray for is that Irma decides for some reason to make a U-turn and head back out to sea but that's not likely. We could use some help on that.....any who pray out there, get to work please.
Update: S.E. just called from Wally Mart. Snagged a couple of tarps but still no water. Tuna has been wiped out, Chunky Soup has been decimated, no canned meats left. Said there was a woman sobbing in the aisle. I think Harvey has scared a bunch of people very badly. This is also a somewhat low-income Wally Mart, also, so that may have a lot to do with it.....people who don't think they have the money to get prepared.