not wearing flip flops in irma, just flip flopping

ok, time for one more...last night we packed it all up and stayed at shea's. we got our place as ready as we could... we were up pretty late last night, watching an episode of bloodline (which is so cliche-it's about a family resort in the keys..., but to be fair, we had started watching this way before irma decided to grace us with her presence..), and then we had to catch up on the weather... i slept fine-only woke up a couple times, as i knew it'd be a marathon today.

lots of texts, lots of messages. shea made eggs, bacon and hashbrowns-great breakfast, and then we sat and watched the updates. then at some point in time-i'd say around noon, shea got a text from a concerned friend, who works at IMG, in essence, asking her to come up to the school, because she felt it would be a safer haven than shea's house. so here's the deal, the school is in a voluntary evacuation zone, (which basically means-avoid the ocean surge)...so the kids did not stay, they were evacuated to a shelter, just for liability's sake, even though it is probably the safer place to be, as it is rated for cat 4  hurricane winds. i think at that point there was some uncertainty as to what to do about sheltering, so when they asked her to come, we did the smart thing, and she called her dad to ask for wisdom.

so i switched out of the flip flops and into chacos, and we are now in a classroom at the school, the boys are set up, we have a couple mattresses set up, and they have local cable in the classrooms-so we are able to watch the local updates and emergency center. there are other families in the bldg with animals as well, so the boys are reactive to other noises. hopefully they will chill out.

 the wind has been picking up, it is only 4:18, and the worst is expected to come around 2am-ish (i guess that looks kinda' like amish, and i'd be okay with that if it meant pies and home-baked goods and such)... so it could be a long night. i need to go down with shea to visit the sugar gliders, because one of her friends down the hall has a few, and they are adorable!

the lights and electricity just went out for a minute, but then either they came back up or the generator kicked on...that's a plus of being here. alright, well, i think i'll be signing out so that i can actually get this posted. we may slip next door to help the neighbor dispose of some ice cream momentarily!

shea is documenting, so we are getting a play by play on the evening...that should be interesting and fun-

alright. praying for everyone who is impacted. 

julie

last update before irma...i think.

quick update because i still can. it is was early-ish saturday morning, and we are continuing to get updates on irma. over the past 24 hours, irma continues to move west and as it moved into cuba, it may have weakened for a minute, who knows. that said, it will probably swing up the west coast, if it heads along the current projection, the eye may pass over our area, but by that time the strength will have dwindled a bit. still enough to cause a lot of damage, but much less threatening.

i've been stocking up and preparing for the worst (Kamp-WILD, survival instincts, thanks Hank Harmon!) and i pulled out all of the emergency candles, batteries from every nook and cranny, and the list goes on. i filled ziploc gallon baggies and froze them, filled the tub, for necessary flushing (in the guest bathroom), filled a couple of lined trash cans with water in case that gets shut down (for necessary pot-washing..not 'pot-pot', 'pots-and-pans-pot'.) and after doing all that water-prep, looked out at the pool and thought, 'for the love...i HATE YOU, IRMA!'

that said, i do have a few more last things to do, and then we will settle in over at shea's for the impending doom..(there was talk at one point of going over to the school, but it is actually in a lower zone than we are, so, you do what you do-we'll be more comfortable there anyhoo).where i'm pretty sure there will be some pirate shenanigans (you think i'm joking...if you know us, you realize it's no joke). i purchased the disposable doggie pads, so the boys are taken care of; the only issue will be chaco, and his incessant need to let me know that there is lightning, thunder and random sounds outside. fun.

it's great that miami misses the eye of the storm, but still looking at high winds and surf-this is a relief, because i have several friends/former classmates in that area...they keys still look to receive a beating...one thing that makes me sad is that there are still so many turtle nests, and we will probably lose all of them with this storm. #heartbreaking 

we're hoping to get out to casperson shortly after the storm...maybe the storm will bring up some nice shark teeth...#priorities

i'm a little leery of the towering bamboo trees in my backyard..hopefully they will hold true to the ancient chinese adages and bend in the wind...not snap! yikes. by the time irma hits our area, she's predicted to be around 100-135 mph winds-which equate to between an f-1/f-2 tornado, so we'll be hiding from the wind.

i'd include pics, but i just want to get this posted and finish up some last stuffs.

-ju

i like cats-not cat 5, the less knots the better...i hate irma.

(i don't have time to proof right now, gotta get scallops...i'll update later!)

i hate it that i have to write this post, because i still have so much catching up to do, and that was supposed to be next! bummer.

so, i am writing this post because i just wanted to give a quick little update, and it's difficult to update everyone piecemeal. 

after watching the weather channel so closely and following harvey out of concern for my peeps in houston and one of my friends who JUST moved to galveston (which in the aftermath, it was a blessing that she did)..the devastation is heartbreaking. i'm thankful that for as much damage as there was, the loss of life was minimal (any loss of life is too much, but knowing that it could have been worse...). and while the ugly part of harvey is that it will take years to rebuild and get business back to normal, the genuine interaction of humans caring about humans was beautiful. 

then without batting an eye, the reports were rolling in about the damage that the montana wildfires have wreaked. read more about that here ...

and then irma. good ol' irma...she comes on a little strong-mind of her own...(read into that what you will).  as it was turning into a category 5 hurricane, i was leaving for a training in albuquerque, nm. it was rough. i did not want to leave the boys, not knowing if i'd be able to get back in time. i knew shea would take care of them, but it's still an unnerving time, not being there in person, and knowing i couldn't do a thing about it.  i took pics of the boys tuesday morning as i was leaving...just-in-case. 

julie k. called as i was pulling out, on my way to the airport and i am pretty sure that my voice caught a couple of times or that there was an odd pause, because i was afraid that if i talked, i'd cry. anyhoo, the flights were long, but we did it!

we had to make a quick stop at target, where i called mom and dad to give them the low-down and keep them in the loop, and then we may have driven creatively to get to b.j's for dinner..and by creatively, i'm sure it was legal in some third-world countries...and besides, who cares about the curbs?? i mean, pretty sure the rental car agency reps don't check the axle...but MOSTLY because they don't expect that 4 ladies would be doing back-country driving in the big city..IN A MINI-VAN!!!. (just sayin'-not pointing any fingers-and that's just an artistic observation...perhaps i embellish who knows). but it was great, unfortunately we didn't leave room for pizoukis (sp)...and by the time we got back to the hotel, i think we were all fairly wiped. my stomach had been giving me issues since monday, and i'd taken tums, mylanta, immodium...it just wasn't pretty. 

when monday morning rolled around, i was watching the weather channel, and once again, it is difficult to know how to feel when there are so many unknowns, and the uncertainty in the trajectory. and then there was the knock on the door, the 'starbuks knock' if you will. this hotel didn't have complimentary breakfast, so if we're gonna pay, might as well pay for sous vide egg bites and iced coffee, ya'know?! 

we pulled in at the same time as erik, and then it was time to get down to business! thankfully, we had a great regional facilitator-she had come in and set everything up the night before with a colleague, and it was lovely. having people who go above and beyond-priceless. 

the morning session went off without a hitch and the participants 'got-it'. this was a state-level admin training, and it went really well-there were a couple small technology things, but overall, happy campers! entertaining and informative. i was interacting with one lady in the back of the room and she was so excited about using this and the data that was available to her.  

entertaining and informational

at the very beginning, some point during introductions, when it was mentioned that i was from the tampa area, hurricane, etc, i had a moment...and after the smile and wave, i had to take a second out in the hallway to pull it together- it's the same as when you get hurt, or someone passes away, and you kinda' lose it for a moment if it's focused on, but if you can avert and steer the conversation in a different direction, and all's well. 

i was so grateful when sabrina and ju proposed the idea of leaving early if there was a flight that would get me home. i had this anxiety hanging in the back of my mind that i wouldn't be able to get back on the scheduled flight friday...and if i did that there wouldn't be time to get things prepped. it was completely unexpected, but very much appreciated. i was able to find a flight-nonstop that afternoon. FYI there aren't nonstop flights from ABQ to TPA...this was a special occasion-they had canceled the houston leg and made it a direct, i think in order to get the plane there that evening, because of the demand to get people out. umm...there were 7 passengers. i had a whole section to myself, and they were almost begging me to take snacks. i thought about stashing a bunch to bring back for irma.  

it was a long flight, but i'll take long if it gets me home!

 got home around 9:00-ish, and then drove the 50 min home. i decided to stop at walmart-24-7, and see how picked over it was. found some items that i needed...they were out of water (fortunately i am not afraid to re-use the 2-liter diet coke bottles...and before i left, i had filled about 12 bottles- 24 liters.).so i looked and they did have sparkling water...and guess what happens to sparkling water if you leave the cap off for a few hours...it doesn't sparkle as much and you end up with flavored water...there was plenty of that!

finally got home and to bed around 1-1:30 a.m. and as soon as i woke up this morning, i turned on the weather channel again, because i have been getting lots of questions about what is going on and what am i going to do... and i don't mean to be vague, but...information is coming in real time, provided by irma's intentions:

shea (my kamp friend who lives in the same neighborhood and takes care of the boys) and i are monitoring it pretty closely. we will have a better idea what the track will be as it turns between friday p.m. and saturday. if it heads up the EAST coast, we will just have tropical storm strong winds (up to 45 knots), but not too much rain. We are also keeping informed with the local manatee county emergency center. we are in evac zone D (A-E), and they have only suggested voluntary evac for zone A (the island area and trailer court area by beach and the bay). 

this is where bradenton is-near tampa/st. petes/sarasota...

also with the traffic- crazy as it is with miami evacuating, the emergency center highly recommended NOT evacuating if they have not made the suggestion. fortunately we have a place just around the corner literally less than a minute away, and their bldgs are CAT 4-rated, so if need be, we could go there, and they allow dogs for shelter-type situations, so i feel pretty comfortable with that; and they have a stockpile of water and food as well. 

the only issue may be electricity. i know it's a sketchy issue with florida energy, especially if we get a lot of wind impact. i'm not sure if there are generators or not, so internet may be an issue...time will tell​. as i said, we will have more information by saturday morning, i'm fairly sure. so i will do my best to keep the information flowing...

and so, that's what it is. 

irma...why ya' gotta be such a jerk? so freakin' unpredictable and last minute...0 respect.

everywhere she goes, irma's like, "got my eye on you!" HA! 

prayers for the islands, puerto rico, florida, houston, tx, montana...india..oh..humanity in general. 

julie