Riding the Storm Out

42 Replies

We were hit by Tropical Storm Eta yesterday evening. I once heard that there is an old Indian legend that says there is something under the ground in the Pinellas County, Florida area that repels hurricanes. Indeed, we have never had a direct hit by a hurricane but maybe a tropical storm doesn’t qualify. I’m not sure where the center of the storm hit but I know it was north of us, perhaps in the next county, preserving the legend. In either case, it was pretty windy for a long time.

We have a a large oak tree next to our house and I think the wind was causing branches to fall on our roof so every couple of minutes we would hear a loud bang. Frankie and Floki were not exactly scared but the noise did seem to cause them concern.

Chris, on the other hand, was sleeping in the Florida room, totally oblivious to the noise. I wanted to get a photo of him napping but I made the mistake of turning the light on and woke him up

We decided to go to bed at around 10 p.m. That is when our power went out. Rose insisted we leave the bedroom door open for air circulation even though Chris is a pain in the butt.

He was actually not too bad at first but then fighting off his attacks became too much and I had to put him down off the bed. He, of course, didn’t stay down and by 1 a.m. I couldn’t take it anymore.

I got up and got the power inverter that I bought for last year’s hurricane season and plugged in one of my Ryobi 40 volt batteries. I then plugged in a fan and brought it into the bedroom and closed the cats out.

That worked good but by 4 a.m. the battery had died and we were both uncomfortably hot so I plugged in my other battery but by then we couldn’t go back to sleep.

We got up and I tried making coffee but it was too much for the battery so I ended up going to Dunkin Donuts for coffee after they opened.

We are now in the car heading to Lakeland where Rose has a property that she oversees. I assume our power will be back by the time we return but just in case I brought my batteries with to charge.

Update: I was wrong and the storm did not make landfall near me. It looks like it moved north along the coast and then made landfall 100 miles away as the state curves to the west.

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42 thoughts on “Riding the Storm Out”

  1. onespoiledcat

    Hope when you get home you have power back……..and that you didn’t have any damage from those branches falling. Stay safe! Also have been hoping that your financing, etc. on new house is going FINE this time……..

    Pam

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    1. Charles Huss Post author

      Thanks, Pam. I need to get a ladder and look on the roof when it stops raining. Hopefully everything is okay. As far as the financing, we are still having problems and I think it is directly related to the incompetency of the people working on it. Hopefully somebody with some intelligence will look at it.

      Reply ↓
  4. kittiesblue

    It has been raining here almost non-stop for over 24 hours…same storm! Thankfully we rarely lose power. We had a 100+ year old oak tree in our front yard and several years ago a 60-mile-per-our wind split it and it came down on the powers lines and smashed the car across the street. Hope all is well when you return home! Be careful driving on little sleep, especially if it is windy and rainy. XOCK, angel Lily Olivia, angel Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, angel Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo, Cooper Murphy and Sawyer

    Reply ↓
    1. Charles Huss Post author

      Thank you. I think they said a falling tree is responsible for our outage but Rose called them at 6:00 a.m. and 8 hours after the power went out they still had no crews out there. Apparently there is a lot of outages all over the area. I didn’t realize you were that close. What area do you live in?

      Reply ↓
  6. foguth

    Meowser dear furiends, we, too, were pelted by Eta’s wind and rain… ( We live due East of you about 3 miles before you’d end up in the Atlantic)… We, too, have an oak tree… we think the bangs we heard were acorns the squirrels overlooked…. I’m thinking my peace treaty with those acorn bandits is a good thing because I can’t imagine what it would have sounded like if they hadn’t hauled off most of the projectiles!
    Purrseidon

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  7. loisajay

    My area (FL Panhandle) was in Eta’s cone of uncertainty one day and the next, she was headed your way. Oh, those branches that hit the roof–they always make me cringe. Hope not too much damage.

    Reply ↓
  10. Catwoods

    Hopefully your power will be back on soon! I’m glad it wasn’t worse in your area, but even being on the outer edges of those storms can be such a nuisance.

    Reply ↓
      1. iamthesunking

        I reckon Chris would more likely sing Pretender by The Foo Fighters: “What if I say I’m not like the others … 🎶 “

        Reply ↓

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