Here is a post from 2016. Spoiler alert: It turned out Chris was innocent.
Throwback Thursday: A New Level of Badness
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Caught on Camera
I am writing this post from Kennebunkport Maine. We spent three nights on Plum Island in Massachusetts and we arrived here a few hours ago.
I have three Blink cameras at my house. One is in the living room, one is in the cat’s room, and the third is a doorbell outside. I learned our power went off Wednesday evening because I checked my cameras to see how our house was doing and they were offline.
The power came back on Saturday evening so I was able to check to see how our cats were doing. It seems like they are both doing okay but yesterday my phone kept notifying me that there was movement on my living room camera. Frankie walked by the living room camera 33 times in 59 minutes. He really gets antsy sometimes. Here is a screenshot of one of those times.
He did a lot of pacing today as well but not as bad as yesterday. I feel bad that I am not there to take him for a walk to relieve some of his energy.
Surveying the Damage
As most of know, we evacuated before Hurricane Milton to a hotel thirty miles north. The cats were not happy about it but they also accepted it quite well. Frankie had a nice window to look out of before and after the storm.
He even watched some television.
There wasn’t much to do so I decided to start writing my next book in the Last Healer Mysteries series.
I just finished my latest novella called “Saving Apollo,” which is about a genetically engineered dog who can understand plain English. He escapes and befriends a 12-year-old boy. It is my first family friendly story. I received the art from the artist but I haven’t been able to work on it yet
I was watching our house using my Blink cameras but they were offline when I checked around 5:30 Wednesday afternoon. Our power at the hotel went out just after 8 p.m. and the hurricane made landfall around Sarasota at 8:30.
Rose was watching the track closely. It started out hitting exactly where we live. It then slowly shifted south and then north and then south again.
Sarasota is less than 40 miles south of our house but that 40 miles makes a world of difference in a hurricane. We were happy to see that but, of course, we were sad for the people in its direct path.
The next morning the border to Pinellas county was closed so we had to wait for them to open the roads before we left. If we didn’t have cats to worry about we would have left and waited at the border. We didn’t have to wait too long before it was okay to leave.
When we got home we were stopped by a fallen tree that was behind our next door neighbor’s house.
The tree barely nicked the corner of the house behind our neighbor. Talk about luck.
Our home was undamaged except a downspout broke off and a window in the cats’ room blew out but it was undamaged and I put it back in the door.
I took Frankie for a walk because he was eager to get outside.
There was plenty for Frankie to investigate. Our back yard was filled with branches.
Later, Rose and I drove around the neighborhood. Many people suffered bad damage. Much more than the last hurricane. Here are just a few examples.
I’m writing this from the airport. We are flying to Boston and will travel up the coast to Maine for our 25th anniversary. Our power is still out but the cats will be okay. Our neighbor will take care of them.
Fleeing Hurricane Milton
I was on the beaches for my job yesterday and even though I knew the beaches were devastated from just getting hit by a glancing blow from Helene., it was still a shock to look down every street and see piles and piles of debris.
We maintain aquariums for two restaurants on the beach. This is one of them.
They were cleaning up from the storm surge entering their building. The other restaurant was also flooded. I felt bad for them knowing the next storm could potentially be twice as bad.
My wife managed to get us a room at the Hampton Inn in New Port Richey, almost 30 miles to the north of us.
The trip up here was not good for Frankie. The cats were stuck in their carriers for the long trip up here and then for an additional 20 to 30 minutes while we waited for our room to be ready. When we finally let them out we found that Frankie pooped in his carrier.
Since then they have settled in nicely.
Now we just pray that we will have a home to go back to.
Another Encounter with Ginger Cat and Another Hurricane
Frankie used to rarely travel to the street behind our house, but lately, we find ourselves there quite often. I think it is because of the male ginger cat that lives near the opposite end of the street. I think Frankie knows he’s there and wants to check up on him, even though they obviously don’t like each other. Perhaps Frankie thinks this entire area belongs to him.
In other news, another hurricane is heading our way. We escaped harm in the last hurricane, but the beaches here were devastated, even though the storm was well out in the Gulf when it passed us. This hurricane, Milton, was forecast yesterday to hit St. Petersburg as a category-three hurricane. St. Petersburg is just a few miles south of us.
I freaked my wife out yesterday by suggesting we leave this time. While living in Pinellas County, we have never been directly hit by a hurricane. There were several that were supposed to hit us, but all veered off and gave us a glancing blow. That is what I hope will happen again, but if it doesn’t, we could be in a lot of trouble if we stay.
Rose and I tried to book on our phones the only reasonable hotel left in the county with rooms available. She and I both got rejected when we tried to pay for it. Their computer said the CVC number was wrong on both our cards. She then called the hotel directly. They had three rooms, and as she was booking one, she got cut off. When she called back, they had two rooms left. Another person tried to book it for her, but by the time he got through everything and took her credit card, the room was gone. He tried again with the last room but was so slow. He had to confirm every little detail, and the room was gone before he finished. Needless to say, Rose was not happy with him and let him know.
Today, Rose talked to someone at Hilton and secured a room at a hotel in New Port Richey, in the county north of us. She got it solely because she is a diamond member, and they keep rooms in reserve for them. She then learned that our next-door neighbor planned to go to Georgia with her dad. She will watch our cats when we go on vacation starting Friday. Rose feared she wouldn’t make it back in time to watch our cats, so she booked them a room at a hotel across the street. It cost us $500, but Rose didn’t want anything to stop us from leaving on vacation. We are Flying to Boston on Friday morning and then traveling up the coast to Maine. Hopefully, our house will be okay because that could ruin our vacation.
I checked the track today, and the center is now predicted to hit about 50 miles south of us. That’s a little better for us, but still not great. Rose also suggested that our neighbor and her 96-year-old father stay in the room with us to save us the $500. That’s a tough choice.
Photo Friday: These Plants Look Interesting
Here is Frankie the next day after the Hurricane passed us. He is more interested in plants than any cat I have known.
Found Photos
I want to start by saying thank you to everyone concerned about our welfare during Hurricane Helene. We were lucky and sustained no damage to our home. I reported in my last post that the bridges to the beaches were closed. I thought they needed to inspect the bridges before reopening but I later learned that the Pinellas County beaches were devastated during the hurricane, mostly due to the storm surge. Three days later, they are still closed. Only residents can access the islands. The storm surge didn’t affect us since we are about four miles from the beach.
On to today’s topic. I was looking through old photos and found an envelope with no date but judging by the pictures I can tell they were from late 2010. Some were taken in South Carolina before we moved back to Florida in November. A couple were taken in Florida.
I did not realize I had a film camera at that time. That’s probably why I lost track of them. I should point out the quality is not great. The photos look good on paper, but I found them to be difficult to scan. I had to turn the contrast down on the scanner which produced less than optimal results.
Tigger and Abbey are in the first two photos. We had affectionate cats back then.
Here is Chris looking to squeeze himself between Tigger and Alex.
After returning to Florida, I captured this photo outside our back door.
What do you think of our Angels?
Before and After Hurricane Helene
I took Frankie for a walk Thursday morning. At the time I thought I should get him out there before the weather got bad. Unknown to me at the time the weather wouldn’t get bad for quite a while.
I saw on the map that the storm would pass us at its closest point around 3 p.m. We got a little rain and a little wind before then, but I was surprised by how mild it was. Then Frankie started to annoy me because he wanted to go outside. I never took Frankie for a walk twice in one day, but now, during the peak of the hurricane, he wouldn’t stop annoying me. I caved. I looked at the clock. It was 3:45. I looked out the window, saw the rain had stopped, and decided to take him out again.
At first, he hung around under the carport, not sure what he wanted to do, but then he decided to go.
After a while, the rain returned, so I picked him up and carried him home. He only hissed at me once.
To my surprise, the weather got worse after 6 p.m. By 6:30, the wind was blowing hard. Every ten or fifteen minutes, we would hear a loud bang from a tree branch falling on the roof. My next-door neighbor pointed out a tree across the street that had very large limbs broken off. It seemed just as windy at 9:30 when we went to bed.
In hindsight, three things happened that I didn’t consider. First, the winds trailing the storm are stronger than the winds ahead of the storm. This is because those winds travel across the water where no obstacles can slow them down. Second, the storm got stronger as it went farther north, so it was stronger at 6 p.m. than at 3 p.m. Third, the storm was a little slower moving than predicted.
The next morning, my wife wanted to go to the beach to look for shells, which are plentiful after a storm. We went outside before the sun came up, around 6:45. Even at that time I could see tree branches, big and small, scattered about our yard.
We thought there was a chance we would not be able to get to the beach. Sure enough, several police cars blocked access to the bridge. Later, it occurred to me that they needed to inspect all the bridges before reopening them.
We returned home just as it started getting light. On the way, we saw one home with its carport ripped off and lying on its roof. I took some pictures of the area near our house.
After taking pictures, I pulled some of the bigger pieces of debris from our yard and added them to the pile. I then went inside and found Frankie waiting to go outside.
Photo Friday: Cat Walk Before Hurricane
Frankie insisted that we go for a walk yesterday morning despite the coming hurricane. It had stopped raining so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to let him out.
It was windy and Frankie was hesitant at first but we made our way to the clubhouse and, as usual, Frankie wanted to go inside.
Later he jumped up into a tree. He wanted to go higher but I prevented that so he got down.
After we got a fair distance from our house it started to rain so I picked him up and carried him home.
It’s about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday as I write this. I thought the worst of the storm would be about 3:00 p.m. but it is about as windy as I’ve seen it today right now. Don’t worry though, it’s not as bad as I expected. As long as it gets no worse we’ll be fine.
Preparing for Hurricane Helene
I managed to get home from work just before it started raining this afternoon. We are getting rain from the outer edge of Hurricane Helene. It will continue to move north, closer to us, throughout tonight and tomorrow. We should feel the strongest impact sometime tomorrow afternoon.
We are in a mandatory evacuation zone, which doesn’t amount to much because I know of nobody who is leaving, including us. Where would we go? All the hotels are booked, and many shelters don’t take pets. I’m sure bringing our pets to a pet-friendly shelter would be a nightmare. We probably wouldn’t be able to let them out of their carriers except for potty breaks.
The last time I checked, the storm would pass to the west of us as a category four hurricane. We live between Clearwater and St. Petersburg. The graphic I saw showed our area at the edge of hurricane-force winds. I assume that means we will feel category one force winds, which are 74-95 MPH. I don’t think our kitties will enjoy that too much. The storm might turn east, which would be bad for us, but it could also turn west, which would be a big help.
Of course, Frankie bugged the heck out of me to take him out for a walk. I picked him up and opened the door so he could see the rain. I thought that would be the end of it, but he kept bugging me, so I got his harness and took him outside.
Once outside, he stayed under the carport, where it was dry. I tied up our outdoor furniture, which Frankie found quite interesting.
Hopefully, we won’t lose power or a roof or anything like that. Wish us luck.
Bad Cat Chris 