TMI a little place to whine

Post Wilma October 31

Because of the hurricane (Wilma that hit us a week ago today) I have been unable to post. I have had no electricity, no phones, no internet. I am posting from work right now because here there is power and phone and internet access.

We stayed at home for the storm, my son, my husband,my daughter and I .
We lost power at 8:00 a.m. but I was up early at 6 a.m. the day of, in anticipation of the power outage I was sure to experience and I made coffee.
Anticipation is the key to success in storms, that and always being prepared for the worst that can happen. Chances are it won't, but one must be prepared in case it does.

It wasn't terrible. We didn't huddle in a closet, because we were prepared. All the windows were shuttered. We had 8 gallon jugs of water and 4 cases of drinkable bottles plus 3 - 15 count cases and several cases of Coke and Pepsi or store brand sodas. We also
had bread, juices, Gatorade, etc.

You see, this isn't our first hurricane. We've done this before so often that we have the preparations down pat.

My husband and son are responisble for the exterior house shuttering and making sure we have the tools necessary for repairs. They do the manual stuff and prepare the property from as much damage as they can.

My daughter is landscape and patio. She brings in plants and yard furniture. Clears the porch and makes sure there is nothing around that can be picked up in the wind and blown into a window or car.

My job is food and storage. I check the hurricane food supplies and resupply anything that we have already eatten. I had 16 cans of tuna, two jars of Peanut Butter, 2 jars of jelly and a dozen cans of canned pasta products ready for consumption, along with making sure that the freezers were filled with ice. Beleive it or not, you can MAKE ice yourself BEFORE a storm by filling empty water bottles 1/2 full and putting them in the freezer. It serves two purposes. You get the added ice to keep the stuff in the freezer colder longer AND when the ice bottles start to defrost you get to drink "cold" water!

After the storm the jobs remain for the others but I pick up a new job - paperwork. I am the contact for insurance, government programs, repair people/ etc.

So, when you are prepared and know your job it's only inconvienent.

I will post more later on what surviving a hurricane is like for those who never have had the experience. It's not the hurricane, it's the recovery that's a pain in the ass.

Now 4 out of 6 tracks being Wilma to our area. She may be a category 3 by the time she hits.

Keep all in her path in your thoughts and prayers.

Wilma is coming, Wilma is coming.

That's all we've heard all week and it gets tiring after a while.

So people were slowly preparing. Putting shutters up, buying water and getting ready for the hurricane, but nothing frenzied, or hurried. In Miami we are used to preparing for the storms. At least I thought we were.

Today we had to go to Publix to get something for Annie after dinner time. Usually Saturday night is dead in the supermarket, but not tonight. It was packed with last minute shoppers buying their hurricane supplies. People have had all week to get ready and only when the NHC puts us under a hurricane watch do some people decided it might be prudent to prepare.

I thought we had learned from past experiences, but apparently not all of us have.

Senator Gregg, from New Hampshire, on a whim, bought $20 worth of power ball tickets when he went in to buy gas near Washington.

He got 5 numbers our of 6, for a jackpot of over $800,000.00.

He's already a millionaire, and a Republican.

Do I have to change parties to win the $27 million in our FL lotto on Saturday, or just get elected to congress?

I think I figured out why some people are show shallow.

I think we have an inate urge to worry. Yeah, worry.

If you have no food, shelter or clothing and you have to find some to survive you are anxious and worry. Cave men did it, storm survivors do it, poor people who can't pay their bills and buy food or have any vision of how to make it through the next day do it.

Those for whom there is no need to worry - those who have food , shelter, clothing and hope don't worry about things that have already been provided for them. However, they have a need to feel unsatisified and anxious about something. So they become anxious about social faux paus, about the wrong clothes worn in the wrong season. They worry about how to eat at a table using the correct fork. They worry about mathing shoes and handbags. They worry about the right tie, or club, or car.

Me? I worry that in America worrying about "stuff" seems to be more prevlanent than worrying about survival. What does that say about us?

It's hard to drag myself out of bed on Friday morning, and the dag drags on and takes forever to pass, but it does eventually.

Now comes the hard part of Friday. Trying to stay up to watch the tv shows that are scheduled on Friday nights. I used to stay up and watch things without any trouble. Now I am lucky to get through dinner.

As I type thesew rods my eyelids want to close...and I am yawning. Thank God for VCR's or I'd never get to watch my favorite shows.

For the fourth time since we have moved to Miami we have had to find a way to dispose of the body of a pet. Today Garfield, our youngest cat at age 16, died peacefully at home.

We knew he was failing. He wasn't tending to his coat at first, then he stopped eating some foods he used to like and finally he lost a lot of weight and just stopped eating at all. The vet had warned us about 4 years ago that he was so fat he would eventually have heart trouble and we think that's what finally did it to him.

We had fed him a bit of human food - tuna - this a.m. to try to get him to eat, and we gave him tuna flavored water to get him to drink more. He seemed to perk up a bit, and let us all pet him and make a fuss over him but he was becoming weaker and weaker with each passing day.
My son was the first one home from work and he found Garfield, on the kitchen floor.

I guess it's a good way to go.

He wasn't in pain. He was surrounded by his home and the others who shared it (3 more cats) and he just quietly passed away.

We should all be so lucky.

Rest in peace little friend.

Nothing to say
Boring Sunday
Roast in the oven
family ok.

Squash, carrots, celery
little potatoes.
Maybe a salad with red ripe tomatoes.

Cucumbers and onions.
A little Au Jus.

Sit down and have dinner
there's little to do.

I think I finally figured it out.

The blog generation rarely identifies themselves with real names. The authors of so many blogs just make up cute sounding ones, or ones that they think will impress readers with their cleaverness and instill a sense of personality into the words they use to identify themselves.

Well, I don't buy it.

I think that people who are afraid to sign their names are cowards. I think they want you to know their opinion but are afraid to take any responsibility for it. I think they want to tell you what they really think, but are afraid to leave an identity behind because you might misunderstand and or heaven forbid, challange the comment. Then they might have to admit they are wrong.

I think if you are man(or woman) enough to take a stand and make your opinion known then you should have the courage to stand by the words you've written.

If you can't be true to yourself, to who you really are, why should anyone believe that what you say has any validity?

Yeah, they tell us that all the time, but you don't really understand it until you reach your 40's and 50's.

There are still 7 days a week, and they still have 24 hours in them, but now that I am past 50 I can't seem to get everything done that I used to do in that same amount of time. It's a if the measurement of time is shortened though the name for it remains the same.

When I was in pre school a day seemed endless. A week was a very long time, and a month was nearly an eternity. Years were like eons because the gap between being 5 and being 6 was measured in some kind of impossible standard. In my teens at age 14 a guy who was 16 or 17 was sooooooo much older. Now I almost consider anyone between the ages of 40 and 65 "my age", or at least in my generation.

Why? Why with all the labor saving devices we now have so I still not have "enough time"? Why, when it takes no time to do laundry compared to my grandmother's day, do I still have no time to finish it all before the cycle starts again? Why, when I have a microwave to cook foods do I still think it takes forever to cook or that I have no time to prepare meals? Why is there so much to read an no time to read it? Can anyone give me a logic explaination?

Did any physicists figure out the law of time shrinkage? If not then someone should. NOW. Before time runs out.

When I was in my teens I always thought that I had all the answers, but I think my feelings were a bit different from other teens.

I matured early I guess. I dont' remember thinking aobut only me and my wants and my needs. I was always wondering how to fit my mother and sister into my success.

Yet I read blogs of young people today, and they are almost all "poor pity me" about what they dont' have and what they can't do. They don't have enough money, they don't have the freedom to do what they want to do. They dont' have the time for the tings they think are important, like entertaining themselves.

They are bored, they are tired of working at age 30, they are annoyed that they have responsibilities. Poor them.

Well what did they expect?

My generation grew up thinking that June and Ward Clever actually existed. That a perfect family with respectful children were what real America was about. We never realized that dysfunction was the norm and the kind of tv sitcom family was the exception. There was no Andy Griffith and Opey and Aunt Bea kind of life. Ozzie and Harriet's perfect street with perfect kids and a perfect house on a perfect suburban street, was only a story not reality. By the time we found out it was too late for us to adjust our thinking and we never measured up to the image of perfection we'd been fed.

What the 50's shows did teach us was that if we wanted success like those shows we could get it because we had the opportunity to get it if we were studious, diligent and focused.

Now this generation didn't grow up on those 50's t.v. shows. But they did grow up being told they could have anything they wanted. It seems to me that they were not told that to get anything you want you have to work and sacrifice and compromise for it. Somehow it's going to be gotten for them. When they find out they actually have to do it on their own they get upset and vent.

They seem to think that whining is the primary way to get what you want out of life.
Complain, and make people feel guilty for not giving you your way and the world will take care of you.

What has happened? It is just me? Am I imagining it? Or I am too old fashioned to understand that the world owes these young folks a living?

Windstorm damage to homes in FL is no longer covered by the homeowners insurance policy. Windstorm coverage is a separate policy and the only one in the state that sells it is Citizens, which is the state backed company.

Citizens is also a Texas company.

Before Katrina and Rita the 2 hurricanes that destroyed New Orleans and other Gulf Coast States got to them they passed over us in FL, as minimal hurricanes or tropical storms, but still able to cause roof damage. Those who have tried to make a claim against their Citizens policies are being "denied". Ceilings are damaged, water pours into homes after even a small amount of rain falls, and the adjustors from Citizens tell the policy/home owners that there is nothing wrong.

When they are challanged by roofing contractors about the damages and given cost estimates for the repair of the roof citizen adjustors tell them that the cost of repair is about 1/10 the actual cost. Contractors and homeowners are being told "That's not what we pay for roof repair in Texas."

Excuse me? What does the cost of a repair in one state have to do with the cost of repair in another? Why if they house is filled with water when it rains but the exterior of the roof "looks" good on a visual inspection is the claim denied?

Who is using the money that was paid into Citizens? Why pay for insurance if you can't collect on your policy when you need it? It seems unfair - no more than that - it seems criminal.

One person whose claim was denied has told me that Citizens executives are crooks who take the cash and then let the people suffer. I beleive it. It seems to be the way things are done in Texas, and Tallahassee and even Washington DC.

Coincidence? I think not. Just look to the people in charge of FL and our nation and then look at their background. Aren't they both originally from Texas? Jeb set Citizens up to be the only windstorm provider and "W' never believes the evidence even if it's right in front of him and he does NOT like to be contradicted.

As I said...coincidence? I think not.