Re: Ike

Hi Zoe,

It's usually the afterwards part of the hurricane that sucks the most. My husband has been through several, when he lived in the Keys, including Irene, and Andrew. Getting through a hurricane can be really hard if you aren't in a strong structure. It's also hard to get out of town and evacuate, that's often dangerous as well.

At least it will be getting close to daylight when it gets near you, so you'll be able to see what's coming in your direction. We bought a house with a bunch of big oaks, and one by one we've trimmed them, but trees are always a worry. I'm not sure which side of the storm you are on, but it sounds like you might get the weak side of the storm first, also that will make it easier. Usually they are stronger one direction than the other. It should be daylight when you get the worst of it.

Eat your garlic! After the hurricane you get out of area mosquitoes, and the bites can be nasty, so get as much garlic in you as you can, it will help cut down the number of bites you get. For some reason out of the area mosquitoes cause worse reactions. If you use vinegar on the bites it will take some of the venom out, if you get a few.

And yes, no power for a while, to if we don't hear from you for a while, you'll be at least in my thoughts. I know it took a very long time to restore power in parts of Florida the summer that we had four of them, so it might just be a while.

I'm praying it weakens quickly when it hits land, and just rains a lot where people need it the most.

Hang in there, and if it really blows hard, remember to get into an interior room, and if you have a bathtub, it's a good spot to be in. But I have a feeling that although this one isn't going to be a dud, it's also not going to be the big wind problem that the really bad ones get to be. To be honest, I don't like them much either. Worst part for me is right where you are now, waiting for the suc*** to show up, and knowing it's coming. My imagination can really run wild, and I cook up far worse that what really happens.

Although when we were living in the motel 6 with the cats, we ate at Waffle house for about a month, not much is downhill from that. (bleah!!!!!)

Our cats aren't exactly domestic, and they howl when they get left alone in a strange place, so we couldn't leave them alone much. We keep thinking of moving away from Florida, then we start thinking about how much fun it is to move the cats, and ordering pizza to the room so they don't get too loud, and what they have to say about cat carriers. Actually, we took turns eating at waffle house, because one of us had to cat sit. The male was howling last night, he doesn't like the HAARP machine at all, my ears pop, and he starts to howl. So you can do this, at least you aren't in a motel 6 with two exotic cats that you trying to pass off as regular heathcliffes.

My best,

Julie Tweet