My flight from Kansas City was good & I was happy to be back home! My girls & my kitties missed me & I’d bet I missed them all even more!
The weather was fantastic! Cool nights & mornings, still warm sunny days without much rain….so very different than the months I was here before…May to mid July.
It’s November 2nd as I write this, & looking back, it seems it was a very busy October.
Halloween is my favorite holiday! When our kids were small, we went all out making costumes, throwing parties & making sure the evening was fun. But, I’d gotten rid of all my Halloween decorations once the kids left home. So, Claire & Emma said they’d help me decorate, so off to the store I went. Claire & I did the outside around October 5…trying to get as much Halloween spirit in as possible.
However, on Monday the 7th, the weather news was bad. There was an historic hurricane headed to Florida…mostly to hit around the gulf side near Tampa, but floods, high winds, tornadoes & even potentially a Category 1 hurricane could come through Orlando.
Sara quickly educated me about hurricane preparedness…she was so very helpful, giving me more info than my Google searches.
So that Monday morning, I ‘un-decorated’ for Halloween outside. Then the harder work started. Danny was still at the lake, so I had it all to do. Sara had offered to help, but I knew they already had a lot on their plate to get their own house ready.
The first thing I had to do was to move a lot in the garage to try to make space for Danny’s truck (he still has my 4Runner in Missouri). It’s the best thing we own & I didn’t want anything to happen to it. I should have thought ahead when I was moving stuff around, but I was in a hurry & just wanted this day’s work to be done. I pulled the truck in once part way…it didn’t fit, but if I moved our big desk, it might…but it would be close….so close I wondered if I could back it out of the garage & not break off any of it’s mirrors. I made it back out with no damage to the truck! I got the desk shoved out of the way, but didn’t want to attempt the truck inside until I absolutely had to.
Then it was time for the rest. We have a lot of outdoor furniture that we drug down from Kansas. As I counted all the chairs (15), tables (5), plants (7) & other misc….I kept asking myself why did two people have all of that? But it was just a way to distract myself, because we love our outdoor space…even if our Orlando outdoor space is miniscule…we’re outside as much as possible & eat most of our meals on the patio. So, the day passed as I hauled all our outside stuff, inside. I managed to get it all on the other side of the garage, stacking, piling, & working it like a puzzle. Only our big table had to come inside & thank goodness Sara helped me with that!
So, by the end of the afternoon, I was done. My pretty patio now looked just like it did when we moved in…bare & plain. To distract myself & to get something important done, while I waited for Milton, I worked on the baby’s quilt. It’s just about a month until the due date, I hadn’t quite finished the hand quilting part I’d begun before I left this summer. So, I put on an audiobook & went to quilting. And, then it was finished after a couple of days! We’re all sooooo excited for this baby!
I’d lived in tornado country all my life, but this hurricane stuff was new. The schools cancelled, restaurants closed, …it’s like the world stops except to wait for the hurricane. Sara suggested --& it was brilliant-- that they park her car (smaller SUV) in our garage & take the truck & one of their cars to the hospital covered parking garage…just perfect. All the downtown garages cancel the parking rules when a hurricane comes, giving so many people the opportunity to try to save their cars if they don’t have a place for them. So, that evening, they took the truck & tucked it in on a 4th floor space. Sara had offered to let me stay at her place during the hurricane, but I didn’t want to leave my cats. We were all worried about their house flooding again, after it did during hurricane Ian. They’ve only been back in it less than a year.
And, I spent time returning messages & phone calls from so many friends wondering about me & sending me wishes for the best outcome. I felt the love & it meant a lot…really, you have no idea how much a caring phone call or text means. So thank you to those who reached out… it meant a lot.
I wasn’t worried about this house flooding, but we have a giant old tree that sits right by my bedroom window…that’s what concerned me. Sara suggested I also sleep in the back bedroom, since it has smaller windows than my room. So, I prepared. It’s amazing how much of my camping stuff would have come in handy (like my stove, water jugs, Bluetti power bank, etc), but it was all still back with Danny…& I was glad they (Danny & the 4Runner) would be safe from this weather. I had the cats stuff all stored up in the bedroom. I had every water bottle filled as well as the bath tubs. I had all my chargers to 100% & had dug out two remaining headlamps that were still here. I’d forgotten about any important documents until late evening & realized they were on the garage floor in a file…so if this house did flood, they’d be ruined. So, I crawled around all the stored stuff until I located them & set them up high….when this happens again, I’ll be a bit more methodical while I’m moving all this crap around!
During the evening we had two tornado warnings. And the awful & weird thing was that tornadoes hit the east side of the state before Milton even landed on the west coast. A lot of destruction over near Cocoa & Vero Beaches.
About midnight the winds picked up & soon became a howl & the heavy rains started too. I went upstairs, flipped on the TV (for the first time since living here because I don’t watch it & haven’t for years. But tonight, it seemed like a good idea & it was nice just to have another voice in the room…even if it was a slightly panicked weather person). And the winds blew harder & harder all night long. The heavy rains would come & go, but the wind was the loudest I’ve ever heard. It went on for almost 5 hours & there were times I thought the house would just blow into bits. I know it all sounds dramatic, but that’s how it felt. I was scared & hated that I felt that way. All night long you could hear pops, thuds, stuff hitting the house. I’d pop out of the room every once in awhile to look out front to see if the water was rising or what had blown down. But it was dark out being the middle of the night & watching the big trees sway in the wind & stuff blowing all around, wasn’t comforting. The good news was that my power stayed on most all night.
Side note: There is a fire/burglar alarm in our rental. Once in awhile, usually if the power blinks on & off, it will beep. Not horribly loud, but consistent beeping. The fix for this, said Sara & our landlord, was just to push random buttons. And, that’s always shut it off. So, all through this crazy night, the power would go on & off…but never for more than a minute or so. But the beeping kept happening. And, I’d done this about 5 times through the night. But at 4:30am, just when the winds were starting to slow down, the beeping started again. I don’t know what button I pushed this time, but it made the FIRE ALARM! go off. The really loud horrible alarm. OMG! WTF? I pushed all kinds of buttons to get it to shut off. I ran downstairs thinking maybe something had happened to the front door, so I quickly pulled it open only to be hit with gale force winds & shut & locked it immediately. But, the horrible noise just kept going. Wow! My first hurricane & first out of control alarm at 4:30am! So. Much. Fun. After 20 minutes of pushing buttons & using all the swear words I know, the damn thing finally stopped. I was never worried it would wake up the neighbors…the wind was doing an excellent job of covering the blaring sound. And, I definitely wasn’t worried about the fire department coming…all the city services were stopped for the weather. I have to admit though, the alarm did take my mind off the hurricane….got to find the bright side!
Ten minutes after I got the alarm shut off (or maybe it just shuts itself off after that amount of time) my power went out. But the good news was, the storm was subsiding. Both the rain & the huge winds died down & then it was almost time for the sun to rise.
I hadn’t slept at all for those 5 hours, but managed to sleep for about 2 hours in the early morning.
And it was a really pretty “next” morning. There was tree debris everywhere! Sara contacted me early & said they were fine, no flooding. That was a huge relief..for her & all of her neighbors. My power came back on 6 hours after it had stopped. Sara’s didn’t come on for two days….they lost all their food, but compared to what they lost during Ian & what so many others in Florida have lost during Ian, Helene & now Milton, it wasn’t much.
So, I watched what the neighbors do the day after a hurricane. Everyone goes outside & cleans up….even the streets. My rake was buried, so I did what I could & would do better when I uncovered it the next day.
We retrieved the truck. I blew off the patio & moved back all my furniture making the outdoor spaces nice again. I found my rake & cleaned my sidewalk & street in front of the house. Very grateful to be on the other side of this. I’d say I hope it never happens again, but I have been assured that it will. But, that damn alarm won’t do that again. I called my landlord a week later & he felt so bad I hadn’t called him…(seriously, I would NEVER have called this father of two young kids to come over during a hurricane to shut the alarm off…NEVER.) He felt really bad about what had happened. But, he came over, pulled out the battery box & said that should take care of it for good. I’m really hoping so.
There are still huge piles of natural debris everywhere in town & the city is doing it’s best to get it all cleaned up. As I walk & bike the trails, you can see so much of what blew down that night. But Orlando is so much more fortunate that so many Florida towns & also those in North Carolina that will take years to recover from Helene.
During Danny’s absence, we both got called for Jury duty a week apart You know this is a huge pet peeve of mine? I hate the way they just want you to put your life on hold, to possibly serve. I have bad history with jury duty summons…it’s not the service that I mind, it’s the way they just thrust a date on you & expect you to stop your life to do it (& threaten you if you don’t). But, this will be good timing, since we have so much going on this year. If we get it out of the way now, they’re not supposed to do this again for another year. We’ll see what happens.
Claire came over one day & baked her first pie. She wanted to make a lattice top & it turned out great!
Also, the girls & Sara have been super excited because they were going to the Era’s Tour in Miami!!!! I’m so happy Sara decided to do this. I got invited to come over & make friendship bracelets with them the day before they left…so much fun!
They went & had a blast! I loved hearing about it all!
Since I’ve been back, I’ve been trying to stay busy. I’ve joined some new FB groups—kayaking, walking, hiking, etc. Of course the hurricane has kind of put a hold on all of that. There are currently about 35 state parks that are still closed. I did go with the walking group…called Florida Walking Girls Club…should have paid more attention to the “Girls” part…I was older than all 30 people by about 35 years! Everyone was nice, but I don’t think I’ll join them again. Plus, I might have been way way older, but I’m a much faster walker. I’ve also bought my yearly swim pass, so I’ve been going to the pool 2-3 times a week swimming laps. I’m taking a fitness class once a week & have been riding my mountain bike more. I found a new trail one Saturday, & was shockingly surprised when a black bear was just coming out of the woods & onto the trail as I rode by. As soon as I passed it, it moseyed out on the trail walking the opposite way. This is only about 12 miles from my house in an area that has homes all around it. Nice trail though!
One of my place holder tents bit the dust this year, so I bought one off FB marketplace. It’s kind of a piece of crap but it was cheap, & doubt anyone will ever really sleep in it. I just hope it will last at least a couple of years. But, while I was practicing putting it up & down (it’s bizarre), Emma came over & wanted to play in it. We made a soft pad inside & she just chilled & read for about an hour!
And, while we are expecting the baby in early November, we have a new member of our family! Meet Rio…Luke & Jordans new rescue pup! Super shy but warming up quickly to those two & Bear, their really cute black kitty!
Danny’s time at the lake hasn’t exactly gone as expected. They have to have a new septic system installed & he’d ordered it back in June. But the company has been putting it off, moving the date back constantly. So, he’d planned to leave the lake in time to be back for our 47th anniversary. Well, that didn’t happen. The company finally got it installed but then he had to winterize everything. He’d been without the use of toilets & washing machine for a few days, so he had to catch up once the installation was finished. There’s always a long list of to-do’s when he closes the place up for winter.
He finally made it back on Thursday afternoon & we were really glad to see each other! We’ve spent more time apart this year than ever before. The next two days were super busy for me cleaning out my 4Runner which has been gone since mid-July. I’m fanatic about cleaning all my gear, bedding, kitchen stuff….everything before I store it away. And that took awhile.
We’ve taken a couple of day trips in between seeing the girls & going to their soccer games. Mount Dora has a really fun brewery called Eden Abbey & this particular weekend had a big arts festival.
They have a nice boardwalk that we took a walk on the edge of the lake…tons of birds. Some of the trail was closed due to Milton, but we had a nice walk.
We had a super great time in Tampa too. When Danny changed his Drivers License from KS to FL, he lost his TSA precheck (has to do with his commercial license & TSA are tied together), so the next appointment he could get was in Tampa & we decided to make a whole day & evening of it. We tried a cuban sandwich (long story, but I’ve done intense research on Cubanos) from LaSegunda bakery & also brought home a loaf of cuban bread & ate at Ulele for dinner.
We rode our bikes 11 miles on the Causeway & then went to Magnanimous brewing for some good stouts.
After our beer, we walked for a couple of miles on the river trail,
But the most fun of the whole day was a super great speakeasy called Morgans Cove…it’s pirate themed (Tampa has huge pirate history, festivals, etc.) Fantastic atmosphere, bartenders & wonderful drinks! I’d read the place wasn’t marked with a sign, but a wooden door with a red light over it…love this kind of stuff!
There were two very friendly bouncers when you walked in…they gave us the secret scoop & walked us over to a shelved wall…& then he opened it.
….and in we went!
Such good drinks & so many we wanted to try, but we had a long drive back tonight.
When it was time to leave, you had to exit through a different door. I will definitely be coming back here whenever I’m in Tampa!
While walking downtown, we saw this really interesting building…don’t know what it is, but it’s cool architecture.
And, Danny's Global Entry appointment at the airport lasted about 10 minutes. By the time we got home that night, he had his number ready to add to all his airline accounts.
And, then there’s Halloween! Claire & Emma both came by after the hurricane to help me redecorate for the holiday. Then on Oct. 31, Taylor Swift & Bridgett from the Descendants came over as our very first Trick or Treaters! (We never had any living in the country). Then we all went out for a fun night of them trick or treating & us adults watching all fun kids & grown ups in costume!
So, while we’ve yet to celebrate our anniversary, we are having fun, playing outside & loving spending time with the girls & we are together. Our next trip is planned to fly to California to meet our new grand baby!!!! And always... can’t wait to see our family out there. Then it will be winter….but we’re both looking so forward to what a Florida winter looks like. Hoping it’s filled with lots of good times!
Cheers to all of you & many wishes for all good things!