Living through Irma...

Living through Irma kinda made me wonder about life. Not that I thought I was going to loose my life, but more about all the things we take advantage of in our daily lives. Its been four days now and my home still has no power as I write this.

I live on a canal with well water and a septic field. Without power I don't have running water. I can't take a shower. I have to get lake water to use the bathroom. I guess I'm lucky in that regard. Think of those that can't even flush their toilets. Whew! Even for me, when we would wait before flushing between multiple "number ones", it would stink like the bathroom at a baseball game that went into extra innings!

And with my 87 year old mom being here, she could not lift the gallon and a half or so of water in the bucket needed to flush "number two's". doh....Thank goodness my daughter was here and she took on that duty most of the time. Thank you dear.

No power also means no dishwasher. Our used dishes were starting to stink it up too. I guess Abbey and the other dogs didn't quite lick them clean enough. So again, down to the canal I went to get water to wash dishes by hand! Who does dishes by hand anymore, right! lol

No hot showers, heck, no showers! Well that stinks too. And I mean literally.

Yes we had water to drink. We were smart enough to stock up, but not knowing how long the power outage would last, and whether you could even get any, we kinda conserved it. I brushed my teeth with Listerine.

Here's a big one, no morning coffee. Dang it, now I really wished I brought down that generator from Illinois. I actually had it in the trailer during the move when I asked my other daughter (who still lives in IL) if she wanted it (she said yes). Darn that was a stupid move. I figured I'd buy a new one once I got down here but I never did. Well at least not until today. It's four days into the hurricane aftermath and, of course, no one has a single generator for sale. We missed the last one at the Home Depot as we seen it go out the door Monday when we broke the curfew to look for one. I thought the guy was gonna get mugged for it in the parking lot for sure! Naw it really wasn't that bad but people were staring at him! And yeah, there actually was a curfew imposed for the Monday after Irma. Really!

Here's a little bit of a picture story of the events as they unfolded.


Prior to the hurricane the forecast called for 100 MPH winds by us.




So my daughter and I went to Home Depot and got some plywood to at least board up the windward windows.


I also spent some time in the attic screwing in the joists joint plates. Not sure how much it would help but at least it made me feel a little safer.


In the eye of Irma!

Thankfully by the time Irma arrived by us it lost much of it's strength. Irma's eye was breaking up. They clocked 70 mph winds here, which were still plenty, but all we ended up with was a ton of broken branches. My wood bench swing frame flipped over and broke, and moms shed flipped over onto it's side. We made out a lot better than many. Nearby there were many big trees downed. In fact one took our power out with it. That's partly why it took five days to get our power back.






Look at the devastation. The branches were knee high in places. At least these Live Oaks stayed upright.


The Monday afterwards Rural King was actually open. No generators other than the one they had running, but at least they were open for those that needed other essentials. They took you back one by one with flashlights to find what you were looking for.



Y'all gonna make fun of me "working" my mom! But I kept telling her to stop. I think she enjoyed helping with what she could.




At night we passed time playing Farkle.


Our neighbor came to help do cleanup. Her idea to use a tarp was a tremendous help. You all should remember that if you're gonna move dirt or leaves. Works great.


We actually ate like kings because we had to cook all the food that was thawing. We ate ice cream, steaks, chicken, brats....everything we had in the freezer. We had frozen blueberries my mom cooked and made into a sauce we put on plain yogurt we happened to have. That turned out real good. All our food remained unspoiled partly because I line the bottom of the chest freezer with frozen gallon jugs of water. It kept the "cold" and provided water.


The water level on Lake Griffin was not surprisingly as high as I've ever seen it. We fished but only caught sticks. Still fun though.


I'm so glad my daughter was there to help otherwise I don't know what I would have done. Thank you dear.


Shuorc came over to my house Wednesday morning with coffee and Honey Buns to save the day. Dang it's good to have good friends. Crappie.com is the best.


This was day 5, the first Friday after Irma. I got lucky the prior day, I made some calls and Tractor Supply said they had generators. Now I got one too! Yay. It was a good thing because wifey flew in Thursday night and I had to make sure she's comfy, right! The generator is worth it's weight in gold. I can power up my whole 5th wheel with A/C and refrigerator and all.



So the good from all this. I got to drive the FL toll roads free cause Gov. Scott suspended all tolls. I got 20 free sandbags I can now use for fill in various places here around the property which I needed to do prior to Irma. I'm now prepared for next power outage with my new generator. Irma trimmed all my trees for free....and last but not least, I got a good story to tell about how I survived Irma.

.