10 September 2017

We've spent the last week worrying and preparing for Hurricane Irma.  We've been in our house for three weeks and although we knew that hurricanes were common here, we were still in unpacking and settling in mode and hadn't started to consider disaster preparation yet.  Well, now we've considered it, and we know exactly what we're going to do as soon as this is over so that we'll be better prepared next time!  Thanks for the welcome party, Irma.

We did a lot of cleanup in the yard, which was great, and we filled sandbags for our doorways.  We were really worried about our windows but fortunately our neighbor up the street came by and offered to help us cover them with scrap he had in his yard.  What a blessing.  Mr. Brown joked about how we're familiar with boarding up in Detroit, but it's usually for a different reason!

I didn't think about what a big difference it would make to me not to be able to see out.  I hate it.  I keep going over and opening the door. 

We're expecting to lose power, and then we'll lose water because our well is powered electrically.  So we have filled the bathtubs and a lot of other containers with water for drinking and flushing.  We took a walk this morning, but it started raining for real after lunch, so I think we're in for good for awhile. Mr. Brown and I have both secretly always wanted to sit through a hurricane, so we'll get to check this one off our bucket list.  I'm very grateful that it looks like it's not going to be Cat 4 winds in our area though, which was one of the predictions that we were working with this week.

So, welcome to Florida, and here's to our first hurricane!