S Fla Galloping Gardeners 8/19/05

Ok sydney.

Molly, it would be great if you get your power back on by Tuesday. I am not so optomistic.

Val, once the bad news starts flowing in it seems like it's difficult to stop. Hopefully this will be the end of the bad news for you. I know it's bad, but we can hope and pray it will stop here and only be this bad, rather than get worse.

Around 10 pm last night I was out smoking and the lights in the small industrial area behind my house came on.
There is power to the East of me and power to the West, here I am stuck in the middle.

I just know we will be without power until Friday at the least.

Val, I quote you from above "When we meet the next time I'll tell you all how and what I found out about not getting power on before. I'm mad as ____ and the mayor of this town is going to get a battle from me."
How about dropping me a Dmail and letting me know what's going on. This is the third storm in a row we lost power before the storm even came close to coming ashore. In Andrew we lost power at 10pm the night before. Last year 10 hours before. This year 6 hours before. For Andrew we were without juice for 8 days, last year's 9 days. So far this storm 4 days.

Thanks, and god bless all

Art

Art,

The power company has arrived!!!!! That line that fell down in my backyard and fried on Friday morning? It REALLY was a power line. I had myself convinced it was only a cable line.

Anyway, they need to put that line back up, fix the transformer and we should be up and running.

Art, I think you will be hooked up sooner than Friday. These people and their trucks are already schedule to finish up here and skedaddle up to La. & Ms.

Well, I better get off here to avoid any surges.

Back Later I hope.

Molly

Molly, I sure hope you are right. This $40. a day gasoline habit is gettting tougher to break each day.

However, I still doubt we will have power before Friday. Been there, done that before. I don't see any reason it will change this time.

Thanks anyway.

Hope it works out for you. If so, take a well deserved day off and go to sleep in the AC.

Art

Hi Art and Molly, I hope they restore the power back to you now.
Hang in there my friends, the end of the tunnel is very close.

Art you have mail.

Val

Hello All,

Power is up and running. We have unstrung the extension cords, closed the windows and have the a/c going. The parrots were screaming for joy in the cages. Who knew they liked a/c.

I think for my neigbhorhood we were the last to be fixed up. The guys are taking a break and I expect will be off to the next place (maybe yours Art) shortly.

Good luck to ya.

Molly

Yeah Molly. I'm so glad for you. I'm sure you are going to crank up the A/C full blast. We did that yesterday and I had to put on a light jacket because I got cold after a while LOL.

(((Hugs)))

Yes Val, it's nice and cool now, I almost want to take a nap.

The trucks are still out front. The guys had a snack and water and laid down to rest for a bit. Looks like they are gearing up to get on the move again.

After we got our power on, I had to run down to the store and notice something missing in the street.

The owner of that tree has been wanting to take it out for years, City of Ft Lauderdale won't let you take out old trees. Well, it's coming out now, roots, right out of the ground.

This is what was missing. The crew had to get the saws out to cut the tree back off the street so they could get in to us.

It doesn't look like it, but that tree IS laying on its side on top of that wooden fence.

Molly,

So glad you're up and running again, and cool!

That tree is/was a big one!

Gracie

Molly's a happy camper now.......huh!!!!!

Got my power back on tonight at 9:45. I shut down the generator and turned on the main breaker. All is well again. FPL is forgiven.

I took a quick walk around the back yard with the spotlights on to kind of smell the roses and the night blooming jasmine. Boy it wasn't the roses or jasmine I was smelling. Tomorrow is garbage pickup day. The neighborhood reeks with the odor of rotting garbage from a neighborhood without power for four and a half days.

I'll take another shot at the roses after the garbage is picked up tomorrow.

Thanks for all your support.

Back to normal tomorrow.

Art

I'm happy for you Art. I'm sure you are going to have a great night sleep.

Now that you have power on you'll get to see the devastation that Katrina left in LA, Miss, and AL. To watch it is to go back to the hours and days that follow the destruction of Andrew in 92. Very scary and my heart goes out to all the people in the affected areas.

My in-laws are safe in Jackson thankfully, but they still had high winds when we checked on them at around 9 PM. They kept asking if we had heard anything about the areas in which they live. We can't find any information yet, but I'm afraid they have sustained devastating losses. We are already making preparations to go help them as soon as they are allowed back into their cities. My heart is aching right now. It's going to be a tough road ahead.

Haven't heard anything from my mother yet. I was able to contact an old friend that told me that at least the torrential rains have stopped, but that it is freezing (it's winter there now) right now. I will attempt to contact her tomorrow.

Glad to know that we are all back to normal here. Enjoy the A/C Art and Molly, I sure am.

Val

Hi.

I was so glad to hear that everything is getting back to normal for you guys. Although I never met anyone of you, our thoughts and prayers were with you all along. We have heard nothing from the condo admin so I have decreed that everything is all right there. We'll feel the weather system that was once Katrina either tomorrow afternoon or Thursday; small stuff next to the devastation pictures that are coming out of LA.

Keep well.
Sylvain.

Sylvain...

Can't do it today, my dmail me the address and I will take a run over tomorrow. I'm near and won't mind a bit.
Hap

Thanks Val, Sylvain. Power on yes, cable no. I have no idea, except what I read in the newspaper and see on the net as to what's going on. I think I am going to switch back to satellite tv.

I hope all is well with your mother Val. Somehow I feel it is.

I just wonder how many have learned anything from this experience.

It's my third hurricane (direct hit or close to direct hit) since moving to Florida in 1977. I had more respect for these storms than most of the locals from an experience when I was a teenager and the remnants of hurricane Diane moved through our area in Waterbury, CT August 19, 1955.
The storm, with it's huge rainfall, created flood conditions in S. Mass. Rivers overflowed their banks and several dam's gave way in N.W. CT. By the time the water came down the valley to Waterbury, the Naugatuck River was way over it's normal height. It had destroyed three dams before it got to Waterbury. The river took out over one third of the city. Buildings as tall as eight stories were just gone. No remnants at all. What was once a meandering shallow river was now a deep straight gash throuth the middle of the city. Over 8,000 lost their lives. Every bridge leading into the city was washed away. There was no way to bring in needed supplies. No electric, gas, water, telephone or food. The US Army Corp of Engineers put it's first Bailey Bridge, that finally linked up Waterbury to the rest of the world, two weeks after the storm waters came through the city.

To this day I can remember all the experiences from the rain that began in the middle of the aternoon through the cleanup and moving of dead bodies weeks later. I was 15 at the time. I couldn't get another job until I was 18. The city was almost written off, but it too survived. It would never again be the important manufacturing center it was before the storm.

I occasionally think back and wonder what would have changed in my life if that storm didn't destroy my home town. How many other thousands of people might have entirely different lives had it not been for that storm.

Oh well, that was then, this is now. In planning my day this morning I took a walk around the yard. I came across a sulphur butterfly emerging from chrysalis. In a few hours I would cut down most of the bush this butterfly came into this world attached to. The next post has the picture.

Art

Here is a picture of a sulphur drying out it's wings before it takes it's first flight as a butterfly.

Art

Hello everyone.

Hap, you are so kind to offer to go and check. We did get a call from a neighbour in our building who told me everything is fine and not to worry about anything. I still can't get over how kind you people are. We only know each other through this forum, you just went through a hurricane and you are ready to take time away from all your troubles to do this for me. My wife and I are really touched. Really, that won't be necessary but we do so appreciate the offer.

To all you people who lived through this, I offer these two blooms today: solanum quitoense and dipladenia. I haven't anything more exotic for you. Just you all wait until I get there: I make this unbelievable fudge, my blood sugar goes up just writing about it. I never touch the stuff.

Sylvain.

Hi all,

Just got home from work and caught up on all my DG things and email. Saved this thread for last.

Thursday night after dark I had a horrible thought. I had taken care of everything outside that I could think of. But after dark, I remembered our chryslis Art. I had to bring it in. After Art discovered it 2 months ago, I have been watching it daily. I couldn't lose it now.

I took the flashlight out to try to find the stem it was on. The color blends so well with the lavender I couldn't find it, so I grabbed the whole group of stems, broke them off and brought them in to the patio. I put them into a pot of soil, like we do with cuttings.

Today when I got home, I went to let the girls out to potty and there was a butterfly in my patio!!!!!! Of course, it came from our chrysalis, which is now just a dry shell.

Molly

Molly, Art those are really uplifting pictures and stories. I'm happy that the butterflies made it. They are beautiful!!

Val

Sylvain....we are family here.......

Molly, what a mother to all you are....it's beautiful

Art, you doin' purdy good too....

Kisses to all..

Hap

Molly: I am from a cold climate and the reaction to your butterfly was: Oh, My Dear Precious Lord. I was flabergasted. Will you keep it inside your patio or release it?

Sylvain

Great stuff isn't it.

On a serious note. I just received a phone call from Deb's grandaughter's stepmom. She works for a tow truck company. She said gas stations will be closing at noon today for three days.
I hate to be a rumor starter, but I only received the call and passing it on. It could be true. I have 25 gallons stored for my generator and a full tank, but you might not.

Art

Gas stations here, Art?

Hi Hap, yes that's what she said.

Art, are you sure? So I can alert everyone I know.

HI Val, as noted, it was a phone call to me. We still don't have cable and the only station we can get, Channel 7, is on Deb's portable tv. I only passed on what she said. I don't know if it's true or not.
I had read in the paper this morning we had approximately a six day supply of gasoline in the state. That doesn't account for a possibly heavy load of travel over the long weekend. If you reduce the traffic at gas stations by three days, that would extend the ability for some of us to travel over the long weekend.
I would like to point out, last year near the end of August we had a similar situation when Gov Bush declared a gas tax holiday. That gas tax holiday came just three days before the hurricane hit. Getting gas for generators was almost impossible because so many filled their tanks to take advantage of the tax holidays that gas stations ran out of gas just before the hurricane hit.

Although I had a generator up and ready to run, I couldn't get gas to run it. I didn' t have gas until four days after the hurricane hit. Now I know better and keep my five tanks filled all the time starting the beginning of August. If there is nothing on the horizon I burn the gas in my car. At the end of the week I fill the empty reserve tanks I have used and rotate the tanks as I get fresh gas.

Art

I see. I will watch the local news at 12 to see if they mention anything.

Haven't heard about any shortages here yet, but gas went up 27¢ since yesterday afternoon.

How you doin' Darius?

Doin' okay. Don't like that it now costs over $34 to fill up my tiny pickup truck, and will go up. My social security check sure didn't go up!

Hi Everyone!
I didn't see any mention of gas stations shutting down on the local channel 7 on the noon news.

darius, they don't count energy and food in the inflation index on which SS inflation increases are based.

Art

Sigh, Yes, I know, Art.

I filled my tank yesterday at 3:30 pm, $2.70 a gallon. I drove by the same gas station today at noon and the price was up to $2.97. $67.00 to fill that tank yesterday, but I am sure glad I did after seeing the prices today.

Sylvain, That butterfly and I made friends for just a little while. She felt comfortable resting on my hand. I had no plans to keep her confined. I just had never seen a butterfly go from the catarpillar stage to the chrysalis to the butterfly stage before. She was my first and it was very exciting, although I wish I had been able to see her emerge. Right after I got the photos, I went outside with her and she flew away to places unknown.

Molly

Bless you, Molly for setting it free.

Hi.

Gas prices went up today here. The increase amounted to 90.8 cents a canadian gallon: that means 68.1 cents for an american gallon. Your gallon is smaller than ours. Considering an exchange rate of about 24% from our dollar to yours, we are paying $5.70US per american gallon or $7.59US per canadian gallon. This is the largest increase ever at the pump and we're hopping mad. Nothing we can do! We'll bear it but we're not grinning.

Sylvain.

I think that we should all REALLY curtail our driving just for a couple of days.....see what happens.

At those prices, I'm not going out unless I absolutely have to! Sunday afternoon drives to nowhere will be a thing of the past for a long while.

Sylvain.

LOL, I have little choice, except I have another CT scan over in a Georgia hospital in the morning, which is why I got gas this morning before there wasn't any.

Good luck with that, Darius. How far do you have to drive to get there?

Sylvain