Weary Wednesday

VarunaTT

Well, I spoke too soon.  Harley decided to play F1 last night...which was fine, but she was also announcing.    We got through it though and she eventually settled down.  I had fed her the wet food when I got home from work and I think we'll be switching that back to the morning so she has time to work out her energy/excitement.

Not too much going on right now.  I don't even have any movie tickets until this Sunday (another Studio Ghibli film).  The weather seems to be taking a bit of a break finally and it hasn't been disgustingly hot since last week.

banana468

It's Chiquito's birthday!

Little guy is 9 today and is off to school.   He's not too pleased that he has soccer after school but he signed up so we're pushing him to keep up his commitments.  We'll have dinner and dessert and presents when he gets home. 

DH's best friend is coming to stay for a few days with his wife and daughter.  They'll get in late tonight, let themselves in and crash.  We still have to work for a few days but it'll be a fun time to see them for a bit longer.  Only sad part is the quantity of cleaning I need to get done before they show up!  I'm forgetting what it's like to have a toddler in the house and how much goes straight into the mouth! 

mrsconn23

Happy Birthday Chiquito!!   

SIL and nieces are showing up any time now.  They weren't supposed to be here until Friday morning, but Idalia had different plans. Even though they're pretty inland, Idalia is still supposed to be a cat 1 when it hits the FL/GA line where they live.  Everything has already shut down in their area.  BIL is happy they're gonna be here early. 

FIL left for the farm this morning because his brother who lives in CA is going to be in town for the weekend and he wanted to spend extra time with him.  If he was in town, he'd be at my house for the next 2 days camped out because SIL/nieces will be here. It's the little things.  LOL 

DH's cousin is also coming in tomorrow to stay the night before we all caravan out to the farm Friday morning. DH's cousin's parents own the farm. 

I got the best sleep last night that I've probably had in about 3 weeks.  It may not happen again for 3 weeks, so I'll take it.  

SSDD, for hurricane season, otherwise.  

Casadena

Happy Birthday, Chiquito! 

I decided to WFH today bc i'm not super busy so i can get ahead of packing and maybe light cleaning before we leave on Friday morning. Tomorrow will be busy with a quick appt for G, breakfast, zoo, and then IL's are babysitting while H and I go to the Brandi Carlile concert! I'm so excited. The venue is BYO everything so we have to drag lawn chairs, blanket, and pack a bunch of food/drinks so i need to figure that all out today too! Should be fun. 

climbingsingle

Happy birthday Chiquito! 

Woke up to a thunderstorm and then it poured on my drive in. Thankfully it seems to have passed now and the sun is trying to come out. 
Mostly SSDD. 

CharmedPam

Happy birthday chiquito! Try to stay wound free today! 

Glad you found a lil F1 buddy @Var@VarunaTT
@mrsconn23 you are BUSY!
enjoy Brandi @Casadena,  I couldn’t find anyone to go to it with me  meetup is a concert going group, but usually the freebie ones 

SSDD here. I had enough time on my way in this morning that I stopped at McDonald’s for an iced coffee.  Their “new bolder flavor” really is good! Comparable to starbucks but, of course, cheaper! May be a new morning staple for me.  I have some sf pumpkin spice syrup here at work.

charlotte989875

M woke up with a fever so he’s home and we’re watching Daniel Tiger. Of course this happens even I have a ton of work and H has a meeting he can’t move. 

short+sassy

@mrsconn23, that's kinda good timing for your SIL and nieces, since they were planning to come visit you all anyway.  At least they can come in a couple days early and avoid the bad weather.

Prayers for FL.  I hope people have evacuated who need to.  I feel like a broken record saying that every year, but there are always people who don't.

It is so stupid, I can't even.  A storm is one thing.  I can kind of understand "gambling" it will be safe enough, especially if you are on higher ground.  But when a mandatory evacuation order is called, that also signals there will be no emergency services available.  No police.  No EMTs/ambulances.  If you show up at the hospital, you might be turned away.  That's the kind of thing I find even scarier.  It quickly becomes a real life version of "Lord of the Flies".

As an aside, what moron was in charge of setting up the storm names for this year?  Hurricane IDA was a major hurricane that hit Louisiana last year.  And the "I" name for this year?  Idalia.  Are you kidding me?  There's tons of "I" female names.  Why pick one SO similar to a major hurricane that happened only a year ago.

Ugh, I need to focus on the future.  We're planning to visit Cincinnati in late October*, though haven't made travel plans yet.  Assuming things go well and we like it, we are going to be blanketing that city with our resumes.  I have got to get out of here.  I swear to God, this is going to be the last hurricane season I'm stuck here worrying about my insurance rates and "will I have to evacuate this year".  Unfortunately, real estate keeps dropping in value here because of that.  But I can't cry over spilled milk or go back in time and sell 2 years ago.  Though I really wish I could, lol.

*I totally looked up if it ever snows in October, in Cincinnati.  Because I've never driven in snow and I don't need that challenge while visiting a new city, lol.  The average October snowfall for Cincy is 2 days and 0.35".  So good chances it won't and that's probably/hopefully only at night.  The average Oct. high temps are 56 degrees.

Obviously I will need to learn to drive in snow if I move there.  But I would like my first attempts to be "16-year-old learning how to drive" style...in a big, empty parking lot, lol.  And then on fairly empty streets, on a weekend.

short+sassy

CharmedPam said:

Happy birthday chiquito! Try to stay wound free today! 

Glad you found a lil F1 buddy @Var@VarunaTT
@mrsconn23 you are BUSY!
enjoy Brandi @Casadena,  I couldn’t find anyone to go to it with me  meetup is a concert going group, but usually the freebie ones 

SSDD here. I had enough time on my way in this morning that I stopped at McDonald’s for an iced coffee.  Their “new bolder flavor” really is good! Comparable to starbucks but, of course, cheaper! May be a new morning staple for me.  I have some sf pumpkin spice syrup here at work.

At first I read this as "ice cream".  Like those little vanilla cones they have.  Which, every once in awhile, I get a craving for.  I like that they are small and have a simple vanilla taste.

And was thinking, "Huh. That's unusual. But hey, ice cream for breakfast is one of the few perks to adulting, lol."

banana468

@short+sassy I'm so sympathetic to the people who can't evacuate due to socioeconomic issues.   But I lose a lot of sympathy for the curmudgeons who refuse to leave because their home is somehow an extension of who they are and they won't leave it.

We don't have the issues on the same scale as Florida but are a shoreline town.  In the two places DH and I have lived in town we aren't in the evacuation areas but the houses closest to the water are.  Some areas have more than one way in or out so you can roll the dice and hope you're not making a dumb choice.  But there's a full group of streets that connect to one main road in and out.  And for those who stay put, all they need is one pine or oak to fall and suddenly they're SOL.    My neighbors are in the volunteer fire dept and they encountered one such person who refused to evacuate years ago until the fire dept people said, "So have you told next of kin?" and at that point it seemed to dawn on him that they made zero guarantees that anyone would be able to show up in the case of an emergency.

My street is a cut-through so we can get around if there's an issue.  During Sandy we had an oak across the street within eyesight of my front door for 5 days.  

CharmedPam

Yes I saw some news coverage today on Hurricane Idalia.  The eye isn’t even there yet and all that flooding is heartbreaking. The homes and businesses that will be wrecked.  I WAS thinking today “people go through this every year?!? The fear!”  This is why I chose a December cruise, out of hurricane season. i’ll take snow tyvm.  

@short+sassy, Cinci should be fine end of October.  Actually, I would think perfect if you like all the colors.  Our snowy weather is being pushed out further and further every year.  We often dont have a white Christmas anymore. But it also means a later spring, If any at all. 

And I totally would do ice cream for breakfast.  It IS one of the best things of adulting. I can order what I want, when I want.  Even if my mom’voice is in my head. 

ei34

Happy birthday to chiquito!
Sending vibes @short+sassy and anyone impacted by the hurricane.

Dealing with an annoying headache but otherwise pretty SSDD.

short+sassy

banana468 said:

@short+sassy I'm so sympathetic to the people who can't evacuate due to socioeconomic issues.   But I lose a lot of sympathy for the curmudgeons who refuse to leave because their home is somehow an extension of who they are and they won't leave it.

We don't have the issues on the same scale as Florida but are a shoreline town.  In the two places DH and I have lived in town we aren't in the evacuation areas but the houses closest to the water are.  Some areas have more than one way in or out so you can roll the dice and hope you're not making a dumb choice.  But there's a full group of streets that connect to one main road in and out.  And for those who stay put, all they need is one pine or oak to fall and suddenly they're SOL.    My neighbors are in the volunteer fire dept and they encountered one such person who refused to evacuate years ago until the fire dept people said, "So have you told next of kin?" and at that point it seemed to dawn on him that they made zero guarantees that anyone would be able to show up in the case of an emergency.

My street is a cut-through so we can get around if there's an issue.  During Sandy we had an oak across the street within eyesight of my front door for 5 days.  

That's a good point.  But there are a lot of resources for people, both for transportation and definitely for places to stay.  Initially, it might be shelters which isn't great.  But at least people are safe.  However, usually within 1-2 days of a weather event there are programs that will pay for affected people's hotel rooms.

There's also usually some kind of money and/or SNAP (food stamps) help.  But that also comes a bit later.

One of the harshest parts is losing income from your employment.  But that would be true whether someone evacuates or not.

I think Hurricane Katrina (18-year anniversary was yesterday) was a big wake-up call.  Most of what I just described didn't exist back then.  But it does now.

I know for sure some of the changes that were made after Katrina was in regards to pets.  It used to be that pets weren't allowed at shelters or in evacuation transports, like buses and even helicopters (dire circumstances).  People didn't leave because they couldn't take their pets.  Of all the reasons I can be hugely sympathetic about to not evacuate, it's this one.  But now pets are accepted for those things, as long as they don't pose a danger.

There was also a federal law put in place after Katrina that hotels/motels have to accept guests with pets, if they are coming from a place with a mandatory evacuation order in place.

My H and I did evacuate for Katrina.  Back then, we only had one pet.  Our cat Nip.  NGL, we hid her when we checked into hotels.  They might have been pet-friendly, but I didn't want to ask in case they weren't.  I normally think that's super shitty behavior.  But it's not like this was a planned vacation where we could have carefully chosen a pet-friendly hotel or called up ahead of time to check on that.

banana468

Agree.  I'm more sympathetic to the Katrina situation especially when it's so hard that those who were paycheck to paycheck were also likely living in the homes that were more likely to be flooded.   

short+sassy

banana468 said:

Agree.  I'm more sympathetic to the Katrina situation especially when it's so hard that those who were paycheck to paycheck were also likely living in the homes that were more likely to be flooded.   

SIB:

For sure a lot of poverty in NOLA and many people live paycheck to paycheck. It does make the struggle more keen when events like this happen to people that are already on a financial teeter-totter.  But to be fair, the bolded part isn't true.  The entire city is below sea level and prone to flooding fairly equally.  It's also protected by levees.  The NOLA Katrina disaster was primarily from two different levees that got overtopped, which caused a section(s) to collapse.

The worst hit neighborhoods were the ones closest to those levee breaches.  Those are the houses with the horror pictures of people on their roofs and the flood waters engulfing most of the house.

One of those neighborhoods was a poorer neighborhood.  Another piece of info to add extra sadness is it was an older neighborhood that also had a high rate of home ownership, something like 68%.  People had lived in those homes for generations.

But the other neighborhood was a pretty wealthy one.  It was just the luck of the draw, in this case unlucky.

And Katrina wasn't even the worst case scenario for NOLA.  The direct hit was the MS Gulf Coast, which is about 100 miles away.

I always felt a little bad for MS.  NOLA is a bigger and more well known city, so they got all the media attention.  But the devastation in the coastal MS towns was even worse.  Some people didn't just flood.  Their entire house was washed away.  I saw a crazy picture where a Dole ship container had floated into a residential neighborhood.  And then when the waters receded, landed on and crushed three homes.  It was a bit extra macabre because since it was Dole, it was a "happy" looking container with brightly colored fruit on it.

Casadena

CharmedPam said:

Happy birthday chiquito! Try to stay wound free today! 

Glad you found a lil F1 buddy @Var@VarunaTT
@mrsconn23 you are BUSY!
enjoy Brandi @Casadena,  I couldn’t find anyone to go to it with me  meetup is a concert going group, but usually the freebie ones 

SSDD here. I had enough time on my way in this morning that I stopped at McDonald’s for an iced coffee.  Their “new bolder flavor” really is good! Comparable to starbucks but, of course, cheaper! May be a new morning staple for me.  I have some sf pumpkin spice syrup here at work.

If there's ever another concert you don't have a buddy for let me know! I'm usually up for most live music and definitely need to get out more, lol. 

MyNameIsNot

short+sassy said:

As an aside, what moron was in charge of setting up the storm names for this year?  Hurricane IDA was a major hurricane that hit Louisiana last year.  And the "I" name for this year?  Idalia.  Are you kidding me?  There's tons of "I" female names.  Why pick one SO similar to a major hurricane that happened only a year ago.

Fun fact, they don't actually name the storms as they come. There's a rotating list of storm names that repeats every few years. But then for really bad storms (like Katrina) they'll retire it and replace it with something else. You can go look up now what will be the third named storm in 2038, assuming it isn't retired between now and then. 

Anyway, nothing much exciting here. We're getting outer bands of Idalia that are really just thunderstorms. We had a couple of trees come down in the neighborhood last night, but no real damage from what I've seen. We've got a game tonight so I'm hoping it doesn't get too bad. 

short+sassy

MyNameIsNot said:

short+sassy said:

As an aside, what moron was in charge of setting up the storm names for this year?  Hurricane IDA was a major hurricane that hit Louisiana last year.  And the "I" name for this year?  Idalia.  Are you kidding me?  There's tons of "I" female names.  Why pick one SO similar to a major hurricane that happened only a year ago.

Fun fact, they don't actually name the storms as they come. There's a rotating list of storm names that repeats every few years. But then for really bad storms (like Katrina) they'll retire it and replace it with something else. You can go look up now what will be the third named storm in 2038, assuming it isn't retired between now and then. 

Anyway, nothing much exciting here. We're getting outer bands of Idalia that are really just thunderstorms. We had a couple of trees come down in the neighborhood last night, but no real damage from what I've seen. We've got a game tonight so I'm hoping it doesn't get too bad. 

I knew the name list is created ahead of time and that names repeat, unless retired.  Though I had forgotten how far in the future they set the list up for.

But it's still stupid they picked two very similar "I" names for their master list.  Especially if the names are repeated in the same order.  Because then it would always be an Ida after an Idalia.

I'm glad the damage in your all's area has been minimal.