Well, what ever happened to me?

I go to visit my folks and Hurricane Wilma hits my home. While visiting the folks, they had a winter storm that knocked out their power too. (It never rains but it pours.)

So, I come back home, after it was safe to a mess. The roads, power, oh gosh what a mess. The truth be told, Floridians know how to handle hurricanes. Eight named storms in fifteen months. Although no one in South Florida could see tv (unless, like us, they had a battery operated one) I could in NY and I was able to watch Jeb Bush address the Wilma situation. He was very tired. A reporter asked him something (I didn't catch what it was) and you could almost feel the tempation that the governor had to say, in as icy a tone as he could muster "Are you stuck on stupid?!?" but he resisted the urge. Instead, he said "I have 6 million people without power. What do YOU think?". Good for him.

It is now January 2006 and the clean up continues. I am grateful for the following things:

• All family and friends are alive and well
  
• No boil water order
• Power was restored relatively quickly (all things considered)
• Minor damage
• Normalcy returned relatively quickly (all things considered)
• The land line never failed, so I could talk to my family the entire time, even through the storm
  
• Wilma did not stall over S. Fl - she was powerful and passed quickly. If Wilma stalled, the damage might have been incredibly severe.
  

After any hurricane, the germs are stirred up. Katrina left the "Katrina Cough" but I swear, I had the "Wilma Wheeze". It took weeks to get over it. Perhaps it was the drain of recovery, no energy, wheezing, coughing, hacking, sneezing, couldn't sleep, awful miserable achy, overall weakness. It seemed like everyone had it.

I sent home from NY two huge boxes of batteries, since I knew they would be hard to come by. One hour after receiving them, the power was restored to my house. Go figure.

The longer you live in Florida, the more battery operated back up equipment you have.