Tuesday, 27 September, 11 a.m. Well, not. a. drop. of. rain. fell on us yesterday, even tho Jackie I - only a few miles from us - was drenched. Now, at 11 a.m., it's sunny. The few things left outside were brought in, or tied/nailed down '-) . . . the garage door is barred (a special bar goes down the middle to secure it) . . . Neal tells me the front doors are installed incorrectly (they should open outward, so wind pressure keeps them closed), which is why there is a bar for those, too . . . (By incorrectly, I mean for today; when this house was built, there were few, if any, hurricane restrictions on building houses.) We are under mandatory evacuation; one neighbor is leaving (he secured motel reservations early, farther north, but I don't know how safe that would be); Marie across the street is staying. We can contact each other if need be; they are on much lower ground than we are, for what that's worth, AND right on a golf course pond, complete with alligators. During H. Irma, one of Neal's dive buddies who had just installed a new screen house, went out in 85mph wind and slit all the screens; better to lose the screening than have the entire structure be twisted, he figured. We aren't doing that, but it's the only thing we really can't do anything with to prepare, altho Neal did cut out some of the low-lying bamboo culms [stalks] that could possibly pierce the screen. That is a folded-up heavy lounge chair; to the right is the dogs' potty pen. Back for another dip in the pool to cool off; I'm sure there'll be whitecaps on that water when the winds whip up. Gipsy wants to know where her toys and floats are . . .
The only item left in the pool area is Patricia & Henry's Manatee Mother & Child statue, which is very heavy . . .	>/TD>
I should be able to maintain internet connection with Neal's phone as a hotspot, if our 'lectricity goes out; emails only, he says. VERIZON, our cell phone company, just announced FREE data from Wednesday until some time in October. Right after Neal purchased $60 of data for us (which he says he can use after the freebies are over). Flashlights are loaded and ready. Sliders will be locked when the winds begin. Then all we can do is sit and watch. Planning to bake shortbread with almond flavoring after lunch; may as well use the oven whilst we still have power (also did some laundry, for that same reason). . . . And life goes on . . . time to check on today's funnies, AND AVOID ALL THE WEATHER REPORTS; the alerts we CONSTANTLY receive on our phones are scary enough. And a note of THANKS to those who are wishing us well . . . this, too, shall pass [over]. 4 p.m. Q: WHAT IS 'MANDATORY EVACUATION'? A: WELL, WE'RE ILLEGAL NOW . . . 5:30 p.m. NO WAY WOULD I WANT TO EVACUATE IN THIS . . . AND THEN WHERE TO, WITH THREE DOGS??? Tampa Traffic Jammed As Ian Prompts Evacuations So many of the people you see fleeing either live in mobile homes, in low-lying areas or in stick homes, or near the coast. There's no way we'd be in bumper-to-bumper traffic with (probably) gun-toting Floridians on a short fuse.
5:30 p.m. After two days of all this moving and decision-making, and a myriad of other things that we had to remember to do, we were both in pain and exhausted. OH NO, I can't take my usual nap outside . . . so I tried to nap on this couch . . . I TOLD Gipsy there wasn't enough room for her, but she would have none of it . . . this is where she ALWAYS naps with me, and this is where she would nap with me again. Emmie keeps watch, by day and by night; she's my CLINGY DOG (The nap didn't work out.)
10:15 p.m. It's begun to rain, very gently. Dogs were able to go out and potty, so we're all set for the night. Wednesday, 28 September, 9:30 a.m. WHAT I SHOULDA BEEN DOIN' . . . . . . instead of baking almond shortbread: Building an ark. Yep, it rained all night, sometimes gently, sometimes furiously. So what, you say . . . Florida needs to raise the water table. Well, yeah . . . BUT 10"-12" of rain + 3-4 days of sustained 60mph winds = trees down. Especially the Live Oaks and Laurel Oaks, which are extremely shallow-rooted. Luckily, ours was taken down after Irma; all other trees in our yard are palms, plus one Laurel Oak and one Magnolia. Our neighbor cut down all his trees, including two beautiful Long-Leaf Pines that have survived for over 50 years. THOSE trees have adapted to hurricane conditions.
Laurel Oak - Note how small the leaves are, compared to oaks found in the Midwest. Unfortunately, they are shallow-rooted and quite weak.
	Long Leaf Pine: Adapted to high winds by being much more "open" than pines found farther north. I can still remember the swathe of downed pine trees in our neighborhood a few years before we left Wisconsin; a freak wind just mowed them all down. The sound that the wind made thru the two were the very defination of the word sough.
ANYway, the dogs managed to go outside, altho I had to carry Emmie and force her into the pen, but they all did what they were supposed to, for however long THAT lasts. (Having written that, SweeTea made a liar out of me by running out on her own, despite the wind and rain, and using the pen.) My worse fear - not alligators, not snakes, not spiders - but 'palmetto bugs' (a Florida euphemism for cockroaches), has come true. They want to come in out of the rain as much as anything else, so yeah, I saw one about the size of a mouse last night. We checked the items we brought inside, so I've no idea where it came from. 'Nuff said about that 'cause it gives me the shivers just thinking about it. NOON: Hurricane Ian Eyewall Moving Ashore; Catastrophic Florida Strike Begins 2:30 p.m. We've had intermittant power outages, lasting a few minutes. That is ironic, as all Tarpon Woods' lines are underground. The wind is greatly increasing and gusting. 6:00 p.m. Two of my pots have fallen over from the wind; not surprisingly, as the plants (False Agave) are solid and top heavy. It's happened before and it'll happen again. I was just looking at the back yard, and am glad I kept the bushes growing; they are acting as a wind break for the yard and the screen house. WATCH AN AMUSING VIDEO HERE, AND HERE IS THE WEATHERGUY MENTIONED IN THE ABOVE VIDEO  GETTING HIT ON THE HEAD WITH A BRANCH WHILST COVERING IAN'S LANDFALL IN FT MYERS. A WONDERFUL HURRICANE READ: STORMY WEATHER, BY CARL HIAASEN, 1995 [HURRICANE ANDREW]

THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE IAN HERE