Good morning!

Thanks to Hurricane Florence, I may be out of touch Friday and/or... Well, I dunno, really. My area is slated for heavy heavy heavy rains, and we've just had a week of those from leftovers from a different tropcial system. I'm talking 20 inches of rain in 10 days rain. That's half the annual total. And, btw, we had that already in late May and June, soooo.... Wet year? Yes. So wet that even mushrooms can't grow. No joke. Too wet for *shrooms* to grow, y'all.

Now, that said, I am hopeful Flo will change her mind and fizzle out somewhere else and drop all that rain somewhere else, but.. Nope. *sigh* Well, at least all our bridges are rebuilt from the summer stuff. But we're already running high, so ... Yeah. Won't take much rain. And God help the poor bastards downstream.

Which reminds me: IF YOU LIVE DOWNSTREAM/RIVER of major weather events, please keep an eye on those events. Floods go one way as a rule --- down the river --- and I continue to be amazed by people who are shocked when the river floods due to heavy rains upstream. Where'd they think the water was going? *headscratch* Is this just a "Leo's an old farm fart" thing?

(Please do not parse "Leo is an old farm fart" out of context. Thank you.)

***

To-do list: sandbags. Emergency kit update. Ice. Meds. (Yep, people forget to get meds.) And thank God our roof is solid and we got the gutters and all fixed already. I would not face this mess without that. Do wish we'd had a chance to trim back a couple trees, but the big pine is just... well, is what it is. We'll lose a few small branches, but hopefully nothing major. Usually takes 12-24 inches of wet snow to snap those on a good healthy pine in my area. J

Meanwhile...

Also to-do:

Get Mom ready for all this. (ack)

Laundry.

Reschedule a few dozen things.

Strangel Primping Percy, AKA Hubby, b/c he just doesn't see why we need to be this prepared. He said that a long time about about Hurricane Isabel. We were th eonly people with hot food for 3 days. THAT is why... *facepalm* He's up there foofing his hair for work (he gels and blow dries, ladies, and takes 4 times as long as I do with my mop, but in fairness, genes bestowed upon him a lot of thick hair that has to be kept very strictly controlled or he looks like a 1980s heavy metal singer, hair-wise)... I'm asking him to just pleaes run me to home store before work... Nope, hair dryer is on! He's in his own world!

Also, TMI alert: He blow dries his hair while he's naked. Not even a towel. Gentlemen, do your women a favor. Either close the door or put on a towel if you're prone to that. Please? Some things  gal shouldn't be on eye level with as she comes up the stairs. (Yes, bath at head of stairs.)  If I wasn't a farm kid, this would have been far more traumatic, I suspect. Then again, as I said... farm kid. You see those bits flapping about on horses, cows (bulls), goats (?!) and miscellaneous, you really aren't easily fazed. Still yucky, IMHO, but I won't faint.

Anyway... If we get to the store today by 10 AM, we'll be okay. After that? Hell no.

Ironically, people here will freak out more at the idea of a hurricane than at actual weather events like tornadoes and derechos and blizzards. ??? I figure if I won't lose my roof and I won't freeze to death, I'm good... Am I weird?

Item 80,239 on the to-do list: Try to understand humans.

***

And, of coure, I'm prepped for lost kitties, but for a miracle, next door's kid came home from college specifically for this "event" and has their cats well in hand, rounded up, and cuddled. She's a good kid. (She's almost 20, FFS... Kid. Yikes. I'm old. But I've known her since she was, like, y'know, 8 or 9!) Anyway, she admired our set-up for the cats, when she came to collect them. LilMiss was NOT happy. She likes her hidey-hole in our house. Oooh, what a face!

And now to get Mom prepped as well. Gah.

I'm not saying there's no danger. I'm saying... prepare, don't panic. Y'know? Panic is for when disaster has hit and you're wondering where your hosue went sort of situation.

Isn't it odd what situations we'll panic about? Doctor office, I'ma  wreck. Hurricane, I'm like, "Eh, I got this covered." WTF?

Folks, to-do today: Figure out this puma, b/c damn, I'm weird.

***

PURRS OF POWER! and preparation to those of us requiring it (anyone from the Adirondacks to Atlanta, Georgia, basically, with rains and all)(....