"September 2017" "What's for Dinner?"

bethk wrote:Yeah, only I'm not as nice as she was.......LOL

bethk wrote:The wind has picked up, comes in waves, and we've had about 3" of rain so far.  They predict our area will have the strongest winds around 2 a.m.  Hopefully it will be on the downside by daybreak.

Glad you've still got power, Beth. I hope all is well during the night and that things look brighter in the morning.

PUMPKIN PIE!

Oh, my oh my! I'd love me a big old slice of Pumpkin Pie!!!

Hi everyone - this is Beth's daughter.  Mom sent me a text this morning and wanted me to post for her.  They are fine and she believes they are through the worst of the wind. The power is still on but their cable/internet is out.  She will return as soon as she can.  

I did ask her what she was planning for dinner and she told me leftovers of ham and scalloped potatoes.

(Now she has me hungry for that, but I can't make it tonight because I sent DD with ham and potato chowder in her lunchbox!)

bethk wrote:Hi everyone - this is Beth's daughter.  Mom sent me a text this morning and wanted me to post for her.  They are fine and she believes they are through the worst of the wind. The power is still on but their cable/internet is out.  She will return as soon as she can.  

I did ask her what she was planning for dinner and she told me leftovers of ham and scalloped potatoes.

(Now she has me hungry for that, but I can't make it tonight because I sent DD with ham and potato chowder in her lunchbox!)

Thanks, Andrea, for letting us know your parents are doing fine.  I'm glad they've still got power, as there's nothing worse than being hot and sweaty and Beth made it plain she was dreading that. Losing cable is definitely preferable to power.

We've enjoyed seeing pictures and hearing tales of Josh and Tori when they've visited their grandparents. You sure have cute kids.  Love seeing the pics of Tori baking with Beth, too, especially those Apple Roses.

Again, many thanks for the update.  

That is great about Beth. I wasn't too worried when she said she had orange juice and vodka.

My nephew is in a high rise in Miami. He never lost power. He said you can't go anywhere because of all the downed trees and power lines. He thinks it was much ado about nothing. Better safe than sorry is what I say. It could have been a category 5 when it hit Miami.

Here are some photos of the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans (a high rise) when we thought it was okay to count on "vertical evacuation." The mayor and all the city's powers that be were hunkered down in the Hyatt prior to and during the storm. What happened at the Hyatt cured most people in New Orleans from thinking they were safe in a high rise.  

Those pictures really look scary.

JEEEZ.... That is terrible! My nephew was lucky. When I was watching the news yesterday, a newsman, holed up in a hotel, showed us the cracks that ran all through his CAT3 hurricane glass. So much for that being a safety feature.

We may complain about our snow up here, but we don't get hurricanes or earthquakes........... YET!

One of the things that I miss a lot is anything done on a BBQ. I really, really love a grilled steak. I have some great beef ribs defrosting for my dinner tonight. They become passable, actually pretty good in the oven, but grilled is best. I don't understand the people who say they don't like beef. I really enjoy foods with a lot of flavour............. beef, venison, anything wild tasting, gamey.

So far, thank goodness, I have no problems like that. I have no allergies, I seem to have a cast iron stomach!

There's really no place that's totally safe from a Category 5. What lots of people don't realize, or perhaps consider, is that quite often there are tornados that occur in the midst of the hurricane where the winds are much higher than those of the storm itself.  

We realize when we stay in place during a severe hurricane that we are possibly risking our lives, but it's a decision we choose to make. When Katrina came ashore in Louisiana, it was a Category 3 (SUSTAINED winds of 100–140 miles per hour), and look at the damage it did to that Hyatt Hotel.  

A Category 5 storm is sustained winds of OVER 156 mph!  I was in high school when Hurricane Camille, a Cat 5, hit Mississippi.  Camille's 190 mph sustained winds at landfall were the highest winds ever recorded for a U.S. land-falling hurricane. Camille also drove a record storm surge of 22.6 feet to Pass Christian, Mississippi.  Pretty much nothing was left in that part of Mississippi -- no lie, nothing.  Pictures just showed the occasional toilet where huge houses used to be.  Whole apartment buildings that were popular in the late 60s -- you know, the huge type with the swimming pools in the center -- were just GONE.  Nothing left. What the wind didn't destroy, the storm surge took.

Look at poor Key West. I heard on the news a few minutes ago that FEMA said based on initial estimates, 25% of the houses on Florida Keys have been destroyed, while another 65% suffered major damage (before sending this message, I heard on TV that 35% of the houses in the Keys were destroyed). They said every house in the Keys was impacted some way. Though we don't evacuate, I would've been hard pressed not to leave a place in the Keys; being surrounded by water AND enduring those winds, without even considering storm surge, would have made me leave. I still find it hard to believe people stayed there during such a storm. They're made of better stock than I am, though some of the ones who lived through it are already saying on television that they'd NEVER do that again!

I'm back online! Yes, It's ME!!!

Cable and internet came back on about 10 minutes ago. That was our final missing piece.

Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers ~ it must have worked because we are none the worse for wear and have checked "SURVIVING A HURRICANE" off our life bucket list. Don't wish to do that ever again.

The house is more or less back in order. We moved the majority of movable things from the courtyard into the house or garage so they wouldn't become projectiles in the high winds. By the time the storm made landfall on the west coast and came up the middle of the state the winds had died down to a Cat 1 (75 - 80 mph) and we realize it could have been much worse. One of the weather reports said we had gusting in the 100 - 115 mph range but it wasn't sustained.

But it's a lot of wind. When I couldn't stay awake any longer the wind was still coming from the north / northeast and when I got up 4 hours later the 'eye' had passed and the winds were coming from the south / southwest ~ how's that for a life science lesson? LOL We were very, VERY fortunate to not lose power at all during the storm. Thank heavens the developer had the vision to try to have all electrical utilities buried! No falling trees to pull down power lines or poles.

There is some minor flooding, no flooding of homes that we've seen, but a few streets. The lakes (retention ponds) are overflowing but the water will recede in the next few days to be sure. There are brigades of 'volunteers' who come out to clear the roadways of palm fronds and branches. I would think within a week you'll never know we had a hurricane blow through here.

And we are very grateful for the top notch weather forecasting and the advance notice we had so we could prepare. The Governor was on TV constantly giving updates on what to expect. Yes, the storm track changed from making landfall on the East coast to the West.....but the storm was so large it covered the entire state so everyone got a bit of a hit.

Tonight we had our final 'hurricane' leftovers meal ~ the second half of the Krafty Crescent Lasagna and a big bowl of salad. It was as good reheated as it was the first night!

I did get a good night's sleep last night and I expect to sleep well again tonight.....it's amazing how not sleeping one or two nights really takes a toll on old bodies!

Welcome back! I'm happy that all is well.

Were you able to make that orange juice stretch?

I'll join the group in welcoming our Fearless Leader back to the world of the Internet! Glad everything turned out so wonderful for you and Dane. Now comes the fun part of moving everything back outside and then cleaning up the area where all those things were. Hope you were able to fit all of them in the lanai where the floor is probably tile -- easier to clean, you know?

Sure am glad the storm weakened a bit before it hit Florida proper -- or more of the state would possibly looked like the poor Keys right now! I'm flabbergasted at all the flooding going on in Jacksonville -- my heart goes out to them like it does for poor Houston and the Texas environs. If the water sits as long as it did in Katrina -- two weeks in some areas -- the SMELL is atrocious, or so people said, as we were lucky to be in Houston for 7 weeks after that storm.

I was looking at pics of the Virgin Islands and other islands this morning and the devastation is truly mind boggling. And with tourism making up most of the economies of most of those islands, coming back from that type of destruction and rebuilding will be so expensive and will take so long. Just think that most things they need to rebuild will have to be BROUGHT to the islands.

New Orleans was so lucky as people came to visit soon after the storm, and so very many contributed sweat equity in our city while here, helping to rip out sheetrock, clean up peoples houses full of mud, muck and God knows what, and spending money to help the city's economy, all at the same time. It began back then but we STILL to this day thank people we meet who are visiting, and I think most New Orleanians do as well. Church groups, families with kids, service organizations, singles, couples -- you wouldn't believe the help people sent our way and STILL send our way. You know a person is special to be so kind to spend part, or all, of their vacation time breaking their backs to help strangers rebuild their homes and our city. Truly good souls that no one will ever forget as long as we're on this earth.