Sorry Charley

Well today we are going to hear from a guest blogger, my sister. This past weekend my sister was supposed to visit us for my daughter’s birthday, but the weather did not cooperate. She was stuck in the path of Hurricane Charley and her flight was canceled. So she had to brave it out (by herself, because everyone was up here for the weekend). So here are her thoughts on this past weekend:


Ask Anyone - I've always been a weather freak. I don't know what it is but I love the weather. My family often teases me that the Weather Channel is my favorite station (I admit - it is). So this weekend I was in my element
- I live in an area where I literally dodged Hurrcane Charley.
Starting approximately Monday of last week I became "aware" of tropical storms Bonnie & Charley(btw in my opinion he should have been named Clyde -don't you think that's more appropriate?) To be honest the only reason that they "hit my radar" was the fact that I was scheduled to fly to Atlanta to participate in the birthday party for my 2 year old neice, Ainsley over the weekend. However, on Thursday, Charley truly became part of my life.
On Thursday the Hurricane Center predicted that this storm would hit somewhere between Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties. To put this in perspective - I live in Pinellas and work in Hillsborough (btw 2 of the most populous counties in the state of FL). The forecast continued through the day and everytime continued to place the bulls eye of the storm directly between the place I live and the place I work.
O.K. so maybe I wouldn't have reacted the way I did if I wasn't a first time homeowner but for the amount of time I have lived in FL (approx. 28 years) I have never been in the direct line of a hurricane. I knew it was serious when my firm closed on Friday (they never close for anything). I rushed home on Thursday and did all the things you are supposed to do - buy the water, fill your car with gas, batteries (thanks mom and dad for your supply of "D"
batteries), pet supplies and of course beer (not Lucky beer - but that's another story). So Friday morning came and I was ready although very nervous - I've never gone thru anything like this on my OWN.
I have to say that I've never been so happy in my life when all of a sudden Charley took a turn toward the northeast taking a direct path towards the Punta Gorda area. I truly feel sorry for the people of Punta Gorda but tomorrow I will happily put back all of my patio funiture (apparently I have a lot of it- I can attest to that cause I took it off my patio yesterday
evening) and be happy that I live in FL where we can actually PREDICT disaster.
On another note, I have to tell you that when you are in the direct hit of a hurricane you tend to tune to a favorite station. Well, I found one - the local ABC channel. Funny side note - several years ago the meteorologist for this station was caught gambiling (several years ago this was a big deal). Well, this forecaster turned out to be my favorite. He made bets and predictions that turned out to be more accurate than what the hurricane center was predicting - well on top of that - he actually had a personality and a funny one at that.
So the fear is over and the relief sets in and once again we realize that we choose to live in PARADISE and as a result sometimes we have to deal with storms like Charley .