Tampa Bay Area - Friday afternoon

I was beginning to really feel like my life has been on hold the past month, with waiting and waiting and watching one storm after another. It's getting very tiring.

On Friday afternoons I go to a Jazzacize class, and I almost skipped it but decided to force myself to do more than keep my eyes glued on the tv. So I walked to class, and it was good to get out. Only 4 people showed up so I guess the rest were out getting ready again for the storm.

When I got home, I decided to go to get some more "STUFF" to prepare. I know it's kind of nuts. My husband tells me we cant find the food for the water bottles I've been throwing into our big deep freeze and he is very right. I told him if I'm wrong and the storm passes or does not come our way, then so be it, I'll never have to buy bottled water for a year. IF I'm right and we lose power at least we will have cold water for a week or so. I HOPE I'm wrong.

EVERYONE in the bay area is taking this storm seriously. All the stores are empty. Three are lines 40-50 deep waiting in line for plywood. Supplies are dwindling and stores are stating to look like war zones. I went to one store to look for extra batteries, and they were about all gone. I got home and put some batteries in my radio (that I never use) and found it really did not work good, so tomorrow I am going to go out and look for a new one. I do have a wrist one that I wear when I walk however, I would be the only one that could hear that so I thought that would be rude.

I went to the grocery store and bought more snack food, water and diet cokes. All the time, I keep thinking how NUTS this is, but it's comforting to be doing SOMETHING. While I was out, I tried to get gas for hubbys truck, but there was none to be had. All the stations had plastic bags over the handles so I decided not to waste gas driving around looking for it, since I have to go out tomorrow anyway.

My neighbors finally got back their power from Frances today (YIPPPEEE). They were out for 6 days. I kept thinking how hard that would be to be without power 6 days in this heat. Also, I kept thinking in the back of my mind, and wondering.... if they were to have power back to enjoy for a weekend only to lose it again. How horrible for all those saints from electric companies that came here from as far away as Michigan, to work 18-20 hour days restoring all the power, and then see this HORRIBLE IVAN looming in the distance. It seems never ending here.

I remember thinking when I checked out of the grocery store, that these stores are really making a lot of money selling batteries, water, and plywood....yet the groceries LOST a ton too last week, when all the fozen foods and meats had to be thrown out. I was sick to see the waste, yet NONE of the food was donated ... I guess because corporations were afraid of being sued. Yet it did seem wasteful to see them throw out loaves of bread. They consider anything not canned or boxed, perishable ( even the bread). Thinking of all those without food, it made me sick to see the waste.

I don't want to watch the TV anymore yet it's hard NOT to turn it on and watch to see how much time we have this time before the monster lurks. In my county, all schools are closed again Monday and UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE they say. While I'm sure the kids LOVE that, it's certainly not easy learning with so many distractions.

They told us on TV if we had weekend plans to go and "ENJOY" as the storm would not be here at least till Monday. I was thinking GEE how can you go ENJOY when there is no gas to be had, and traffic is slowed to one lane on many flooded roads, and then you waste tons of gas trying to find gas. NOT at all a fun place to be right now.

I watched one Talk show this afternoon, and on it a poor lady called in worried to death. Due to the storms she had not worked for 3 weeks, and was worried about NO INCOME. She said she was concerned about being behind in her house payments and not having money for groceries and supplies to bunker down. Many people that have jobs outside or weather related were unable to work. No work, No pay. Again I counted my blessings for the fact that I am NOT dependent on a JOB for my income, having build residual income over the past years. http://trueteamwork.com That is a blessing when times like these come along.

With many people totally flooded out of their homes on our rivers, roads flooded, and seeing lakes where there were NONE a month ago, the last thing we need is more rain OR storm surges. The weather patterns are very very strange. There have always been hurricanes and storms, but NEVER EVER have there been 3 back to back like this, without time to even recover from one without getting slammed with another.

I've had friends and family tell me to "GET OUT", yet where do you go? I'm much better where I am than trying to flee with no gas, and then having the storm follow me. When you live in a state with MILLIONS, dumping them all on the road to evacuate, clogs the roads, and then how do you get back to return to your homes?

Getting out, sounds like an easy thing, but it's a very big decision. I'll stay and take my chances. I also have other relatives and friends that live in mobile homes or low lying areas so they end up leaving to come to stay with me.

So..... we can only now wait again and keep on praying this too will miss us or go back to a tropical storm.