The Next Month

Boy how things change. Storms have passed and I've finally ventured out to check round and fortunatley found most of my area intact. Driving across north Tampa, most of our power has been restored, you see signs down, broken trees, and debree but nothing really MAJORLY bad like our poor friends to the south and north. I know there are many areas around here that have been flooded and I feel bad for them. Comparied to the other parts of our state I feel truly blessed.

Now.. 2 storms Frances and Jeanne passed directly over us. What a difference though.

With Frances we had company and we all sort or were glued to the tv and really focused on the storm.
Frances also was noisy and LONG...days long and the winds howled. The news only gave info mostly effecting our area so our company didn't know what was going on in their area about 70 miles away.

With Jeanne we had only myself and my father in law. Our other friends decided to stay home and watch from there. With Jeanne also, the week before I found an EXCEPTIONAL new product line to add to my business and I was totally engrossed in showing the product to as many as I could because in the back of my mind I knew if I lost power, It may be weeks before I could share so I spent the entire day on the phones and online, so didn't pay as much attention to the storm other than to see the winds and rain out my office window.

FORTUNATELY, I did not lose power OR cable OR phones, so I got to stay online and on the phone the entire day. I found my mental state much better than being focused so much on tragedies and the scary storm also those I showed my new tool to were EXCITED and blown away that something so simple, could be so powerful and help them in their business.

Should you have a business or want to use a tool that will make your life much easier, feel free to write me or go to my own site at http://mlmblonde.com/contact and fill in your information and tell me you want me to demo this new product to you. It will take 5 minutes of your time and I can guarantee it, if you see this and use it, it will DEFINITELY improve your customer renention and referrals for you no matter WHAT you do. It's too cool. (just put a note on the form that you want me to show you the demo, so I will know )

ANYWAY back to the hurricanes, people are sending all sorts of funny jokes, one of them I saw our state moved up to ND, another I saw a big cloud over our entire state with a note as to us being under it, I've seen our state renamed to the Plywood state, another graphic with our state under sheets of plywood.

Today someone sent me the following ways to KNOW if you are a TRUE Floridian which I will post here:

At least they still have a sense of humor!!!YOU MIGHT BE A FLORIDIAN IF..........

You have more than 20 C and D batteries in your kitchen drawer.

The freezer in your garage is full of homemade ice.

You flinch when you are introduced to a person named Charley, Frances, Ivanor Jeanne.

You find yourself dropping words like "millibar", "convection","hunkerdown", "eye wall" into everyday conversation.

Your pantry contains more than 10 cans of Spaghetti Os.

Making coffee on your propane grill does not seem like an odd thing to do.

You are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood covering yourwindows.

When describing your house to a prospective buyer, you say it has threebedrooms, two baths and one safe place.

You are on a first-name basis with the cashier at Home Depot.

You are delighted to pay $2 for a gallon of unleaded.

The road leading to your house has been declared a No-Wake Zone.

You decide that your patio furniture looks better on the bottom of the pool.

You have the number for FEMA on your speed dialer.

You own more than three large coolers.

You can wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the leastbit guilty about it.

Three months ago you couldn't hang a shower curtain; today you can assemblea portable generator by candlelight.

You catch a 5-pound catfish. In your driveway.

You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowners insurancepolicy.

At cocktail parties, women are attracted to the guy with the biggest chainsaw.

You have had tuna fish more than 5 days in a row.

There is a roll of tar paper in your garage.

You can rattle off the names of three or more meteorologists who work at theWeather Channel.

Someone comes to your door to tell you they found your roof.

Ice is a valid topic of conversation.

Relocating to North Dakota does not seem like such a crazy idea.

You never have more than $20 worth of meat, and frozen foods in your refrigerator at any given time.

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The jokes are sort of sad but true. It's a good thing we Floridians have a good sense of humor. After all, we can't vote right, as we can't punch those little "chads" . So they gave us electronic machines, with computers that can't count. We messed up the last 2 nationwide elections down here, and now we've weathered the past 4 direct hits from hurricanes.

We're weathered but TOUGH. So back to the drawing board, I've got lots more demos to do to help others before I hear the NEXT one is headed this way. Last time I turned on the TV, Lisa was going away and I have not heard further if Mathew is coming along, but this weekend it's a beautiful mild and sunny day out, with light breezes.

Unfortunately I WISH we would get a little stronger breeze to knock down the broken branches way up in the oak tree that are hanging by just a thread. Can't put my car in the one driveway safely till we get those down, and of course we are on the WAITING list for at least a dozen tree companies. Unless your tree split your house in half, you are NOT a priority in hiring tree labor in Florida....so we have to wait till our # comes up or the branches up there get SHOOK down as they need a buckt truck to get to where they are.

On a positive note, at least we have a new mail box and the debree from Jeanne has already been picked up. That a good thing.

The other funny thing that happened in my city, is our BRILLIANT city manager decided to "COMMUNICATE" with our community daily to let us know what's happening in cleaning up the messes. Well our city was NOT hit all that hard. I happen to be on the crime watch with a neighbor. The CITY voted without telling us, that the crime watch people can be COMMAND central for their neighborhood. Well that SOUNDS good, but what it really means is they drop off 200 PLUS copies of what's happening for us to walk around to EVERY house in the subdivison, which is 4 streets each 3 blocks long and 2 side streets, a task that would take 1-2 hours a DAY.

They wanted us to deliver these DAILY like you get a newspaper (do I look like newspaper delivery???) LOL

It would be one thing if our neighborhood was devastated and no one had power and we all needed the information quickly, but instead it looked like repeated information each day.

Things like THIS: (My commenst follow in brackets)

1 We do NOT have to Boil our water. (HMMMM ok so what's new. I would think I would NEED to know if I HAD to boil my water Not the other way around. SO what if I didn't know and boiled it anyway...nothing lost)

2. IF you have damage, you need to make temporary repairs till the adjuster comes (DUH like who would not cover a hole in the roof?)

3. School is closed on Monday ( HMMM why did I need to know that on WED)

4. For those without power, they are working on restoring it. You will see trucks in your neighborhood when they are working on yours (DUH)

Anyway you get the IDEA. Our brilliant city manager in an effort to communicate decides we should all run around the neighborhood giving these sheets out daily (and who paid for all the paper and copies....taxpayers). NICE GESTURE but not too much thought in it. When I called and mentioned I thought it was a LOT to ask people to run around for 2 hours every night delivering information that is outdated before they get it. They told us WELL we have one watch that an 87 year old lady delivered over 200 by herself.

GEES I was thinking, that's NUTS. I guess when you're 87 you probably have a lot of time, or one of those carts to ride around in. I don't have an extra 2 hours a day to deliver one sheet of paper to hundreds.

Back to the drawing boards.