The winds are picking up a bit, though the rain is still light (at least for Florida). We both made a point of getting a shower in while we still have hot water; similarly a wash and a dishwasher load are in progress. Not that either machine is full, but it's a good instinct to keep more than normally current with cleaning at such times. The lights did flicker once while I was in the shower, so it is none too soon to get those done.
Mostly we're puttering around now; there are always things that a hurricane (like a pandemic) is a good excuse to work on. Our neighborhood was on the 6:00 news, not for what has yet happened, but for what is anticipated. There are a couple of sections that flood badly in ordinary Florida storms, and were a major disaster last hurricane. The really annoying part is that the city spent an incredible amount of money to fix the problem, and as far as I can tell it is worse than ever. As Bret Weinstein said about his beloved city of Portland, Oregon (rough paraphrase): Taxes are not theft. Taxes are the price we pay for services that we want from our government. But collecting the taxes and withholding the services—that's theft.
Anyway, so far, so good, but the eye of Ian is still far away. I keep hearing small branches fall onto our roof—may they stay small!
The other concern is tornadoes, which are often spawned by hurricanes. We've been under a Tornado Watch since 5 a.m.—may it never turn into a warning!
I just learned that we are now considered to be in the "27-inch zone" for rainfall! May it never ... you get the picture. Ian is moving s-o s-l-o-w-l-y—just 7 mph at the moment—and is expected to take eight hours to go from Kissimmee to Daytona Beach (about 75 miles). That is the crux of the problem.
We have no news about our folks in Cape Coral; we're not close enough to be on an update list, and so must get news second- or third-hand.
Unless something noteworthy happens, My next update will be in the morning.
