Cant Keep Quiet!

Schools were cancelled across most of Central Florida again today.  Too many places had no power or flooding to make it safe to transport using buses.

Fay is finally heading out of the area, maybe.  Who knows with this one.  She may decide to turn back on come here again.  Even on her way out, though, it is still raining, raining, raining.

Personally, I thought they should have closed schools yesterday.  I fought my car most of the way home yesterday.  At times, winds were so strong that it seemed my car was going to change lanes against my will.

I'm including a picture of part of the lake one street behind my house.  In the front of the picture is a stream that is normally about 3 feet lower than seen in the picture.  In the mid-upper region of the picture you can see some plant life just above the water.  Those plants are on a spit of land.  The plants height is normally a good 3 feet above the water line.

Technorati Tags: tropical storm Fay

I'm sure that there isn't a single resident in Florida that doesn't wish that tropical storm Fay would just go away already.  We have flooding and wind damage and homes destroyed due to tornados and Fay doesn't look she's going anywhere any time soon.

Most of this damage had been occuring on the east coast of Central Florida.  We've been getting lots and lots of rain here but no flooding to the extent Brevard County has seen.

Fay has been moving at a snails pace.  This has resulted in 2 feet of rain in some areas.  The ground just can't handle that much rain and neighborhoods have been flooding.  People have shot pictures of catfish swimming in their yards and an alligator was swimming through one neighborhood.  The alligator has been taken away.

Click here to see some of the pictures that people have taken.

Technorati Tags: flooding, tropical storm Fay

No, not the presidental race.  Hurricane season.

In 2004, school started and was in session for less then a week when hurricane Charley decided to come visiting.  This year it is Tropical Storm Fay that is expected to hit this area sometime tomorrow or Wednesday.

School started today for most counties in Central Florida.  Most of these counties have closed their public schools for tomorrow.  We won't know if we're back in session on Wednesday until tomorrow afternoon.

There are some important differences between Charley and Fay.  Charley was a level 3 hurricane when it hit Florida's shores.  It was also very, very fast.  Fay is still just a tropical storm.  It might be a level 1 hurricane when it hits Florida's southwest coast tomorrow morning.  It's also moving slowly and a bit erratically.

For a while it looked like Fay would just skirt the coast of Florida.  Now it looks like it hit between Sarasota and Naples.

Hopefully this is a one day only event for the entire hurricane season.  I definitely don't want to get into the school starts/school's on hold cycle that happened in 2004.

If you're interested, read my farewell to 2004's hurricane season.

Technorati Tags: hurricane Fay

Technically it's Tuesday, but it might as well be Monday.  At least as far as the work week goes.

This is an odd week for me.  Three out of the fours school/work days will be shortish days for me.  Due to meetings or other obligations, I'm only at my school for about 1/2 the day.  Friday will be the only full day.

It did rain today.  Sunny skies with heavy rains.  Very odd.  It lead to several rainbows, though.  I even saw the end of one rainbow.

Didn't see the pot o' gold, though.  Pity.

Technorati Tags: rain

I have decided that there are people out there that may appear to be completely sane but they must actually be throughly insane.

Earlier this afternoon it was pouring down rain. I needed to run to the store to get bread and cat food and it was raining so hard that I decided the cats could starve for an hour or so until the rain stopped . . . well, raining cats and dogs. Oh, and lightning. I forgot to mention the lightning.

Most sane people would be inside when it was raining this hard. However, while the rain beat down my neighbor's yard company pulled up. This group does two or three homes right next to each other. They always come one day and do all the homes at the same time. It typically takes them about 2 to 3 hours.

Now I figured they'd wait a bit and see if the rain stopped or eased up. At the very least, I thought they'd wait until the lightning stopped.

I was wrong, though. They pulled out their lawn mowers and chain saws and got to work. In the pouring rain.

They were still at it later when the rain had slowed to a drizzle but there was still lightning and thunder. Only now they were up in one of the palm trees cutting down fronds.

I'm not sure if their dedication to service should be applauded or if they are just flat out crazy. Personally, I'm leaning towards crazy.