Hoping that everyone is staying safe and seeing the impact to many of my friends has been nothing short of devastating. Our favorite local restaurants have resorted to take-out and if they’re lucky are getting 25% of the business they’d normally receive. (Quick shout out to Blue Water Bay here in North Florida and if you’re anywhere near Maggie Valley, NC, check out Frankie’s)
The bakery has seen all events for the rest of the year cancelled… which includes weddings, graduations, caterings, and well… everything. We’ve been very grateful for all the orders to the bakery’s online store (and Yeni literally yells “woo hoo” when an order comes in).
So, AnneMarie entered our lives about 6 weeks ago, and despite all of the amazing advice from all my family and friends, I underestimated the amount of disruption a newborn brings.
TL/DR; We’re all good. No damage to the house (that we can see), power is back, Internet is back — we are very fortunate.
We started feeling some wind Sunday evening and the rain hadn’t let up since Saturday night. We received more than 12 inches of rain.
We lost power on Sunday, regained it, and then lost it hard at 1am Monday morning. The bakery lost power 11pm Sunday night. Yeni has the coolest cupcake candle, so all was good.
The hardest winds hit us around 6:30am Monday morning and we were very, very lucky. No trees hit us, although the neighborhood had it’s share of large, downed pines. Branches did come down, everywhere — but none seemed to have damaged any part of the home.
We did a quick clean-up and all looks good. Family is fine.
The bakery power was restored around 2pm and everything looks fine. The home power was restored around 6pm.
Gainesville has some major flooding but we faired well. The house is in an optimal location for this and avoided the flooding. Our biggest fear remains trees… and we lucked out.
Thanks for all your concern… Now to get back to work and to prepare my Kamailio presentation for Astricon.
Pre-storm local wildlife hanging out on our fence.
This morning (2017-09-09), Irma has decided to take a westwardly stroll towards the gulf. This is very good news for South Florida, but less exciting for us here in North Florida. Not good news for Tampa area.
For Gainesville, we now have an increased amount of wind expected. Although higher than we’d like, it still is much less than anything the islands would have experienced.
The good thing about Gainesville is we have an incredible amount of trees to help break up the wind. The bad thing? We have an incredible amount of trees that can fall down (blocking roads, hitting homes, etc.).
Here’s the thing… predicting the path of a hurricane is extremely difficult. The models change constantly. What we go by this morning will not be what we think tomorrow. It could get better… it could get worse. Like everything, time will tell. Best we can do is prepare.
We do not plan to evacuate at this time as the conditions do not warrant leaving.
He have a house full… my parents, Yeni’s parents, Yeni’s Aunt and Uncle, as well as her cousin. There’s a small dog here. Wifi has 41 devices. I reserve comment.
Sometimes a blog post is an easy way of giving a group update…
Last night the track for Hurricane Irma places Gainesville, Florida in the path of the storm. This, of course, has some friends and family a little worried— which is a great problem for us to have. It’s an amazing feeling to know people care for you.
So, first, let’s discuss Gainesville, Florida. Gainesville (where Yeni and I live) is located in North Central Florida… an area I like to call the armpit of Florida. Here’s where we are on the map (Alachua County is in orange, and then the blow-up of the county shows the City of Gainesville in red):
Gainesville, Florida and Alachua County
See why I call it the armpit?
Anyway, Gainesville happens to be one of the 10 safest cities in Florida for hurricanes (we’re ranked number 9) [source1] [source2]. This doesn’t mean that everything will be awesome. What it means is that traditionally, Gainesville fairs well during storms.
Our biggest threats here are trees (falling down). After a good storm, it’s common to see trees down and blocking roadways. Since we still have a tremendous amount of power lines above ground here, it’s also common for power outages (and Internet outages). Yes, sometimes trees fall into houses, on cars, and worse.
I’ve lived in Gainesville since 1990 and have been through a few storms in the last 27 years… I chose the location of our house based on some of the flooding I’ve seen in the area (we’re at the top part of a hill). We had a new roof put on a few years ago and a handy dandy wind mitigation survey as well.
We don’t have storm shutters… but again, wind isn’t our biggest fear in this area and it is very uncommon to have storm shutters in Gainesville. I digress.
Based on the wind speed expected to hit us on Sunday and Monday, we have decided (currently) to ride out the storm in our home. We don’t have our feet buried and leave our options open… if the storm forecast changes (and it will), we may choose to head North.
People in Florida are freaking out… I’ve never seen such lines at gas stations, craziness at stores, and traffic throughout the entire time I’ve lived in this great State (and yes, I love this state). This morning, Yeni and I had to hit Walmart for some string (cake thing) and the mobs of people even took all the bananas. Well, almost all the bananas.
Right now, we expect to be without power (and Internet) for a bit and are hoping for the best. If we change our plans, I’ll update… probably first on twitter.
Living in Florida allows you to enjoy great beaches, beautiful weather, interesting news, and incredible discounts to Disney World. The discounts make sense— we residents become “ambassadors” to the park and generally buy food, drink, and gifts during our visits.
Yeni and I purchase an annual pass each year. We meet family at the parks, hang out with friends, and enjoy days and events for just the two of us. Before Yeni and I visited the parks together, I’d go with my godkids, cousins, family, and friends.
Because of these trips, I have some great photos through the years.
I’ve loved Siracha for some time now… and having built up a decent tolerance over the years, would consume a pretty decent amount.
It could be the constant mentions in the news, or the Hipster love, but regardless the reason I seemed to have let my supply of the red sauce go dry… for about 6 months.
Last night, my wife surprised me with a new bottle, that I christened on an amazing stir-fry dish we made.
I dove in to the bottle like a madman, getting a look of shock from the in-laws.
It was good. Sometimes, you just don’t realize what you’ve missed.
Waking up this morning I was reminded of one of my favorite side effects of the lava… vividly awesome dreams. I’m talking Ashton Kutcher having me test drive an electric car in a Cannonball Run type of dream.
Ah Siracha, I missed you.
By the way, the car handled awesomely (felt great driving a manual) but I was scared that blasting the air would deplete the battery. Man, it was a vivid dream.
For the last 16 years, I’ve enjoyed Thanksgiving at my parent’s house in beautiful South Florida. Surrounded by family, the festive meal places family on the porch of the house, seated around an incredibly long table, with more food than one should eat in a single sitting.
For a few of those years, when I lived in South Florida, it was a quick drive from my place to the dinner table. Most of the years, it involves a drive down from Gainesville. Some years included a trek down from Michigan (snow and all).
