General Milton!

For the last few days, we have been worried about the newest hurricane (Milton) bearing down to take a large swipe through central Florida. I think the worst part of the storm watch, with all hurricanes, is the doom and gloom from the national media. I have had enough of the "Sky is falling" monologues especially when it comes to the storms hitting Florida. We have lived here 4 years now, and one of the first things we learned is we are going to see bad storms, that's why it is called hurricane season. We all know here that we are free to make our minds up if we need to leave or not. Floridians are a pretty self-reliant bunch of people, and hurricane parties are a blast and hurricane cleanup is a community affair. I think there are a lot of communities around the country that could really learn from people around here how to really support their neighbors and community. Oh and a shout out to our Governor and his staff. But, let me get off of my soapbox.

Our rain started coming in early Wednesday afternoon and was light through our drive home. No park time for the dogs once we got home due to the overindulgence of rain, so they were not happy. One of the staples of our daily trips is our morning and evening park time. They are very quick to remind me when it near the time to go...Everyday! Needless to say we no longer need an alarm clock to wake up we have dog tongues.

Due to the lack of internet, we use Starlink that has a hard time during big storms, we retired early. Wife reading and me, with the mystical ability to sleep whenever and however, crashed out next to her with Dougal curled up on my opposite side. About 10pm we were awaken as the wind started to blow and started worrying the animals in the house. For some reason they have to walk on us or try to bounce in between us, normally failing to miss landing on top of us. Me being lazy checked the outside via the security cameras, all looked fine, but the dogs were not having any part of it, so we all headed outside. Dougal stood on the porch with me as he does not like the rain, but he will dive into a lake without hesitation. Peaches charged into the rain as if it was a completely new experience, dancing and pouncing loving it! After a few I was able to get both dogs to potty we went back in the house and resumed my past activity.

Around 1 or 2 am the blow really hit. I am not sure if the animals woke me, I woke myself, or the wife punched me but everyone was up and nervous. Everyone wanted to be held by me, an impossible act when you have a wife, 2 dogs, and 4 cats. We ended up awake for the next few hours listening to the wind howl outside, praying that the tree roots had good purchase and were not going to make us human sandwiches. Most of that time I was reassuring the dogs and watching the outside cameras while Wife was TikToking the live weather channels. Looks like we, once again, skirted the worst part of the storm.

5:30 am Our fuzzy butts were at my face to remind me it was time for the park. Thank goodness I went to sleep early. Storm had seemed to have passed so I got ready for work, loaded the pups up, and headed to the park. Not counting a few branches down everything look better than I had anticipated (especially after listening to the news). Looks like it is going to be a great day!

Now, with this all being said, please pray for those south of us. They did get hit badly, between the hurricane and the tornados, there was a lot of death and destruction.