Trying to reason with the Hurricane Season

[Jims5543]

Wind is coming out of the south now and hard. Lights have blinked a lot but so far still have power.

I am guessing we are in for another 3 hours of a bad time then it will taper off.


The eye wall seems to be breaking up.

The wind is loud as fuck and unnerving. I am drinking to keep calm, I am quietly freaking out inside. Trying not to alarm everyone in the house.

I have done multiple patrols around the house and everything seems to be holding up.

Ready for this to be over.

I am ready fo file for my FEMA relief, look at this destruction.

[gr8kornholio]

The wind noise would definitely drive me nuts.  There was a hurricane that came up through Houston probably 10+ years ago that held together pretty well all the way to Dallas area.  The constant howling of the wind over the roof and chimney all day was insane.  Couldn't turn the TV up loud enough to drown it out.  I'll have a drink with you and toast to better weather ahead.

[94touring]

Stuck in Canada with only CNN. I gather you probably died scared.

[Jims5543]

My posts will be out of order and jumbled.  We made it through with no damage at all. My house lost power the night of the storm, then lost internet AFTER the storm was gone. Go figure! Whole house propane generator is gold!  I just lined up a delivery of propane tomorrow, I am at 50% tank capacity, seems to be using 10% per day. Delivery tomorrow will get me 10 more days.

My office, with no shutters or any protection, on the 2nd floor, is perfectly fine, power, internet all in tact. Like nothing happened.

We came within 100 miles of the storm passing to the west of us, we were in the NE quadrant which is the worst part.

My buddy up in Melbourne lost some of his roof and a lot of trees. He took a beating, I saw on the radar, the feeder bands that missed us hit him. They were nasty too, their color on the radar rivaled the eye wall.

My storage unit is fine as well the BMW's are both fine and just a little dusty from the wind blowing accumulated dust off the rafters in the ceiling.

We did good, my yard was a complete mess.

Conversation today with Field Dori discussing that none of my clients are open yet as most are still far away evacuated.

Me: Not even sure when any of them are going to open up, all their email says they are away for the week.

FD: Yeah man, well this was going to hit us as a Cat 6 storm I don't blame them for running.

Me: There is no such thing as a Cat 6 storm.

FD: Just because we have not been hit by one does not mean there is no such thing, one day we are going to be hit by a Cat 6 and there will be nothing left.

Me: The Saffir Simpson only goes up to Cat 5

FD: No, I read on Facebook this was a Cat 6 there is a Cat 6.

At this point I stopped arguing. 3 more days.


Saw this today this was a house I was surveying, wonder if new owners want to still buy it?




I am still trying to find out if Fred the Shed next to the Southernmost monument is still there.

https://www.conservativedailynews.com/2017/09/thousands-watch-fred-shed-irma-nears-florida/




This guys twitter feed shows a lot of the devastation to the Keys. I am pretty bummed. I know they will bounce back. Its just going to take a while.

https://twitter.com/ReedTimmerAccu

I will post some pics soon.

[Jims5543]

Willie, after seeing footage of KW, I am not so sure it will be ready for tourists for a while.

My house before to storm.



After the storm:



Cooking pasta after the power went out the night of the storm.



Cooking Bacon on the grill the next morning.


Bracing the garage door, while being 100 miles away this one packed a wallop.


Vet on corner sheltered horses, a new first there.


Mess to clean up in back yard which was the worst hit on my property.


Mess and dogs, the large one is my friends dog from Tampa who came to evacuate the direct hit he took, ironically he sustained less damage than I did and has power / internet.

[Jims5543]

My medicine during the storm.



Breakfast sandwiches made in a neat little device, takes 4-5 minutes to make a complete sandwich.


Dusty BMW's in storage doing fine. Gonna go grab the E30 in a bit and drive around.



Unbagging and putting back office equipment this morning. Office is 100% up and running. None of my clients are.



Battleship was played with younger son. I thought my ship placement was slick.


Carnage behind my office.


Fuckin house across street, empty for 10 years, no shutters, no damage.

[BruceK]

Glad to hear of your progress.

So, looking at the photos of your house from the street, I can see that the storm completely removed the Bill Murray sign and it also flipped the Tacoma 180 degrees  around.   Not to mention it also cut your grass.    ;D

[gr8kornholio]

I see the screens survived.  That sandwich maker is awesome.  It actually allows my wife to cook breakfast.  ;D

Glad to hear you came through unscathed.  And... Duh, the internet is ALWAYS right  :-[

[94touring]

Bruce beat me to the truck being flipped around.

[Jims5543]

Glad to hear of your progress.

So, looking at the photos of your house from the street, I can see that the storm completely removed the Bill Murray sign and it also flipped the Tacoma 180 degrees  around.   Not to mention it also cut your grass.    ;D

The Bill Murray sign is my good luck tradition.  I put the lawn sign up and take a picture before each storm now.

You always wait until after the storm to mow the lawn for 3 reasons. 

1. You are too busy getting ready to bother before the storm.

2. After the storm there is nothing else to do so mowing the lawn makes things seem a little normal.

3. If you have a mulching blade (I do) it helps to chop up all the leaves everywhere.

Just found this video on my Twitter feed.

[MiniDave]

"This storm is not survivable" so we're gonna send some reporters and camera men down into it to show you....... ::)

Glad you came out of it OK, Jim!

Wonder how Guido the Clown made out?

[Jims5543]

Neighbor 2 doors down had a generator failure, going to see whats up, seems it puked oil everywhere. 

[Jims5543]

Still no power.

Propane company flaked on me. *


Offices are opening back up, about 6 orders came in today, we are back in business!! I am taking a fucking huge hit this week. Exploring options in business interruption insurance to see if it is worth it. My friends have it but their payroll is 10X mine.

I have 40% propane in the tank, by my calculations I can run 4-5 more days before I run out.

Propane company called me this evening, apologized and said they would be here tomorrow late or Friday during the day, with 40% I should be fine.

We are being misers with the electricity usage. AC set at 78 all lights off unless necessary.

My neighbor 2 doors down blew up the same generator I have. He had his AC set to 70 and was running 3 refrigerators , a fish tank, multiple TV's and the house lit up like daytime.


*I really try hard to be a nice person. I try to not get results from people by being an asshole. Many times I find being nice does not work, you have to be a flaming dick in order to get results. This propane company is proving to be more of the same. I have been pleasant, I have asked if they did good in the storm. I expressed that they are probably swamped and to please see if they could get a delivery to me.

When they blew me off today and called me after, I was cool, I had left a nice message with them, told them I was at 45% (now 40% I just checked this evening) and that I was probably good for 2-3 more days but to please get me on schedule. I was even nice to them during the call, they promised me they would be here. If they blow me off I will lose my shit.

I suspect we will have power tomorrow. The crews were all over our neighborhood, houses all around us have power.  Something it up down line from us and I hope they have it fixed tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

I am taking advantage of this spare time and taking a lot of time away from the office.

While orders are ticking in, I do not need to get back to it until Monday, right now I am using field Dori like the tool he is and working him with Mike in the field.

I will be enjoying driving the BMW's over the next 2 days. I want to see if Kevin is up for meeting for beers before the end of the week.

Oh and I just spent $90 on Generator tune up / maintenance parts. More spark plugs, oil filter and air filters to keep this puppy happy. I changed the oil yesterday, by my calculations running it 3 days straight is like driving 5K miles.  Tomorrow or Friday I will change the oil (not the filter) once more. Using Mobile 1 and Lucas synthetic oil stabilizer in it. Like I said this thing is gold, I am treating it like a needy girlfriend.

[Jims5543]

Power on as of 10 this morning.

I have cancelled my plans to go looting this evening.

[94touring]

Never too late to steal shoes!