Here We Go Again

TS Gamma is heading our way.

Sort of.

Yesterday it was forecast to follow the exact same path as Wilma: come ashore around Naples, then head to Ft. Lauderdale. Also like Wilma - on a Monday.

Today, they decided it was going through the Caribbean instead. And probably as a tropical storm, never becoming a hurricane. Maybe Tuesday.

It sounds likely enough, and I sure hope it comes true. Still, we're not looking forward to this Tropical Weather Event, this thing that will, at least, probably dump a lot of rain on us.

The predictions are much less accurate than usual, simply because we just don't have much history of hurricane systems around Thanksgiving.

We're not done cleaning up from Katrina yet, much less Wilma. This also means the extraordinary electrical, telephone (land and cell), sewer, and water system problems are way far from being ready, even for "only" a storm.

Everything is unstable. What's left of our roofs are weak, they'll buckle under a heavy rain. Trash piles still litter every street. Most of our computers and telephones are only working intermittently or slowly; the juice has been going on and off, too.

Traffic lights still aren't back up at many intersections. The ones that are generally have only one set as opposed to several. They aren't timed right, either. It's surprising how much that throws us off, when the signal changing times at some familiar intersection are very different now.

Don't get me wrong, the crews have done a wonderful job. But we got nuked. There's only so much anyone could have finished by now. Really, people outside of Florida have no idea how bad conditions were, and still are. The news media appears bored of it all.

Many of us are just, just jittery today.

I was hoping to have the front yard completely finished by nightfall, all debris cleared, all rescue plants and wood in the back yard where they belong. I'm so close to done.

Instead, I stopped midday and did preps. Not that I needed much. A few more distilled waters. Mr. BabyCat's fave: Fancy Feast Grilled Salmon. Two of four prescription refills I'll need. Stuff like that.

And pictures. Just in case.

The rains have already started.

At the very end of my travels, the rain cleared and the sun burst out again, as it likes to do down here.

Suddenly I was driving under a huge perfect rainbow, arcing all the way across the sky.