Category: Family

1. The storm shutters have been located from where my ex-roommate hid them. Unfortunately, there’s a bunch of heavy stuff on top and they’re up in a high place. Fortunately, my adopted brother is going to come over and help me out.

2. We cleaned all the various knickknacks and plants and things from the outside of my mom’s place. I was thinking very bad thoughts about my sister-in-law, since most of the stuff was from her nesting.

3. Last minute food items were acquired. This included copious amounts of Coke Zero and a bag of Kit Kats. Those will be useful for Sunday night, because I really don’t expect to sleep.

4. My brother’s belief that in my house you are never more than 18 inches from a knife was reinforced. Really, it was just a little pen knife that I keep in the entertainment center for package opening.

5. My battery powered fan didn’t come in, which is annoying, but understandable. Fortunately, the big seven gallon jerrycans did show up late last night. Those will help reinforce my brothers’ supplies.

6. It’s the unknown that’s really causing me issues. I just have to remember that by Monday night/Tuesday morning, I’ll have my known problems and can deal with them.

My preps are decent. As good as budget allowed.

Worried about the wind because I don’t have any real storm shutters.

There’s this little tiny part of my mind – I get it from my grandmother- that is screaming in terror about this monster bearing down on the state. I’m trying not to pay attention to it because: a) it’s not helping me prepare, b) there are people who are looking to me for guidance (as if that ain’t scary all on its own), and c) being frightened is just draining.

This is more confessional than anything else. Hopefully, I’ll look back on this post in a week or a year and think “It wasn’t as bad as I feared.”

Now to gird up the loins, and go put on the brave face.

This storm has me more worried than I have about a tropical in quite a while. Of course, it’s been a bit insane around the homefront. Stores running out of supplies, gas stations out of gas, and people are going insane. I’ve been letting my prepper side run a bit wild.

For her birthday, my niece asked her uncles if they would take her and her friends to a trampoline park. This was accomplished, and the day generated some observations:

1. Trampoline parks are great for burning off the seemingly boundless energy of children.
2. It’s amazing how much I can write in a noisy place with constant interruptions of one or more children coming back to the table to rest.
3. It is adorable to listen to three ten-year-old girls discuss the chicken dance. Particularly if you should clap or peck at the end because “pecking is more realistic.”
4. The black hole that is my nephew’s stomach drives him to rather insane lengths in order to satisfy it. I’m almost tempted to get him a bandolier of snack bars to get him through the day. All in all, a great time was had by all.
5. It is still weird when I run into colleagues from work in non-work settings.

Due to his father’s new job, I have been designated as the new chauffeur for my nephew to his Boy Scouts meeting. I fully intend on using the time waiting for him to either A) get caught up on comics or B) getting some writing done – both of which I can do on my tablet.

The other fun bit is that the boy is now old enough for different audiobooks than those we listened to when he went to Cub Scouts. I’ve already started him on Hardcore History’s “Ghosts of the Ostfront” series.

Sunday – I hope the eclipse will be cool.

Monday – Eclipse is fucking cool!

Tuesday – 25 hour road trips aren’t as easy as I remember.

Wednesday – Beefs O Brady’s is hard when you’re on a diet

Thursday – Traffic is a bitch. Work insane. What exactly did I do to incur this karma?

Friday – Even after a two-day work week, I’m still glad for the weekend.

Saturday – Why am I so addicted to ridiculous and sappy shows? I should be doing something more productive. After another episode.

At the beginning of August, The Brother and I decided to drive up and see if we could catch the eclipse. The plan was simple. Choose an out of the way place, drive up, see the eclipse, and drive back to Tampa. Based on the horror stories, we expected there was a very good chance we would miss it because of traffic jams prevention is from reaching the totality zone.

We left Tampa around midnight Sunday night/Monday morning. The Brother mapped out a route to Greenville, South Carolina. The first leg was simple. Take 75 North until we hit Macon, Georgia. The second leg would be state roads the rest of the way up. Since my brother had a wrestling event the night before, I was going to drive at least the first leg. While my brother dozed, I cleared out my significant backlog of podcasts.

At Macon, we stopped for food, and looked at our mapped route. It wasn’t to Greenville. The Brother routed us to Greentown. Still in the totality zone, and about twenty minutes closer. We considered the mistake serendipitous and went out into the early morning. Every twenty miles I kept expecting to hit traffic. Nothing. The roads were gloriously free of anything resembling a backup. About the only issue was we had to do a detour shortly after crossing into South Carolina due to a bridge being out. Of note, we passed an establishment named “Yo Mama’s Cooking Restaurant.” We both found this witty and amusing. We might have been tempted to stop, but neither of us are into soul food.

We pulled into Greentown around 10. Being the introverts that we are, The Brother and I eschewed the town’s various events and found the perfect place to ensconce ourselves – a Panera. We had air conditioning, easy access bathrooms, and Wifi. In short, civilization. As we sat in Panera, there was concern as the clouds rolling in. Feck. Did we just drive all that way and not be able to see the sun? We did our best to be nonchalant and agreed that even if we couldn’t see the sun, at least we’d see everything go dark.

1:30 – We used the special glasses and looked up. The sun looked like an Apple logo. Very cool. We returned to the AC and waited.

2:30 – nine minutes to go. The Brother and I step outside. Wait. Did my transitions lenses darken? Nope. That was an almost totally occluded sun. And not a cloud in the sky. I put in my earbuds and flipped on Holst’s “Mars, The Bringer of War.”

2:39 – Total Eclipse – Twilight in the middle of the day. Somehow, I timed the music perfectly. As the strong music boomed in my ears, I was looking at the corona of the sun. The black orb with flames of silver dancing along its edge. It was awesome It was glorious. It was an entire thesaurus’s worth of superlatives. It is a sight I will treasure for all of my days.

Definitely worth the twenty-five hours.

Today is a day that all pet owners know will come. It was just so sudden. I mean fifteen minutes before he was sitting next to me get his morning skritches and rubs. Now, he’s laid to rest in the backyard. I don’t know what happened except my Ghost, who I’ve had since he was a kitten, is gone. My attention whore cat got his last bit of attention.