Tropical Storms

Alberto, like most hurricanes and tropical storms, has not 'behaved' as predicted. Around noon today Alberto went from 50 to 70 mph winds. Not expected. Hurricane warnings quickly went up along the gulf coast of Florida. This morning, Tampa was in the middle of the projected path. Tonight Tampa looks like it will miss most of the severe weather as Alberto is heading toward "Big Bend" and north of Tampa. Summer schools/programs are cancelled for tomorrow all around the Tampa area. Shelters are opening. Some counties north of Tampa are evacuating mobile homes and evacuation A areas. The moral of this story. You must keep watching a storm. All the predictions from 5 pm tonight could easily change by tomorrow morning. Labor Day weekend in 1986, Hurricane Elana did not hit Tampa, instead she did a nice loopy-loop in the Gulf that kept her off the coast for 3 days. She never got closer to Tampa than 150 miles, but the damage due to flooding was incredible. The forecasters did not predict that. In 2004, Charley was suppose to come up Tampa Bay. We evacuated. Charley came ashore south, at Punta Gorda, and Tampa barely got rain showers. This is the frustrating part of a hurricane. You really can't plan. You sit waiting for the next update. Then you sit and wait for the next one.
We received about 3 inches of rain so far. It was a great rainy day. The rain was a steady rain, never torrential and our pool filled up nicely. If it rains too much tomorrow, I'll have to drain the pool. I always hate doing that because I hate putting water in the pool.

As I moderate my online class for teachers, I am amazed at the spectrum represented by teachers. Teachers really are a microcosm of society. Democrats, Republicans, kind-hearted, bigoted, intelligent, ignorant, hard-working, looking for the easy way out. And just like in a classroom, the 5-10% that try your patience, easily "drown out" the great work of the other 90%. Every time I read a less-than-stellar assignment, I have to remind myself that not all teachers are this way. It gets difficult. My biggest problem....People not reading directions. Moderating online courses is a great way for me to contribute to my family's income and still be available for my girls. I can do my work anytime I have my computer and have internet access. I like to do it in the evening, while I watch TV. The best part of these courses, is that I have no lesson planning. The course is written and I simply evaluated work as pass/fail and answer questions of the participants. Overall, I really like it.

Saturday is the Singer's 16th birthday party. I'm busy getting ready for that. The Singer is going to enjoy her childhood. The theme is Tinkerbell. I'm making a castle cake (with a small Tinkerbell "flying" in front of it....just like on Disney). I'm also making small chocolate cups filled with chocolate mousse. I even got a Tinkerbell pinata. She's going to have a blast. Before the party, I'm taking her up to Merle Norman for a "make-over" so she'll be beautiful for her party. It should be great. I can't wait. This is why I am a M-A-H, so I can do all this stuff. She's so excited :-)

The Imp just came in to tell me her plan to swim during the Tropical Storm tomorrow. She couldn't believe it when I told her she couldn't. I've ruined all her plans and fun for tomorrow. A second day stuck inside. The Singer doesn't mind. The Imp will drive me crazy.