Fay a No-Show for Tampa

I sat down to write about the total lack of rain we've received since Fay hit Florida only to have the heavens open up and dump some rain down. Tampa has once again been spared a direct hit from a tropical storm/hurricane. Not only did Fay not hit us, most of the bands haven't reached us either. Unfortunately, the east coast of Florida has not been so lucky. 20+ inches of rain in Melbourne, FL. Expecting up to 36+ inches before Fay goes away. She's been hanging out in Melbourne moving at the almost non-existent rate of 2 mph. They predict she'll head west across the northern part of the state tomorrow. Sure hope Georgia gets some of the rain.

Hubby and I dropped the Singer off at college this morning. It was hard. I'll miss her. She's just a great kid, even when she was driving me batty, as only she knew how. She left Hubby and I a letter that we found this afternoon. It was a beautiful thank you letter for doing so much for her. The Imp is already missing her. Combine that with the stress of starting a new school...a school with 4 to 5 times the number of students as her K-8 school and the Imp is working hard to hold it together. I know she'll persevere, but it'll be work for the next week or so. She also began swim practice today.

The rain has already stopped, but I'm sure will get more of Fay's rainbands in the next few days.

Schools Closed on Tuesday

Looks like Fay is heading our way. The first day of school was today...and tomorrow they're closed because of the hurricane. Fay is bearing down on Key West right now. She is projected to make landfall south of Tampa and travel up the middle part of Florida. This is actually the best scenario for Tampa. The east side of the storm gets the highest winds, most rain and it causes the highest storm surge. They're predicting that Fay will only be a category 1 storm. We've begun putting away the patio furniture and such, and by this evening we'll have the TV on the local news station in the background. Hubby and his cousin are heading off to a Rays game tonight. I haven't heard anything about it being cancelled. The baseball field is in a level A evacuation zone, so we'll have to stay updated. He really doesn't want the game to be cancelled.

Phelps and Fay

We all watched the exciting men's medley relay race last night and enjoyed seeing Phelps get his 8th gold at these Olympics. The race was anti-climatic to the butterfly race of the previous night when Phelps won by one one-hundredth of a second...without slow motion and electronic touch pads, the Serbian, Cavic, would have been declared the winner. But Phelps' extra stroke while Cavic took a long glide into the wall allowed Phelps' to beat him by .01 second. Amazing. As we watched the finish, I commented that someone better give his mom some oxygen, as I was sure she was suffering heart failure. Then the cameras showed her reaction. I was right. She, like many others, thought Michael had finished second. When she realized he'd finished first, she had to sit down. Last night, the NBC reporter was asking Phelps how it felt to win 8 golds and beat Spitz's record. My girls said, he's just thrilled to have it all over.

Immediately after the race, we prepared for bed, but had to stop at the computer and check on Fay. That is the life in the path of a hurricane. It's still a few days off (and the current projections have it being even with Tampa later than yesterday's predictions) and we're not glued to the set yet, but between activities, we check on Fay. That was the first thing we did this morning, too. The hurricane season of 2004 was exhausting, not just from the actual work of preparing for evacuations 4 times, but the days spent waiting to see what each storm would do. It seemed like 6 full weeks of checking on storms. I hope this season doesn't repeat that.

Watching Fay

Tropical Storm/Hurricane Fay is now on Florida's radar screen. Last night's news ended with "keep watching to follow the path of Fay and keep informed of possible evacuations." I claimed it was too early to stay glued to the TV when the storm is not predicted to be near Tampa until Tuesday...but the first thing I did as I awoke this morning was see the updated "cone of destruction." The weather people call it the cone of uncertainty (the wide path of predicted position of the hurricane/storm), the people in that cone call it the cone of destruction because if you live in that cone, there will probably be some destruction in your area. Here's the current predictions

So now I'm off to Walmart for some batteries, water and large zip lock bags before there's a run on the stores and nothing is left. I usually pick up a cheap new video before a storm so the kids have something to watch, as we wait out the storm.
With school starting Monday (and yes, the Imp's bus stop has been fixed...but lots of other kids' haven't...but that's another story)and the storm predicted to hit Tuesday AM this could be really interesting. Many schools are used as evacuation sites so if there are any evacuations, schools are closed. And since evacuations are ordered BEFORE the predicted storm, the evacuations would be on Monday. I am soooo glad I'm not in charge of schools or evacuations! It's a thankless job.
I'm also glad I already have all the back-to-school shopping done.
We're having a back to school get together tomorrow afternoon for some of the girls' friends. Right now they're still predicting good weather for then. We'll see. I just hope this hurricane season is not a rerun of 2004.



Gotta run and get the store before everyone else does.

Vacation Recovery and School Bus Woes

The week spent in Arizona (and Utah) at Lake Powell and Sedona was wonderful. I think my sister, Elaine, and her husband, Marty, should receive some sort of award for all the work they did in preparing for this endeavor. The houseboats were spacious, the weather great and the company even better. There's not much to write...we spent 5 days on the water of Lake Powell eating, sleeping and playing in the water (water skiing, jet skiing, and sliding off the boat's slide into the lake). It was great to see my family. My dad showed off his piloting skills departing from one of our beach sites. We all were sure the boat was going to hit rocks, but somehow this former Thunderbird pilot threw the boat in gear at the right moment and avoided disaster.
We were all so proud of staying on an early schedule in AZ so that when we got back home it would be easy to get back to Eastern Time. Unfortunately, the Olympics prevented that. Michael Phelps is a hero in this house. Having 2 daughters who have competed in swimming, watching swimming is a must. Who didn't enjoy the US team's victory over France in the 4 x 100m? What a race! And then to imagine that Phelps is downing 12,000 calories a day!
With school starting Monday, we were trying to get the girls to bed early and up early so that the 6 am wake-up time next week isn't such a shock to their systems.
Hillsborough County is desperately trying to save money this year. One way is to change the busing system. In a county with 209 schools this is no small feat. And while I can appreciate the difficulties in trying to change, I don't understand how the school system has no information available to parents a mere 3 business days before school opens. A friend of mine spent over an hour on hold yesterday, simply to be told that the schedule for the IB students had not been finalized yet. Huh?!?!? 2 weeks ago, I was told that the Imp's bus stop is 3 miles from our house...state law says it has to be no more than 1 1/2 miles. I guess when everyone starting complaining, they had to redo a faulty schedule. The current buzz is that accurate bus schedules will be available tomorrow at Open House. I'm not holding my breath. Fortunately, most days the Imp will be travelling in a carpool. But there will be days, especially in the afternoon, when she'll need to ride the bus.