Friday

We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the mid 70s. On our morning causeway walk, we got stopped on the drawbridge by workers replacing the crossing gates. The gates were removed in preparation for the storm, since they are long and thin and in a vulnerable position.

We saw dolphins swimming around while we were waiting.

We got a close look at the unmoored sailboat. Someone tied it to the bulkhead to keep it from battering the bridge.

It took months to have a sailboat removed after the hurricane that stayed out in the gulf when it passed by two years ago.

I’ve heard that removing a derelict boat is legally complicated and expensive.

After lunch, we took Toby in his go cart downtown. I think he wanted some ice cream so we had to distract him while we were walking near Salty Paws.

Kisses all around.

Late afternoon, we took Toby in the car to Highlander park and then picked up takeout from Con Sabor.

Political Thoughts on Character and “Doing the Right Thing”

There are many reasons to dislike DeSantis, the current governor of Florida. Here's one from today's New York Times:

As a freshman congressman in 2013, Ron DeSantis was unambiguous: A federal bailout for the New York region after Hurricane Sandy was an irresponsible boondoggle, a symbol of the “put it on the credit card mentality” he had come to Washington to oppose.

“I sympathize with the victims,” he said. But his answer was no.

Then Hurricane Ian hit Florida a month or so before his reelection as governor:

“As you say, Tucker, we live in a very politicized time,” Mr. DeSantis, now Florida’s governor, told Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night, outlining his request for full federal reimbursement up front for 60 days and urging the Biden administration to do the right thing. “But you know, when people are fighting for their lives, when their whole livelihood is at stake, when they’ve lost everything — if you can’t put politics aside for that, then you’re just not going to be able to" [do the right thing].

I call bullshit.

Character is shown when a politician does the right thing when it’s not politically popular. 

There are Republicans with verifiable character: 10 in the house voted to impeach the former president, and 7 senators did the same. 

Mitch McConnell flirted with doing the right thing after the insurrection when he said, “If this isn’t an impeachable offense, I don’t know what is.” Alas, he lacked the character to follow through. 

Liz Cheney is a profile in courage because she did the right thing when it was unpopular in her party and she has been clear and consistent, even saying that she will support Democrats over election deniers this fall. She’s a true patriot because she’s willing to choose her country over her party. 

The other Republican office holders who repeated the lie of a stolen election or remained silent and voted “no” on impeachment are cowards and do not deserve to be re-elected. They have betrayed their own country. A sweeping Democratic victory in the fall elections may be America’s last chance not just to save the Republican Party from itself, but to save democracy.

Miles walked: 8.4

Miles biked: 5.36

Thursday

We spent the afternoon cleaning up the yard. We started by cleaning up the street; then we worked on Anita's yard across the street. We filled up our two yard bins and made a pile of larger limbs at her curb. She has large oak trees that hang over into her yard, scattering lots of debris. I couldn't start on our yard until I got hers looking better. She still has a lot of little twigs and limbs left. Ann, her daughter, came out and raked some. Meanwhile, I raked our yard on all four sides.

I hauled the chairs out of the garage and scrubbed them down before setting them back in place. I set the sandbags aside until we learn what to do with them. I cleaned the welcome mat. John washed Toby's towels that had accumulated from drying Toby off after every walk. I vacuumed up all the debris we tracked in yesterday. 

This shot of Lake Saundra park gives you an idea how our yard looked before we cleaned it up. We had leaves, small oak branches from across the street, and magnolia cones.

The sun finally came out this afternoon. The temperature was in the low to mid 70s. We opened our windows and enjoyed the fresh air. Everyone we met today felt relieved and grateful that it wasn't a direct hit. We never lost power. We all feel bad for the folks south of us. I read that the Sanibel causeway collapsed in three places, and there is no other way on or off the island or the adjoining Captiva Island. The same is true for the nearby bridge from Matlacha Island to Pine Island, connecting to Cape Coral. 

Everyone we know who evacuated ended up in a worse place than if they had stayed in place, but when they made their plans, they were following evacuation orders for low-lying properties, and at the time, it looked like we were going to get hit. It's really difficult to know what to do when there are millions of people on a thin peninsula with only two interstates to take people out. Our take away is that we would leave for a category 4 of 5 if the prediction looked solid. A 3 would be scary, but evacuating has its risks, too. 

We drove the car to Dollar General this morning after our Toby walk in the neighborhood and walked the causeway from there. Frenchy's Market was all boarded up.

The water was sandy and turbulent. 

A sailboat broke loose and crashed into the causeway bridge.

The breeze was blowing at least 20 mph on our walk. Even though the temperature was in the 70s, the wind made it feel cold.

We bundled up.

Lots of white caps and clouds.

We turned around at the bathrooms when we saw this sign. 

There were not many people walking this morning. 

The wind was coming from the northwest, which meant it was a struggle to walk on the way out. We felt like mountain climbers. It was exhausting. On the way back, we had to use our feet to brake us because the wind was pushing us faster than our feet could keep up. I think we should get extra credit for that walk!

We had prepared chicken to eat if we lost power, so we had that for dinner, on toast, with carrot sriracha hummus, and one of our last avocados. Delicious.

Toby started breaking out in bumps again, so we immediately administered Benadryl. That seemed to calm the allergic reaction because they are almost all gone. We're perplexed about what he might be allergic to. There was no grass-rolling for him yesterday, that's for sure. Maybe it was from the day before? On Benadryl today, he was a little angel. Yesterday, he was an enfant terrible.

Miles walked: 10.9

Miles biked: 0 

Wednesday

Gotta go pee! (Again)

Gotta go NOW!

Please, pretty please!

Ugh! I hate rainy days!

I vacuumed the sofas and chair and cleaned them with our carpet and upholstery cleaner. What else are you going to do locked inside all day?

We’re watching Special on Netflix. It’s about a gay guy with cerebral palsy who lives with his mom. The two of them learn to brave the tough world to find love and independence. It’s funny and poignant.

As far as the weather, it has been uneventful so far. The forecast called for 47 mph winds tonight, but the reality is 28 mph winds. We still have power, as of 8:00 pm. The wind is supposed to die down around 3:00 am.

A neighbor had a tree limb to fall. It will only take one limb to knock out the power. Our neighbor’s son is a lineman for Duke Power. He said the wind was too strong for them to work and they were sent home for the night, so if we do lose power, we’ll be without for awhile.

The news sounds bad for southwest Florida.

Miles walked: 2.0

Miles biked: 0

Tuesday

We finished up our hurricane preparations: we delivered avocados via go cart to neighbors (with Toby’s help), brought yard stuff inside, washed and dried clothes, vacuumed and mopped the house, and picked up bread, fruit, and OJ from the store. A neighbor gave us the house cleaning tip. He said if you’re going to be without power, at least your house can start off clean and you can have clean underwear.

At 7:00 pm, the prediction is for a landfall south of Venice, which is better for Tampa Bay and us. But we still expect to be without power for a few days or more.

 We expect rain to begin after sunset and 30 mph winds at sunrise tomorrow with winds increasing throughout the day, peaking at 40-41 mph at midnight tomorrow, decreasing gradually through the day Thursday.

John took this screenshot showing the peninsula of Pinellas county holding off the outer rain bands. We were able to take our last walk of the day without rain.

We rode our bikes to the causeway to walk this morning. The sheriffs were blocking vehicles from accessing the causeway unless the people lived in the condos.

There were not many people, but we did walk alongside a pair of dolphins who were fishing just off shore.

They were making a lot of splashing noises as they encircled the fish.

Otherwise the causeway was nearly deserted.

The clouds kept the temperature in the low 80s.

It was nice and quiet. We were sad to think that the causeway may be damaged, but the forecast for our area improved throughout the day. It’s not looking so good for Cape Coral, Ft. Myers, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, North Port area. Our gain is someone else’s pain.

Things could change, so we’re keeping an eye on things.

We have a phone charge outlet in our golf cart with 6 fully charged batteries, and we have our car to charge our phones if we need it. So, as long as there is cell service, I’ll be in touch.

Miles walked: 13.5

Miles biked: 5.35