Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Ernesto is a Lamb

Ernesto hasn't arrived yet; that's why I can still log on. The rains started coming in the night. It will pass over us in about four hours they say. At the moment, it is over Miami.
Ernesto has fizzled out and it is not a hurricane anymore, but a regular tropical storm. It will leave Florida from Daytona Beach tonight and will go on the Atlantic to strengthen and hit the Carolinas. I hope it is as merciful with them as it is being with us.
Actually, I am glad it changed direction and came over us instead of going into the Gulf, because it would have become a much stronger hurricane over the long stretch of warm waters, and heaven forbid, it could mess with New Orleans again.
This much we can take. We are sort of used to it, too. After all, Florida is the lightning capital of the world and we are used to wind gusts and power outages of short duration.
This morning the news said that the shutters may not be necessary because of the mildness of the storm, but we are keeping them closed, just in case that something happens and the insurance company denies insurance because the shutters weren't closed.
We opened the living room's sliding door shutters, which wouldn't matter because living room faces the closed porch. Then, I dared to open the kitchen window's shutters. Some people in the neighborhood did not put up their shutters. The events are proving them right, but I don't like to take too many chances with such things. Better be safe and overly prepared than be sorry later.
The cute thing was, this morning, because there were no golfers on the golf course, nine Sandhill Cranes were on the sixth green. They must have sensed that the frogs would be out with all this rain. Sandhill cranes are huge birds. Some stand at four to five feet tall and they are not afraid of people. Sometimes, they come and ask for bread. Once, a sandhill crane took a piece of bread right out of my hand and I wasn't even giving it to him. He approached on his own.
Over the last weekend, I went to the library and borrowed several books. When the electricity goes, I can read. There's good side to everything.