The wife and I are veterans of numerous hurricanes after 16 years here in SW Florida. In fact one of them wrecked our home requiring many months of hard effort to it put back into livable condition, … while having no other choice but to live in it.
I can’t hide the fact that Hurricane Irmas promised category 4 and our past experience caused us a great deal of anxiety. That fear caused us to drive 60 miles to purchase plywood scraps to cover our windows as our Home Depot stores were unable to provide the need. We spent a day in preparation nervously covering our windows and bracing the garage door and worrying because we were unable to aquire enough D cell batteries…. or even peanut butter.
The day of the storm we lost our electricity very early in the day causing us to spend many anxious hours listening to the radio reports of its steady, frightening march towards us. Like Hurricane Charley in 2004 Irmas path shifted at the last moment, but this time… the winds shifted in our favor. Our house was spared, as were we , the same horrible experience of thirteen years ago.
Five days without power and no Air Conditiong in a Florida summer is a mere inconvenience compared to what those not far away are going through now, or what we ourselves have suffered in the past ….however.
Not long after the power came on the wife called to tell me the air conditioner just crapped out. So I abandoned an overly burdened work schedule to spend a half day attending to a seized AC compressor fan motor. By 5:30 p.m. the deed was done and I decided to mow the lawn before indulging that wonderfull world of “conditioned air”.
As I finished my lawn I thought it would be nice to mow the neighbors as he hadn’t yet returned from evacuating from the storm. Within a few minutes I managed to sink my lawn tractor into his swail with mud mud over the wheels . Before I towed it out with my pickup I just couldn’t help but scream out the question ….
“When does it it fucken stop suckin !! ”
The neighbor has just arrived home and I spied him through the window. He seems somewhat perplexed at his partially mowed lawn… and the sinkhole the size of an Ariens 17.5 HP lawn tractor on his front yard.
With the look on his face…. I’m thinking denial of all knowledge
