I had a long post written and ready to send when we had a few power issues here that took out my connection for a few hours. Damage here is light - trees, shingles, mangled screen rooms, nothing to get excited about. Power is spotty, my phone just started working reliably a few hours ago, and we're on a boil water alert. Otherwise, this wasn't bad. My parents were in the eye on the western side, they were fine, lost a tree, no shingles, and didn't lose power. I was really worried about that, considering their age and my dad's heart condition, extended time in this heat without A/C would be very risky. Both the children had no problems. We were lucky. We know it and we're grateful.

This was just so unbelievable - three major storms in six weeks, four if you count Ivan (though I don't because it didn't hit us here). Someone on the radio had a great comparison - the last time three major storms hit any area was in the 1800s in Texas. That affected 100,000 people. This affected 17 million.

Network news coverage is so drama queen - I know people in the hardest hit areas, and they are getting up and living with it. This isn't to say it's not really serious or the damage isn't really bad, it's just the Drama Queen Tones of Tom Brokaw are kinda... soap opera. I'm sure there are people who rush to the reporters to play their stories of drama, but everybody I know is just calling the insurance company and picking up the pieces, without cameras. Florida has not been blown off the map. Today I was in the supermarket with a bunch of Brit tourists - how they found their way to this side of town I'll never know - and they were shopping and laughing and having a great adventure. The theme parks will be open tomorrow. My office was closed today but will be open tomorrow. I spent the day cleaning up, aside from missing shingles my neighborhood looks fine. The east coast took a stiff beating but will recover, the rest of the state took a lighter beating and is already bouncing back. Enough with the Storm Drama. I hope I never have to mention another one on this blog. Back to knitting. Please.