September 19, 2005
Waiting for Rita
My wife and I lived in a small apartment when we first got married over 15 years ago. After a year of apartment living -- noisy (and nosy) neighbors, parking space problems, traffic jams to and from work -- we decided to buy a house.
We bought our home in late 1991, moving in four days before years' end. We sunk every penny we both had in our 401(k)s to buy it. It was a small house, just for the two of us. We figured that once we had kids we'd be more than likely to buy another one. (Didn't happen.) In any event, eight months after we bought our house, and having already experienced the joys of homeownership with a busted water pipe in the house and bad electrical wiring, a little visitor came around in that year of 1992 by the name of Hurricane Andrew.
Needless to say we were grossly inexperienced in the art of hurricane preparedness. I'll never forget the night of August 22, 1992 when the hurricane warnings were issued for Miami-Dade (then Dade) County. We looked at each other and calmly decided that we had to do whatever it took to protect the house. At 6 AM the morning of the 23rd we were in a line a local lumber shop to buy bolts, plywood, masonry bits, and other sundries, to prepare us for the arrival of a storm that would make history. We boarded up, suffered some roof damage and flooding, and felt immensely fortunate not to have been living further south of where we were.
The plywood boards that served us in Andrew served us well over the ensuing years. Since 1992 we boarded up at least seven times; the last time we used those plywood boards was last year for Frances and/or Jeanne -- they kind of blend into each other in our memories, if you know what I mean. They were, to say the least, in pretty bad shape. Some had already started rotting, some had suffered the termite infestation we had had two years prior, some were so gone that I could make a hole with my thumb in the wood.
Earlier this year, I resolved to buy aluminum shutters for the entire house. After much wrangling with the wife (who wanted a new shed) we compromised on her shed first, and then the shutters. I signed the paperwork for the shutters on June 30th of this year; 12 to 16 weeks for delivery and installation, they said. That was the normal waiting period before they arrived. On August 31, they called to tell me the shutters had arrived three weeks early; they were installed one week after Katrina had left its (underreported, though serious) mark on South Florida and five days after it had destroyed the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana gulf coast.
The evening of September 3, my wife wanted me to finally throw out the plywood boards that had served us well for 13 years. She had to drag me out to the backyard to do it, though. I was not in the mood for transporting wet, rotten, bug-infested -- and very heavy -- plywood boards over my back yard to the front yard and to the crap pile across the street. In a fit of revenge, brought about by its imminent demise, one of the large front window boards decided to have the last laugh with me. As I was pushing the handcart carrying it and the last two boards I accidentally busted a water pipe outside our new shed. They just didn’t want to leave. All of the boards were finally picked up by the solid waste people on Saturday last. Along with them, they were picking up small mountains -- literally -- of debris, detritus, tree limbs, and assorted junk, which had been pummeled by Katrina on her first prom dance.
I write all this because four hours ago my wife and I finished putting up those shutters on our house in anticipation of yet another unwelcome visitor to South Florida: Tropical Storm (soon to be Hurricane) Rita.
It was so much easier to put the shutters up than the plywood. We were finished in about half the time and with a quarter of the effort. Our investment is a good one and I’m certain the shutters will do their job flawlessly.
We'll be getting pretty bad weather tomorrow and the next day and we will (once again) probably be without electrical power for a while. Tomorrow morning, instead of sunlight peeking through my windows, it will be darker than Hillary Clinton's heart in this house. We have the flashlights, the portable TV/radio, the candles, the emergency food (don't ask), and the books at the ready. My beloved gas grill is prepped to cook up those Omaha steaks and burgers I have in the freezer. I’ll probably have to take cold showers again -- for the wrong reasons.
What amazes me is that we were not even supposed to have these aluminum things yet: the weekend of September 24 was the original target date for installation. In other words, next Saturday. I want to thank to the Big Guy upstairs for giving us the shutters three weeks ahead of schedule. I know He works in mysterious ways and He wanted us to have them. Why? I don't know.
I pray that Rita passes South Florida and the Keys with minimal damage -- please, Lord, let us keep our electricity a little longer this time -- and wish all of you Babalú readers in the South Florida area, Godspeed. Tighten those wing nuts well!
Posted by George Moneo at September 19, 2005 11:00 PM
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My wife and I lived in a small apartment when we first got married over 15 years ago. After a year of apartment living -- noisy (and nosy) neighbors, parking space problems, traffic jams to and from work -- we decided to buy a house.
We bought our h... [Read More]
Tracked on September 20, 2005 01:46 AM
Comments
We will keep an eye on you Val, You and your family stay safe, don't worry I've got my mother-in-law doing her bead work (rosery) for you. No problem.
Posted by: River Rat at September 19, 2005 10:50 PM
Not Val, George. But you can pray the rosary for us too!
Posted by: George L. Moneo at September 19, 2005 11:10 PM
Yes George, I see with my old eye's now forgive me. I will talk to ma ma have her include george also,she has a direct line to the man.
Posted by: River Rat at September 19, 2005 11:14 PM
My wife prays the beads as well. I'm a God-fearing man, but not religious, if you catch my meaning. Prayers for the region will be greatly appreciated -- especially the poor folks in Key West who are going to get hammered tomorrow.
Posted by: George L. Moneo at September 19, 2005 11:33 PM
Hey Val! I will remember you in my prayers and hope nothing happens to you. I hope you have stocked some of the essential supplies in case you have to face any problems.
amber
Posted by: amber at September 20, 2005 05:21 AM
To all of you - "batten down the hatches" and think safety; praise the Lord, but pass the plywood - or better yet, if you can, pass on the plywood and do aluminum shutters.
And pray that our neighbors on the Gulf coast don't get hit again.
Posted by: Alberto Quiroga at September 20, 2005 06:41 AM
Take care, George. You too Val. I am thinking of you and saying a prayer.
Posted by: A.M. Mora y Leon at September 20, 2005 07:52 AM
George I wish the best luck bro, from a cubaniche in the northeast.
I may be out of hurricanes reach but I know the feeling, after all I was raise in Cuba.
Give those shutters a good use.
Take care, to all my Cubans and everybody in general located in the path of this freak of nature.
Posted by: tocororo at September 20, 2005 07:54 AM
We seem to be experiencing an outer rainband right now in Central FL. I'm NOT glad that Southern FL is getting hit again, but I'm happy that Central isn't right in the middle of 3 hurricane paths this season. Stay safe, you all. *praying*
Posted by: FL Mom at September 20, 2005 08:57 AM
A bad squall is passing through us now. Three brownouts, lots of wind and rain.
Posted by: George L. Moneo at September 20, 2005 10:03 AM
Writing to you from Misssissippi, and I don't wish this shit on anyone. Well, that's not true. We all would like to see a certain bearded Mo-fo twisting in the wind.
I have been blown away (ooh, bad pun) by the compassion and sincere effort you guys have put toward helping Katrina victims. So, thank you and know that I'll be praying for you.
Posted by: Syd at September 20, 2005 10:18 AM
My prayers to all of us here in S. Florida that Rita is nice to us, and that she's stays nice when she hits Texas, or whatever her personal itinerary is!
Posted by: Amanda at September 20, 2005 10:28 AM
So far, so good for South Florida, and even Key West might dodge a bullet if current trends hold.
Let's continue the prayers, they're working so far.
Posted by: Robert at September 20, 2005 10:51 AM
George....I thought it was Val writing this...You too, are very talented story teller!!
Here in Palm Beach County we are having a very windy day...power goes out so easily around our area, so I am doing my reading, cooking and cafe cubano marathon just in case.....
Hurricanes, are part of our weather pattern living in South Fla,we deal with it, and make provisions accordingly, so like Celia Cruz said:
AGARRATE FUERTE Y YA NO TE SUELTES!!
Saludos a todos!!
Posted by: carmen at September 20, 2005 10:59 AM
carmen make sure you have a good supply of chicharrones too.
Posted by: tocororo at September 20, 2005 11:22 AM
So far, so good. It's raining here, not too windy. This is a fast-moving storm, thank God. The Overseas Highway in the Keys looks like a mess on TV. We've had five power outages, with close to immediate resumption of power. My battery backup works like a champ! I just heard there was some damage from the surge on the Miami Beach. I think we dodged this one. Let's hope it doesn't do too much damage where it makes landfall on the Gulf Coast.
Posted by: George L. Moneo at September 20, 2005 12:08 PM
I spoke too soon. We're going through a bad squall here. Lots of wind and rain.
Posted by: George L. Moneo at September 20, 2005 12:24 PM
Yeap....forgot the chicharrones!! but got plenty of pastelitos, pan cubano, croquetas y empanadas!!
So windy....and grey...feels like when you live up north and snow is coming.....
Almost puked after I saw CNN's report early in the day, Lucia Newman reporting from Cuba on Hurricanes!! Lucia loves to report the fact that Cubans are so well prepared for Hurricanes, no one dies, they all evacuate when they have to, they "cut" power supply off before it goes out...Holy SHIT that damned COMMUNIST NETWORK!! Thank God I saw it in our local supermarket, so I had to control myself...
Posted by: carmen at September 20, 2005 12:26 PM
They’ll say is supposed to reach category 3 or more once it reaches the gulf.
Posted by: tocororo at September 20, 2005 12:34 PM
Quiet again. Light rain.
Posted by: George L. Moneo at September 20, 2005 01:07 PM
Hang in there George. We still have the rest of the afternoon to deal with the squalls, but the winds shouldn't get any higher than what we've already felt.
Posted by: Robert at September 20, 2005 01:10 PM
I have to say I am ecstatic that I didn't have an electrical outage today. Maybe that damned tree on my block that caused all of the problems was fixed after Katrina. In any event, alls well that ends well. I hope the people in Rita's sights fare well.
Posted by: George L. Moneo at September 20, 2005 10:38 PM
