Live Blogging From “The Cone Of Death”

Lucky She’s Just A Tropical Storm…

Tammy has arrived in full force to our area about 8:00 PM. It’s been raining all day, but the rain has steadily increased and now we’re getting wind gusts of at least 40 MPH. The weather service says the maximum sustained winds are about 50 MPH.

The electricity has blinked on and off a couple of times, sending us scrambling for flashlights, candles, and our trusty old oil lantern. Adelphia has also managed to keep the cable TV and broadband service up so far.

Knock on wood…

I just looked out the front door and our front patio is ponding up with water (we’re on the second floor) and all of our plants have tipped over on their sides. We’ve learned our lesson about buying inexpensive Wal mart and Home Depot plants in plastic pots. When you live on the coast you need giant oversized pots made of clay or lead or kryptonite or some other heavy element that will prevent them from blowing away in the tropical weather.

Last year we made the mistake of leaving an 8 foot tall palm tree in its pot on a little wheeled dolly on our sun porch. Did you know that palm branches make excellent sails? That tree would probably still be rolling around somewhere in south Georgia right now if we hadn’t caught it and removed the dolly. So far tonight the two palms have managed to hold their positions in the face of the gale.

Lawn furniture is another problem. If you buy those cheep resin chairs you might as well have them delivered to your neighbor’s house down the street because that is where they will end up after a storm. Ditto for plastic garbage cans.

We have two metal framed lounge chairs on the front patio that are pretty heavy, but the adjustable backs keep flopping around and based on the way the wind keeps increasing, I’m going to have to go out and flip them over so they don’t leave the patio in haste.

I bet the condo’s pool furniture is all blown in the lake by the 18th fairway. Usually our caretaker tosses all of it in the pool before a storm, but I noticed that it was still on the pool deck late this afternoon. I don’t feel like wading down there in my poncho to move it myself.

Well, I’ve got to go out to patrol our perimeter and see what the plants are doing. There’s still plenty of time for the palm trees to jump off of the porch to go visit our downstairs neighbors.