Welcome to St. Augustine, Charley

As I type this entry, the eye wall of Hurricane Charley is heading up the coastline into St. Johns County, Florida, where it's expected to throw some Category 1 Old Testament wrath of God at Anastasia Island for around an hour before leaving for the Carolinas, the region for which all tropical storms save their worst.

Hurricane evacuation pass The power is flickering and the house has lost its DirecTV signal because of heavy clouds, so I can't watch the local newscasters who have stayed up late for this, but oddly enough I can still surf their Web site.

Once we figure out how to deliver TV over broadband, I'll never be able to experience the fun of a few hours where the power's out, TV's dead, and there's no other box trying to entertain me.

Before the TV went out, radar indicated rotation cells that could lead to "isolated tornadoes." Now there's an adjective that puts the mind at ease 30 minutes past midnight. Sure it's a tornado, but he didn't bring any friends with him.

I keep looking to our 16-year-old housecat, figuring that she has some kind of animal doppler that would indicate when we need to panic. Apparently things are calm, because she's snoring.

Some people who evacuated the Florida Keys ended up here for the night, which has to be a rough joke now that Charley's passing directly overhead. But they'll soon be able to enjoy some terrific weather at the nicest low-key beaches in Florida, because hurricanes take all of the other bad weather with them when they leave.

2004/08/14 · 2 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

Roger, orlandoweather.com did indeed stream the weather reports. Just because you were ignorant of its existence does not mean it did not exist.

#1 · terry · 2004/08/14

What is it about the Internet that makes people offer a corrective comment in the most obnoxious manner possible? Thanks for stopping by, Terry.

The TV over broadband I mean is 24-hour-a-day, over-the-Internet service that lets you get rid of your television set. Not the short digitized excerpts I'd have to be a total imbecile to be unaware of.

#2 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2004/08/15