So it seems that I am not the only one having issues these days. Ever since we returned to Florida from Michigan it has not stopped raining, or so it seems. Oh, there have been a few bright spots of sunshine to brighten our days but for the most part it has been like living in a tropical rain forest during monsoon season. The afternoon thunder storms that plague South Florida in the summer are still around so that almost every afternoon you can count on a shower. It is getting a little better in that the temperatures are now in the low to mid 80's as opposed to high 80's low 90's. No matter what I am still VERY happy to be here.
What we did not see coming was the arrival of a hurricane this late in the season. Normally hurricanes disappear by the end of October even though the "Official" hurricane season does not end until the first day of December. This year we have been blessed to not have experienced any direct hits on the East coast of Florida, rather they all went straight into the Gulf of Mexico and headed directly for poor old Louisiana. (Is God trying to tell them something? Has Mardi Gras in New Orleans gotten too out of control?) What ever the reason I know it was NOT Donald Trumps fault ! (He has gotten blamed for EVERYTHING these days so I'm giving him a bye on hurricanes.).
But before we could take a deep sigh of relief that we had survived yet another hurricane season ETA started to take form. This storm is a big mess! It should be ashamed of itself with its sloppy bands of rain and blustery winds. It is definitely NOT a well formed respectable hurricane yet it is dumping tons of water all over the place. I'm not even sure it ever got to be classified as a hurricane but it WAS a Tropical Storm and that was enough for all the media to go into panic mode and start issuing alerts and warnings every fifteen seconds. And as usual under these circumstances the entire population of Florida went into panic mode and even forgot about the Corona virus for a couple of hours.
It all began in the middle of last week when the hype began. "A TROPICAL STORM IS COMING !!!!" It was being broadcast everywhere and if the folks in down town Miami hadn't boarded up their stores in anticipation of rioting if The Donald won the election they were boarding up the city in preparation for the "potentially dangerous storm". "The sky is falling" yelled Chicken Little ! As you all well know in instances like this I chose to ignore it all. For crying out loud, it's just some rain and wind! The weather forecasters on the news were all revved up because we were going to have wind gusts in excess of 120 mph !!! The flooding was going to be so severe the entire state of Florida was going to be under water for weeks to come.
Yet with all this panic going on I spent last Saturday with my two grand kids, Kaelin and Finn, shopping for our Fairy Garden. Out on the lanai we have an entire little village that we periodically up date and rearrange. When I returned from Michigan last month my entire garden was a MESS ! Weeds all over the place, plants either growing out of control or dead and the fairy garden looking like something that had survived the apocalypse. What wasn't covered by weeds was knocked over and dirty. Paint was pealing and the fairies looked like they had been beat up and left for dead. It sort of reminded me of a scene from The Walking Dead. I knew we had to take a day and revive our little garden so I picked up the kids on Saturday and off we went to Hobby Lobby for some paint and other supplies.
It was the perfect day ! Kaelin is my artist and Finn is the organizer. Kaelin sat and repainted the smaller buildings and creatures while Finn spray painted fences and large buildings out on the grass outside the lanai. (We know better than to let Finn paint inside the lanai !) By the end of the day Finn had rearranged the entire village and all was looking wonderful. (I actually did consider having the kids wait until after the storm to put everything back in the garden but they were so excited about their accomplishments we threw caution to the wind and set everything back into the garden.)
As of today the entire Fairy Village is under six inches of water ! Fairies are floating belly up, there is a pig and a tractor that have floated across the lanai onto the carpeting outside the kitchen door. Buildings are toppled, fences are ripped up and God only knows what has been covered up under the mud that has washed through the entire garden and lanai.
Apparently the weather forecasters did not issue any warnings of Tsunamis in the area other wise I'm sure the Fairies would have headed for the hills even though we don't have hills in Florida. Sort looks like next weekend Kaelin and Finn will have to return to dig the bodies out of the rubble and rebuild the entire village.
(And while we are doing this we WILL say some prayers for the poor people in Guatemala that were buried in mud slides this past weekend. If a little rain can destroy our little garden village I can not imagine the devastation these poor people are experiencing. They need all the prayers we can give.)
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