Thursday, September 14, 2017

Hurricane Thanklist

Zestful Blog Post #229

Today I’m thankful for:
The National Hurricane Center.
Mike’s Weather Page / spaghettimodels.com.
Tropicaltidbits.com.
Neighbors John and Fred.
Local pals Marj and Mark and Rick and many others.
My 22-year-old Lexus 400LS.
My mechanic.
My sister, whose diamond/platinum/uranium status in a hotel chain’s system secured me a room in a safe place at the eleventh hour. Actually, it was the fourteenth hour.
My brother.
All other family units.
Almonds.
The Manatee County Emergency Alert System.
Waze.
GasBuddy.
McDonald’s.
Two angry rednecks in a patched-together maroon Chevrolet Lumina who were trying to force me off the road but chose not to at the last second perhaps because I smiled incredulously.
Other rednecks who were even nicer.
Hilton Garden Inn, Pensacola.
Publix liquor store, Pensacola.
Dunkin Donuts, Pensacola.
A waiter named Chuck.
24 linemen and their trucks from Oklahoma, en route to the staging area in Lakeland, ma’am.


This particular line-repair convoy, snapped while driving back home, was from Alabama.

New paperback edition of The Sun Also Rises, supplemented with early drafts and deleted chapters.
The Microsoft electronics company.
Florida Power and Light.
The Frito-Lay snack company.
The Samsung electronics company.
Weather satellites and all the shit they do up there.
Google.
Adidas.
L.L.Bean.
Socks in general.
Portable soft-sided cooler technology.
The Florida state highway system.
The U.S. Interstate highway system.
Workers who clean and maintain interstate rest stops.
Katy & Steve.
Ann & Margaret.
Other good friendships too many to count accurately. But my gratitude may be measured by the metric ton.
Spiral-bound notebook technology.
Graphite and those who mine it.
Double-walled paper cup technology.
Costco gas, Tallahassee.
The Florida State Building Code of 1980.
Rachmaninoff.
Poulenc.
Anonymous Four.
The Shaggs.
Marcia.

Do you have a Hurricane Irma Thanklist? What’s on it? To post, click below where it says, 'No Comments,' or '2 Comments,' or whatever. Photo by ES.

If you'd like to receive this blog automatically as an email, look to the right, above my bio, and subscribe there. Thanks for looking in.

14 comments:

  1. I'm thankful that my idiot neighbor who was mishandling a chain saw didn't sever one of his limbs right in front of me. ;)
    Signed, Jupiter Florida

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am grateful you, Marcia and Marj are safe and handled the stressful events with style and grace!

    ReplyDelete
  3. All of the above, including the comments, plus the online community and backup batteries for phones and laptops. Oh, and Verizon for not charging for data overages for these past few days. Glad you are safe and well--us too:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, Verizon performed pretty well, we thought. Glad you came through all right too.

      Delete
  4. Candles, LED flashlight, fruit cups, FPL.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Chocolate chip cookies, wine, a giant stack of books from the library, book light, and noise canceling headphones. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The noise-cancelling headphones are a brilliant idea.

      Delete
  6. Our friend Carolyn who invited us (and our two little four-legged girls) to share her bug-out condo when the evacuation orders came.
    Westgate Palace Resort Orlando employees for having a wonderful attitude under stress and coming right away when rain started leaking in the kitchen window in the middle of the night at the height of the storm.
    Sun Communities, Lakeland, and John our manager, for feeding us Monday night when we had no power and Tuesday night because they wanted to. Also the ladies who cooked it. A hot meal goes a long way at the end of a day of debris-clearing.
    Lakeland Electric for getting our power back on in only a couple of days.
    My partner for not freaking out at her first hurricane.
    New Balance for making wonderful shoes that dry quickly
    Work gloves
    Air conditioning when it finally came on.
    Refrigerator/freezers. Don't realize how much we take them for granted.



    ReplyDelete
  7. I almost forgot---the National Guard men and women, as well as the police, for keeping us safe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beej, I'm so glad you got through in safety!! Thanks for sharing your list. Yeah, work gloves....

      Delete
  8. I love this, and so glad you and Marcia fared well. My hurricane thank you list:
    Hurricane snacks (which got eaten first, though they were the least likely to go bad)
    Wine & cheap beer
    Duke Energy
    Seminole County for their response & communications
    My wife
    My teen son, and how many branches he can haul
    Friends checking on each other
    Loppers, saws, contractor garbage bags
    Work gloves
    Teva sandals
    Dri-Fit fabric
    Concrete block houses
    My day job & how they checked on employees' welfare
    Cooler technology
    Solar lights
    First responders
    Froggers for having AC and Monday night football
    Books on paper

    - Victoria

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good list, Victoria. Funny how the contractor bags become like gold ingots when you need them. And yeah, actual books!

      Delete

Tell us your thoughts! You know you want to.