Here There and Everywhere

I Spoke Too Soon

I made a big mistake this weekend. We were out at Peg Leg Pete’s for lunch – it was a dark and stormy day, and I thought all the tourists would go home, but I was wrong. All the tourists headed to Peg Leg Pete’s. (That was just a small mistake, and it worked out fine, we had a nice booth before the place maxxed out and the line outside started.)

The lunch, as usual, was great. No, the mistake was not going to Peg Leg Pete’s. The mistake, over a Lafitte Grouper sandwich, was mentioning how thankful I was for rainy weather, and had AdventureMan noticed we haven’t had any hurricanes this year?

I know better.

So Monday there are some vague mentions of a disturbance out in the Gulf of Mexico, down near Mexico. Tuesday night there begin to be warnings about a Tropical Storm headed this way. (We’re used to that; a drenching, some strong winds, maybe a short electrical outage and some extra clean-up afterwards.) But no, the predictions become more and more dire. (We’re actually used to that, too. Everyone gets dramatic at the possibility of WEATHER coming in.)

Today is Wednesday.

Events are being cancelled. They’re giving instructions on what we need to have on hand for emergency conditions. AdventureMan is on a quest to resupply our aging AA Battery collection for our, yes, hurricane lanterns. When ALL the lights go out, it is surprising how very dark it is.

We’ve learned a couple of things. Most of the time, the drama is all out of proportion, and it doesn’t hit us. Life gets normal really fast, and we laugh at our anxieties.

We’ve also learned that a hurricane that’s headed a couple hundred miles east or west can suddenly make a jog and hit us unexpectedly in the middle of the night. And then, life is a mess. The worst part, for me, is that no electricity means no air conditioning, and it can be very sultry and hot and hard to sleep at night. Our little propane stove is great for heating up coffee and soups, and that gets old in a hurry. And the mosquitoes.

There is only so much you can do. Much of it needs doing on a regular basis, like having your trees trimmed of branches that can fall and crush your roof or fly and break your windows. Put away all your big potted plants in a sheltered area where they will not become flying objects. More immediate is waiting to see if we will need to hurriedly affix our shutters, a real pain in the neck, which takes time, and makes the house dark and airless, but it does protect the windows.

We had a big chainsaw; just about everybody has a chainsaw to cut up big trees that block your driveway or road, but we gave it to our son and asked him to come over and help us if we need help.

I have two meetings this afternoon. Until the storm gets closer, life will go on with an eye to the sky.

AdventureMan just sent me this from the commissary saying “I won’t call it panic buying, but there is definitely some purposeful preparation buying going on.”

October 7, 2026 - Posted by intlxpatr | Climate Change, Environment, Hurricanes, Living Conditions, Local Lore, Pensacola, Survival, Weather | Isaias, Peg Leg Pete's