I Just Can't Walk Away

I'd like to both thank and smack the asshole who made the Jolene/Helene meme so now I have that stuck in my head. :p


Waited to see if work would do the right thing and once more they did not. I was going to let Mom make the call on whether I was going in or not since it was supposed to be calm when I was scheduled to start my shift but go to shit after midnight and get progressively worse through when I got off work, but when I woke up two things happened:
1) I checked my phone and it immediately went into a Tornado Warning notice
2) My brother had called the house to let us know about a confirmed tornado nearby.

Granted, the tornado notice and touchdown both had happened basically right after I'd gone to bed after dinner but still. When I looked into the tornado sightings further, another was down the road from work. So. One near-ish me at home and one near-ish me at work. NOPE.

After making sure the weather was still calling for fuckery after midnight, I went ahead and called out and explained why. I'm 85% sure I called out to A, but I'm not sure since she didn't sound fully like herself but since she did laugh nervously and then sighed before saying that they'd already had a bunch of call outs already, that might explain it.

Thing is, if you had a bunch of call outs, that should tell your dumbasses (not her, the higher-ups) that the store should've been closed, dammit. Yes, we're nowhere near the eye of the storm but the forecast has been "tornadoes are definitely possible throughout this whole damn thing so stay home, idjits."

Had our power flicker/go out just before midnight, so that was fun. I did venture out around 10:30 to get the mail and it was oddly soothing once I got past the initial "JFC, it's hot as hell out here" reaction. Breezy and you could see the clouds going by while smelling the ocean. Y'know, because there's a friggin hurricane out there and all. I peeked out more recently and it's started raining again.

I've got my flashlight just in case.

Did not have an easy time falling asleep yesterday afternoon. Not sure what went haywire but I had a tickle in my throat that wouldn't stop and something else that I dare not mention for fear it'll come back. Anyway, I finally did fall asleep only to wake up around... 7/8ish and decide not to get up because a) I could hear the distant rumble of thunder and b) it had taken me so long to actually fall asleep that I didn't think it wise.

Anyway, I did wake up around 10 to realize that apparently the Historic District has a fucking curfew from 11pm til NOON today, which is wild though when you look at the list of road closures downtown it's pretty much closed for business anyway. I wonder if work's gonna call it for Tuesday night or not. I can see it going either way, honestly. If they're feeling greedy and can find a pharmacist dumb enough to come in (or who lives closer than T), the other two people who aren't me that are scheduled for Tuesday night live within walking distance. On the other hand, pretty sure the rain and flooding would make both of them super unhappy before coming into work sooooooooo who knows.

Apparently there was a tornado this evening but luckily I didn't hear about it until the tornado warning was pretty much done. Much like the time one went over work, I prefer to not know until the danger has passed me by because otherwise I freak the fuck out. :P

I did go out around 1:30ish to see how the street was holding up. Not flooded yet, which is good, but it's also on the downward side of tides, so guess I'll have to peek again at high tide. I also want to see if I can peek out the back tomorrow to see if I can figure out what weird sound Mom and I heard earlier. But our backyard area turns into a river during a regular rainstorm so I'm not in any hurry to try and actually go beyond our little paved patio area and definitely not at night.

I'm kinda cracking up at how fast this thing is supposed to move once it breaks free of us/NC though. I'm off to take something for the weather headache.

Well, it was bound to happen again eventually. After having exactly ONE storm to think about last year (around my birthday a tropical storm brushed by and flooded the street) this year brings us my least favorite seasonal game: Watch the Tropics. Hmm. Not that name, but you get the idea.


Ian's currently fucking up Cuba and plotting to fuck up Florida (oof) and we're at the stage where the tracking has shifted over enough to make one wonder just how close it's going to come. I mean, it's a big storm and apparently this morning's clouds are courtesy of Ian (thanks?) so we're definitely getting SOMETHING but it's a question of how much. Over the last 24 hours the track has drifted much closer to us and I'd like to throttle everyone who kept chanting, "Charley, Charley!" over and over because that kind of seems like it's manifesting. You might say they were simply seeing similarities and I might argue that one does not give Mother Nature ideas during storm season, you fools. -_-

Anyway, we're at the fun part of planning where it's a smidge too far out to really have a concrete idea as to what will happen but it's also like, two days away. At this point I'm trying to figure out a time frame because working overnight has a few serious drawbacks and working on an island during hurricane season, well... You get the idea. Also, on the drive to work there's literally a pole that's being held up by hopes and prayers so yeah, no, I don't want anyone driving near that until it's fixed. Hopefully they fixed that already because otherwise that's going to be dangerous as fuck.

It's weird being at the talking about the weather stage of life, man. Yesterday Cass and I were discussing Ian (her mom was freaking out at a time when there was no need for freakouts) and I realized once more that she and I have had very different hurricane experiences. "Yeah, when we were kids, Hugo was fun!"

Ma'am. I know that for locals, Hugo is THE hurricane experience to recall, especially since we just had its 33rd anniversary, but let's back that statement up a bit.

a) We've had more recent experience as adults. Dorian took out my power for multiple days and had me scared to death overnight because it was windy as hell and the darkness meant I could obsess over everything that could go wrong and how screwed we were. I think her power blipped for an hour, max.

b) Charleston has proven time and time again it does not know how to actually fix its flooding issue.

c) Hugo itself? Not fun. It was not fun hearing all the trees fall around me, each with a thud that made the house shake and shiver, only to learn that a lot of those trees were hitting the houses next door, on both sides. It was not fun having to move upstairs because the rain was coming in under the door and we weren't sure (and you sure as fuck weren't going to open the door to find out) it wasn't actually flooding. It was not fun being without power for weeks and at this point I legitimately do not know how long we were actually without power because time moves differently for children and I was EIGHT. Which meant she was seven and new to the area and I'm pretty sure she told me they rode things out in a hotel because they were new to the area.


Also, I don't think she's had a hurricane or tropical storm since she became a mom. I know she was pregnant during one that hit the SC/NC border and she was not pleased at having to travel to that area because her father-in-law was being an idiot. I also don't remember if she actually went or if she played the "I'm pregnant so we're not going" card. But there is a world of difference between having to be the responsible adult in the situation and being a kid, and also between being the person who gets to plan hurricane parties and having to worry about kids and high winds and flood waters. I admit I worry more in general but like, dude. I also know you don't plan hurricane parties while mocking how small a storm is scheduled to be...

You don't tempt Mother Nature like that.

That said, all these are just thoughts and musings because we're basically looking at flooding and possible tornadoes, depending on the track it takes.