Nell ~ Thank you for checking up on me. We are so glad Fay did not turn into a hurricane, and hope she doesn't by the time she hits your area. We had rain off and on since Sunday, but this morning around 1:15 is when the winds really started and we later found out that a tornado touched down west of us. We had quite a few bouts of wind and heavy rain throughout the day as the bands from this storm passed over. Some areas around us didn't get any rain or wind at all. We had enough, as it was a reminder of Frances, Jeanne and Wilma, only on a smaller scale. They were actual hurricanes, bad ones. It's not fun the older we get, thinking about the possibility of hurricanes from the beginning of June until the end of Nov. We've lived here since the late 50's (DH), early 60's (me), and didn't really think about them unless one happened. These days, with all the doppler radar, satellite pics, etc., and the hype of the media and all the could be, might be, scenarios, they make sure you hear it or see it and it gets to you.

Anyway, we have pine needles, leaves and other small debris blown around the property. Nothing is down. We didn't lose our power like with the three hurricanes, (13 days with Wilma.) We still have a bit of wind and the occasional bout of rain, but not like we were having. Winds might have gusted to 60 mph. It was scary when the winds and rain were blowing, but here we are. Thankful that it wasn't any worse.

Frogs have been happily croaking since yesterday. What water we had standing has been absorbed into the ground. Everything should do well after this good soaking, 5-7 inches of rain. I didn't take in any plants and didn't take down any wind chimes either, all are still where they are supposed to be.

We keep checking the hurricane center and accu-weather for updates. We are not watching TV, haven't done so in months and don't care to get back into that.

Hope you just get some nice rain from this and no damaging winds.

I even saw a little bit of sunshine this afternoon and a tad of blue sky.

Tomorrow is another day.

This thing could come back around and bite us in the behind, we'll just have to wait and see. It has happened before.

A tree trimming service that is hired by FPL, pulled up into our driveway and asked if they could go back into our property to cut down limbs that are up in the power lines, so we had to let them in. They are cutting high, long limbs of a tropical hibiscus tree that reaches 40 ft. from our neighbor's property. It is right close to my potting area and I don't know if they are going to haul the limbs off or what. We may have to go out and deal with all this tomorrow, but I hope not. It isn't our trees, but cut and landing in the back or our property. I was out watching until the skeeters drove me back in.

The saga goes on.

Hope things go well for you Nell.

FlowerLady

Glad to hear you are safe.
Cameron

It's being downgraded, last I heard, from a TS to a TD (tropical depression). Light rain has already started here and the wind has picked up a little.

We need to go 60 miles in that direction early tomorrow and get DH's shoulder surgery over with and get home before any big rains start. I think we'll be safe.

Nell

Flowerlady - not sure where you are - are you near Mount Dora? I have many friends there, and hope that they only get rain....

Nancy.

Nell ~ Yes, the storm is being downgraded, never made it into a hurricane, but she sure has dropped a lot of rain. I hope you don't run into any heavy rains while coming and going to your DH's surgery. Hope all goes well for him also.

Cameron ~ Thanks. It was nice when the really strong winds left the area. We could start to relax again.

Nancy ~ No, we're not near Mt. Dora, maybe 4 hours or so away. From what I can see by looking at the weather radar this morning your friends there may be getting some rain from Fay. She has been flooding areas because she is so slow moving and just keeps dumping rain. Right now she's near Daytona about to head inland going west. I hope everyone will be ok. Most of the rain/nasty weather is to the east of these storms, so right now the ocean is getting a lot of this.

We were fortunate we only got around 5-7" of rain. Yesterday afternoon the sun finally came out and it was awful, very hot and humid, but still windy. It is still very windy this morning.

The tree trimmers did NOT come back the next morning to clean up their mess like they usually do. We got out there early and spent a couple of hours cutting the stuff up into manageable sizes and hauled it out front. We were both beat when finished with that 'unplanned for' work. At least it was cloudy and windy. As soon as we finished that it started to rain again. I went out later after a nap to rake up the smaller debris for about another 45 minutes and the sun came out and it was horrible. August and September are our hottest months.

I happened to see a freshly emerged Black Eastern swallowtail yesterday. It was nice to see after days of gray and rain and wind.

Thank you all for your concern.

FlowerLady

Glad to hear you all are safe though wet!

Nell, best wishes for your husband's surgery.

FlowerLady, in my experience with P&L companies, they always cleaned up the mess...and definitely should. Maybe they plan to come back to do itlater, but they should have told you all.
I am sure there some homeowners who aren't able to do their cleanup for them....

We're getting more wind than rain right now. Predicted is 3-5" of rain.

The surgery went well. Keeping the patient occupied and calm is a challenge. He's been like a cranky toddler, LOL.

(((Nell))) been in a similar situation LOL. Sending mega healing thoughts for a quick recovery your way.

Annette