Some Wilma Photos

[IraRat]

Sorry for the poor quality, but I wasn't in the mood.

Well, my truck survived. A couple of tiny dings caused by roof tiles, which won't even cover my dedcutible, I'm sure:



The "good" side of the house, with my neighbor trying to protect his Lexus. (How he can afford a lexus living on this block is beyond me.)



The BAD side of the house:



Anyone up for a swim?



Well, no school THIS week! Maybe not NEXT week either:




Mazel Tov--I found Timmy's cucumber plant. (He's a good kid--when I was his age, I was growing pot.)



The Crab Lives, and here she is just as I found her. Tarp off, swing-away jack down, and no damage, except a little problem opening and closing one of the doors.

The exterior and interior door handles are inside, freshly painted the day before the storm hit and ready to be installed. They're these large wrought iron jobs. What you see there now are the locking slide-bolts.



A closer view of my baby, who appears will ALWAYS be under construction. This week, I'm making the tongue box at home and will bring it over to install. I'm going the full width on the box from rope to rope, 42 inches, so I'll have some storage on either side of the AC.



Here's the other side, and from this angle, you can see how I choked the wheels before the storm. Just two pieces of wood tied together so they wouldn't blow away.



Back home and cooking, but I'm really much more handsome than this. It's been a rough two days so far!!!



It's now the next day, Wednesday, totally out of beer, and the great sign that Mike sent me serves as a constant reminder of this fact. (Thanks, Mike.)

Note the rapid deterioration of my facial features from just 24 hours of no beer. Also note the piece of insulation in the garbage that I still need, as well as the wooden circle, from cutting my round door window opening.

AND TAKE A LOOK AT MY GREAT CAMPING STOVE TABLE! THAT'S 3/4 PLY LEFT OVER FROM MY HATCH GUSSETS!

(Isn't it just fascinating how I was actually able to bring teardrop construction into this thread?)


I'll post more shots as soon as the women start running through the streets stark raving mad and naked.

[Guy]

Dear Ira,

Glad you and yours are safe and seemingly none the less for wear. GET FOOD TO YOUR MOM.

[Hardin Valley Magic]

Glad to see and hear your o.k. also on a lighter note of the pics you posted I see the best quality is the one of the crab Take care of you and yours esp. mom..

[purplepickup]

I'm glad to see that you and yours weathered another storm. It looks like you were eating pretty good.

By the way, if you trucked all those downed trees up here to Michigan, they are getting up to $200/cord for firewood in the bigger cities.

[TomS]

Hey Ira,

Love the pix. Looks like you had some serious tree damage.

Did you get any water inside the Crab?

I'll post more shots as soon as the women start running through the streets stark raving mad and naked.

How 'bout two out of three?

[mikeschn]

IRA,

Do we need to take up a collection for you... we can start collecting beer cans for you! Oh, you want unopened beer cans? Well, I dunno... we'd have to talk to the membership here about that!



Mike...

P.S. At least food is not an issue...

[doug hodder]

Ira...glad to hear the Crab is OK...your tear drop too!! I apologize for that...it was just there had to say it....anyway....I was thinking about you guys in Fla. during Wilma....and thought what a shame to lose a project before you get the chance to use it....I almost lost a boat in a fire before I got to use it....scared me....glad to hear the family is OK too....It seems you still have your sense of humor about you...and that's a big part of the battle.....Take care.... Doug

[IraRat]

HAHHHH!!!!!

Tom, can you believe it? No water in the Crab. Yeah, my black goop obviously helped fix my prior major leak, but this wasn't a rain-intensive hurricane anyway. Mostly wind and flying coconuts and roof tiles. So the jury is still out on my water-tightness.

And I'll correct myself here, stuff I said in my other thread about Wilma that was off-base:

I didn't have TV access to news until Friday, when I was still numb from 5 days of no electricity. Yesterday, I guess I just didn't pay attention. But today...

Man, this is a total mess. Tons more serious damage that I knew about. My photos here are NOTHING compared to some of the things I've seen today. Thousands who will have to be evicted from unsafe structures, tens of thousands of elderly in senior communities getting no aid at all, and still 400,000 customers (customers, not total PEOPLE) without power in Broward County, 300,000 plus in Dade, and who knows how many in other counties.

They're also saying that the sugar crops in Glades and some other counties may be totally destroyed, so get ready for higher sugar prices.

Yes, things are getting better in a lot of places, but a lot worse in OTHERS. There isn't one formula/right answer that covers everyone.

On a side note, an "organizational" note on how disorganized not just FEMA is but MOST agencies...

They had a TV town meeting today, 3 hours worth, where people asked questions and top officials from various agencies were on hand to answer.

Well, one boo-boo was that they were doing their best to distribute ice and water in Dade County--except for the fact that besides Miami Beach, all other areas in Dade DIDN'T have a boil water order.

Meaning they shlepped tons of water there for distribution that wasn't the least bit needed. No, people didn't go to the distribution centers just for free water, but EVERYONE in Dade thought that tap water was dangerous and bottled water was mandatory since it was being distributed.

Yet it was most of BROWARD county that had boil-water orders and needed bottled water. (My city didn't.) Wasted time and wasted resources, and when the Broward and Dade County mayors were asked what happened--yes, believe it or not, we have COUNTY mayors down here--their answers were testament to the fact that we SHOULDN'T have county mayors.

Seriously though, they both seem very intelligent and diligent. Not political hacks. But they both basically admitted, "That was a mistake. A lesson we have to learn from."

Anyway, tomorrow I have to trek up to Boca for an office meeting to see where we go from here. Still no power up there, NONE of the traffic lights are yet working (literally), so this drive should be a lot of fun. Plus, it's Halloween, and Timmy is going to be celebrating at a special event at the mall, since it's just too dangerous for him to go trick or treating. Plus, no one in this part of town has the means or the spirit to celebrate it properly right now.

A bummer for a kid to have to go through.

[Jiminsav]

Ira,
Glad your OK down there and hope the folks learned from this and move to Iowa..
and i'm sure Timmy will understand why halloween is going to be a bummer this year.
Hey, wait, he can go as a hurrican survivor

[bledsoe3]

I'm suprised there are that many trees left in FL.

[BILLYL]

Ira-
So glad to hear that you and the family are safe and sound. I do hope all is well.

Sorry about the beer - but maybe we can do something about - the only problem is the local gov't here in Maryland. But I could ship some to you for "Educational Purposes Only" you know yeast cultures............

Keep dry & safe

Bill

[Normspeed]

Ira, the Crab looks neat. I like the nautical theme. Woodwork looks great too.

[Hardin Valley Magic]

I liked the wood style so much that is the same wood I used inside and out. Only with a different stain color...