Buckle down the hatches...

Mommy blog: After a long, 1st week back at school, Thomas and I came home today only to buckle down the hatches and prep things for Tropical Storm Faye that is slow approaching from the east. Maybe I should have prefaced this blog with some "hurricane etiquette and information" for those of you who don't live in Hurricane Alley like we do along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Let me start over...
First, hurricanes are categorized 1 to 5 (5 being the strongest storm that usually is catistrophic) and a tropical storm is slightly weaker than a Hurricane 1. Those of you who lived in the Azores with Brian and me know full well that 1/2 the year at Lajes AB, Azores was like living in constant tropical storm winds - so needless to say, I'm used to windy and rainy. Sorry... I digress. Anyway - people along the Gulf Coast here don't evacuate for a Tropical Storm and most don't leave if it is a Hurricane 1 or 2. When you start talking about strong hurricane 2's and certainly 3's, then people start packing up and evacuating to somewhere that is not going to be hit by the storm. The exception to all of this is if you live in low-lying areas or you live along the water. We don't, so we are with the initial plan.
So, our area of the Panhandle is expected to get somewhere between 8" and 15" of rain and lots of wind this weekend. What does that mean for me? I have a very good reason why the lawn is NOT going to get mowed this weekend. That and I also have an excuse for laying around with Thomas and napping when he does. Oh wait... school is back in session and I have homework to grade. Scratch that "napping plan" and I guess I will be grading this rainy, wet weekend.
Back to the beginning of my blog - Thomas and Ziggy watched as I moved porch furniture, as well as outside play toys into the garage tonight. I tried to inform Ziggy that walks would be limited this weekend (really, downright non-existant) - he will just have to dodge the rain drops in the backyard on his own. No need to put the hurricane shutters up (that would be extreme), so this was easy to prep for without Brian here. Let's pray that this is the only storm I have to deal with this season without Brian. Have a good weekend whereever you guys are...