bad things happening to loved ones soon

[sistawendy]

But first: yesterday evening the Wendling decided to, in the words of his mother, stay in his bedroom in his underwear rather than take his malfunctioning phone to the store. Over the phone I heard her lie to him about my having plans for Friday in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to do it right away. I gently told her to cut that out. I'd already bought dinner ingredients, but he wanted to stay last night with his mother in the other end of the city and handle it this morning. OK, kiddo, I'll cook your dinner and put it in the fridge.
No wait, said Ex, he just took a cooking class and should cook; the new agreement is that he'll do that once a month.
Next week, said I, and made with the chicken as originally planned. This is all a long way of saying, Good grief, the pair of them.

---

But Ex & the kid are probably in need of slack at the moment: Bigpuppy has cancer. As of this writing no one knows just how treatable that cancer is, but we should know in a few hours. To her credit, Ex hasn't hit me up for vet bills directly even though I once shared custody of the dog. Poor beast. Poor Ex. I don't know how attached my son is to his dog - we got her right before I came out to him - but we may be about to find out the hard way.

---

And from the Dept. of Old Testament Stuff, about half an hour ago I saw a prediction that Hurricane Irma is going to buzz right up the spine of the Florida peninsula, packing hurricane force winds all the way to Georgia. And who do I know who lives right on that path? My mother, of course. For my whole lifetime and probably centuries before, Gainesville has been far enough north and inland that nothing worse than a strong gale came through. This time is likely to be different.

I called Mom. She seems pretty calm about the situation, possibly because her location has protected her all this time, or possibly because she's run out of fucks now that she's pushing eighty. She says there's no gas to be had, so she has no plans to bug out. I asked her about shelter - basements are hard to build and rare down there - and she said she plans on using her bathtub. (!)

Sure, I almost didn't notice the full moon last night because the wildfire smoke had dimmed it, but I'll take a few days of scratchy eyes over the possibility of losing my roof and/or getting my house crushed by blown-down pines.

Comments

[ximinez]

Bathtub is the safest place in the house if there's no basement. The plumbing slightly strengthens the walls, and the tub itself keeps you from getting crushed if the walls do come down.

[sistawendy]

That's what she said, and it makes perfect sense.

[fizzgig_bites]

Hurricane Irma will have to travel through a lot of state to hit us. She will be okay. I dealt with this last year. The biggest problem in Gainesville is our trees. Plan on losing power. If they are up in the air (neighborhoods older than 1982) they are going to come down but are quicker to fix. Unground ones are less likely to lose power but harder to get back if they do. Your mom is near Millhopper Shopping Center which is in the middle of the repair priority. During Hermine last year, we were without power for ten hours, I think. We are close to your mom so she will be fine. You can get ahold of us if you are concerned. I don't work for GRU so I can't keep an eye on things like I used to. I also don't have to go in for storm duty.

[sistawendy]

Thanks for the reassurance.

[novel_machinist]

The bathtub is a good idea that far inland. I really hope that people are preparing the best they can and taking this seriously.

And condolences on the poor dog.