Music Monday! Rock You Like A Hurricane

First, let me apologize. I am sorry for subjecting you to The Scorpions. They are far from a band I like, but after this weekend, and until Hurricane Matthew has inched it's way out of the Caribbean, hurricanes have been in the center of our daily activies. What other song could I pick??


I moved to the Caribbean back in 1993. Being from Western New York, I was not familiar with hurricane tracking. Snow storm tracking, yes, hurricanes, no. But over the years, it became a part of daily life during hurricance season. In June, we get the little newpaper insert that has a tracking map, the list of supplies you should have on hand at any given moment, and with each Tropical update you either add the new tropical depression to what is on your radar or you sit and wait until the next one. 

There were many times we prepped for whatever storm might pass close by. Got the supplies, moved our 'important' things where we thought safest from wind and water, hunckered down and watched tropical update after tropical update until we were in the clear. For 11 years, it was all practice runs. We got good at it, then we got tired of doing it, as (thankfully) we never had a storm hit. 

So when Hurricane Ivan was barreling through the Caribbean, we all went through the motions. I could go on about the severity of the storm, how scary it was to see shit flying through the air like trees, roof tiles, etc. I could go in to the horrible madness of the aftermath (I honestly think the aftermath was far scarier). I could describe how the shock of losing everything leaves you lost, how starting over with 3 small children who knew nothing but security their whole lives leaves scars on everyone. (for years any thunderstorm worried my kids more than it should have)

Instead I will fast forward to this weekend and Hurricane Matthew. An eerily similar path to Ivan thus faras of Sunday afternoon, same late in the season storm. Category 5 hurricane in the same place Ivan was when we started watching him. 

So we have spent all weekend checking every update. The ineternet has made it so you can watch, over and over just hit update, the movement of the storm, get the latest forecasts, watch the effects it has where it has been, etc. So we have been watching, worrying, planning. (I even encouraged hubby to prepare a sacrifice to Poseidon to spare us another disaster...desperate times.....desperate measures and all that......)

From Weather Underground

Let me tell you, I did not miss hurricane tracking when we moved out of the Caribbean in 2004. I enjoyed each summer blissfully ignorant of what was going on in the tropics. And even last season, nothing much to worry about. 

Thanks to Matthew, we slipped right back into hurricane season anxiety. What if it doesn't turn? It looks like Ivan did, what if it keeps heading North West? What will we do? Should we stay and rough it out? Should we leave? Where would we go? Where are our passports?? A unanimous decision - we would book a one way ticket outta here. We started looking at ticket prices Saturday night. Thanks, but no thanks do I want any part of a storm with 150 mph winds, and really, no thanks to the aftermath of that!

From Weather Underground

So what did I do? I had to go to the store to get some staples we ran out of, like bread and such (soda for hubby who doesn't like water....you know necessities....). But for some reason I could not help getting some canned goods, 24 bottles of water, and started thinking 'okay we have flashlights and lanterns, and we should really use up some of the things in the freezer'. Old habits die hard...I was prepping even though we plan on leaving. 

Hurricanes...I don't like them. The anticipation is stressful, and you can't help but to keep checking! I just don't like them. Much like The Scorpions, but can't help this song popping in my head...I don't like them either. Both just seem to keep forcing their way in.