Who turned down the thermostat?

It's COLD! Well, cold to ME. I'm a native Floridian who's never seen real snow, so the fact that I woke to temperatures in the 50s (in SW Florida) this morning was a shock. And it's supposed to be colder tonight. In April?? No wonder my hands are killing me. 

People from other states ask me why I would never want to live anywhere but Florida. "Hurricanes!" they shout.

I'd rather deal with hurricanes than with mile-wide tornadoes that drop from the sky at a second's notice. Or earthquakes. Or mudslides. Or raging wildfires. Or blizzards. Or huge floods. 

The only blizzard I have to worry about is how many pounds the one I buy at the local DQ will add to my ass if I eat it.

And let's face it, Joey's only 12 and I would hate to think how dealing with blizzards and spring mud, etc. would have been all these years in his w/c. Yes, we deal with sudden, drenching summer t-showers. Big whoop.  Okay, so Hurricane Charley scared the crap out of me. (Hell, when our power went out that afternoon, the TV weather guy just said it was coming OVER our house. Fortunately it skirted up the harbor and we caught just the side of it.)

What's my point? Well, it's that time of year. No, not tax day. (Well, yes, it is tax day, but since DH - aka "The Most Wonderful Husband in the World" already e-filed them weeks ago, it's no big in our household.) It's middle of April, meaning those in hurricane country need to look to their preparations. Time to dig out (and crank!) the generators. Check the plywood to make sure it's not warped to holy hell (or that the kids didn't abscond with it to make skateboard ramps). Start eating down the freezer contents so if you do lose power you won't lose thousands of dollars of frozen venison steaks (or whatever you treasure in there).

It's time to start thinking ahead. For PWD, or families with PWD, this is doubly important. If you don't drive and rely on public transportation, call your county/municipality's office of emergency management and see what their plan is for persons with special needs (PSN in government wonk lingo) for evacuations, and sign up for their list, if necessary.

It's only April. But hurricane season starts in 90 days. (I think, my math is fuzzy, might be 91 or 89, so shoot me.) And it's not unheard of to have early storms. Especially with the weird weather patterns we've been having. If you're reaading this, duh, you're obviously on the internet. Take the time to bookmark the National Hurricane Center's Tropical Prediction Page  and start checking in from time to time. For those weather geeks like me who like to discuss the weather with other serious weather geeks, you can check out the Central Florida Hurricane Center, a private but really neat site where you can get up-to-the-nanosecond weather discussions about any pending blobs of low pressure swirling around the globe.

And this advice isn't just for people in the way of hurricanes. If you're a PWD in Tornado Alley, or live in an area where other natural disasters of a specific type can happen, get ready. It's far better to be ready than to play catch up in a crisis.