Stay safe all, we'll see Wilma few days before you.

All the hotels in Cancun are due to be evacuated in the morning and panic buying is currently ongoing. We should (I hope) be OK at our place downtown and a few miles inland. The anticipation really is something quite unreal.

Went out to the hardware store...picked up more gas cans...now have 40 gallons on hand to feed the generator (another 30 in the truck if needed). Extra propane tank for the bbq. Lots of heavy gauge zip ties to secure gates and hoses around the property.

Neighbor across the street already put up his storm shutters. I'll be on the roof tomorrow making sure all the gutters are ready to handle large volumes of water.

Water, batteries, food...we're pretty much ready now. And will be ready before it gets here...if it does hit this area.

Be prepared and be safe everyone |thumb

Good luck to you all that we be near it

Sorry it took so long to get here guys but I wish you all the best of luck. If you need a place to run away, come on up north. Of course I hear that we are getting a hard frost tomorrow night.

A presenter on Fox News said that he hoped it lingered over Yucatan for a while as it would help to reduce the speed before it hit Florida.

They also had a guy with a mixing bowl full of water who wanted to spend $8,000,0000 on Jumbo Jets loaded with a special water absorbing chemical and sprinkle it on the hurricane.

The Governor of Florida came on and told everyone to check their insurance policies. I am assuming that Jeb is George's brother? How many Bush spawn are there?

Wilma looks about the size of the Gulf, but if like Chris says it's only 60 miles from the eye that is actually hurricane force, does that mean 120 miles of landfall destruction? :(

All I know is I have a whole lot of gas. :D
Eighty gallons plus 17 more in my car's tank.

I look at the big collection of gas cans behind the fence in my backyard. I would hate to see lighting or something ignite them. I do have them just about as far away from my house as is possible right on the property line.
|hurricane
That's ok Jim, you have dogs.

Went to the mall today and bought some new clothes and probable going clubbing tonight before the storm shuts down the city for a week or something.

Rented some DVDs too, The Finalcut, The Forgotten, Possessed, Robots, Batman Begins, and Primer.

Still haven't put up my shutters. Now they are only saying a cat one hitting Florida which I don't think would still be much of a storm by the time it crossed the state and got to me. It's been raining all day and it looks like it is going to be raining until sometime next week. It's going to suck putting up the shutters in the rain if I do have to put them up, but at least it won't be hot be getting bite by hordes of mosquitoes.

Did so much driving today that I need to top off my car's gas tank again.

Remind me why I live here again?
|hurricane

Hi all!
I'm regular in reading but I don't post much (I guess it's my nature) & since I have a brother in FL & I know the troubles You all have there just wanted to say:
Good luck! Hope it passes You by!

To put up the storm shutters or to not put up the storm shutters is the question of the day.

I am skipping the gym today since many of the streets are flooded and my Vette does not deal well at all with flooded streets. Last thing I need is for my car to suck in water into the engine intake like I saw a bunch of Vettes with blown engines at the dealer after another time our streets flooded.

It's going to be a long tedious weekend. :(

Lovely…

Next storm is already forming and they have ran out of names so they are going to the Greek alphabet and it will be named Alpha.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/grap...html?tswind120

Maybe Wilma and Alpha can get together at my place for some real excitement.

I'm ready for this fucking Wilma shit to be over with, this is just like last year waiting for 5-6 days for the doom to arrive is starting to take its toll.

This morning they thought that it might just be a tropical storm by the time it hit west Florida so I'm thinking it will be nothing but a bad rain storm by the time it crossed the state and got to me but now they are saying possible a cat 2.

Fuck I just want to put the shutters up or not put them up. They aren't hard to put up but I do get all sweaty and then my house is miserable to be in with all the shutters up.

Just came from my neighbor's house. Flipped a few switches and all the shutters came down. When I grow up I want electric shutters.

Just looked at our forcast...it may snow tomorrow night |santaslei

Let us know when they tell that a huge killer blizzard is coming your way.

It's coming tomorrow, no it's coming in three days, no it's coming in five days, no it's coming in two days, it's coming in two days and it's a huge killer storm, no it's coming tomorrow and it's just a mild storm, no it's coming in…

I still remember when I was a child living in the farmland of Pennsylvania and it was -20F not counting wind chill, couldn't get the front door open because of snow drifts, and even if we could you couldn't drive because the streets were covered in snow and people were being found dead frozen.

Then I lived in California and in the dry season the hills would catch on fire and burn down your home. Then in the rainy season their would be mud slides killing people. Then there was the earth quarks that you would never know when they would hit.

I hear Nevada is nice to live in.

Go Alpha! I hope it becomes a hurricane, even if only for an hour.

Because of the global warming Pennsylvania is warmer now. It's kinda like how Virginia used to be. Used to have hard frosts around Sept 21 regular as clockwork - this is the second year in a row it's past Oct 21 and still no frost.

A lot of the trees are still green, the color change has been delayed by the warmth.

hurricane shutters are mostly up.

Perfect for watching movies in the middle of the day.

Black and Decker Battery 1 from Drill died. Black and Decker Battery 2 from Drill died. Black and Decker portable vacuum dies after about 10 seconds -- which means we can't get very dirty. Black and Decker portable screwdriver died at the end with about 5 shutters left to put up.

I bet you cannot guess what brand I won't be buying to replace the current ones.

Oh, as a side note, the drill came with two batteries, I purposely checked both yesterday, one was a little low so I charged it last night. The other seemed ok. This morning, both were dead. Lowes has replacement batteries that are 60% of the cost of the drill to begin with. So, if two replacement batteries are 20% more than buying a new one with two batteries, why would anyone continue to buy Black and Decker?

I should have never strayed from Milwaukee powertools. After Wilma and before Alpha, I will be buying a Milwaukee Cordless. For $30 more than the replacement batteries for the B&D, I can get a Milwaukee. Perhaps I'll also send a letter to Black and Decker -- although, I doubt they care.

As for the weather here, it is quite odd. Cloudy with bursts of sunshine and blue sky around. Back out to put up the very last shutters. Tested the generator, then to clean the gutters.

Ahh Florida. I wouldn't live anywhere else. Except maybe 65 miles east of here.

Milwaukee powertools are hard to beat |bananna|

I still haven't put up my shutters. Planing on getting up at sunrise, checking the weather report, and then probable will be putting them up then.

I've got a couple of these and they seem to work pretty good for a few years and then die. They are cheap so I just keep on buying more of them. I bought another one yesterday. I hate spending money on tools but seem to end up owning a garage full. Just seems to go with owning a house.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...=UTF8&v=glance

Angel is running around a buying 5500 generator and all the stuff that goes with it but can't find any gas cans. She has a total of 10 gallons worth in little cans and keeps on asking me if that is enough and I keep on saying 5 gallons each 12 hours.

The movie The Final Cut is captivating :)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364343/

The water cans at West Marine are the same as their gas cans just a different color. Next go around, I am going to get one of those gas caddy's with the pump

CD34 would you use aol for your internet connectivity? Then why would you use a beginers brand for your power tools...lol
If you are considering buying any "real" cordless tools then you should consider the best of the bunch...DeWalt
Porter Cable is a fine second choice, but DeWalt is by far the best in cordless tools.

Mid-price substitutes such as Milwakee (still makes the best corded reciprocating saw - the sawzall -), Ryobi, or even craftsman by Sears or Rigid by Home Depot are decent, but for real reliability and life Dewalt (or porter Cable) is the way to go.

Cleo isn't the "dark" Robin Williams becoming a facinating actor?

I prefer palm trees to cactus

Changed my plans again…
Since is isn't raining and not that hot out, it is very humid, I put up 95% of my shutters after looking at the latest satellite image. www.goes.noaa.gov/browsh.html

Home Depot has the yellow diesel fuel cans but I'm not sure if they are able to hold gasoline without melting or something.

Fuck buying expensive tools. I just throw them someplace in the garage and it's easier to just buy a new one that I know will work then trying to find the ones from the last home project. It would be different if I had to buy something new to wear to the hurricane. Then I would buy something real nice, take good care of it, and after getting it cleaned hang it up in my closet. :D

Just started raining and lightening here, but from the local radar it’s nothing....

So much for our plans on Monday... I was hoping to get some strange, fucking Wilma.

Gotta agree with the DeWalt part - best tools in the world - although Milwaukee has a few recip saws etc that are nice, Ive never had a problem with a DeWalt and Im outside constantly building and improving stuff

As far as Alpha - go to the noaa nhc page - and look at the 5 day path - then compare it to the 5 day for Wilma - they are going to collide with each other off Long Island :) Watch out Tommy!!!

When I moved to Florida, I got rid of most of my tools because I figured, I'll just hire people to do the work. Well, Florida businesses aren't used to actually doing business and when or if they show up, its usually way later than they said, so, the tools were purchased out of necessity to avoid the stress involved in dealing with Florida contractors.

You would figure a drill with two batteries should have been able to screw 130 or so wingnuts -- no matter what the brand. :)

That drill is almost brand new and has probably drilled 50 holes and put up and removed the hurricane shutters twice. At that rate, we're looking at 4.3 cents per activation before it expired.

And Dewalt is built by Black and Decker. B&D's problem appears to really be their battery supplier, and I cannot imagine that Dewalt sources batteries from a separate company.

My wife did throw away a B&D Can opener that wouldn't open cans a while back.

Was watching one of the weather news shows, can't remember which one as they are have become one big blur, and they were talking about how Wilma and Alpha are going to merge and hit the New England area.

I remember Tommy mentioning a few storms ago how he had always wanted to experience one first hand and now it looks like he will.

I was thinking we could sell our used storm shutters to our New England friends and then upgrade ours to electric ones.

Are you sure you didn't accidently rent 'A Perfect Storm'? :)

Another DeWalt fan here |thumb

Bought one of their 18v impact drill/recip saw sets about 5 years ago. It's been used a bunch since then, always works well...and the original battery packs still hold a good charge.

I don't have shutters to put up. The previous owner had the 3m film applied to all the windows. Shatterproof and rated to 140mph if I remember correctly. Not as strong as shutters, but sure is a lot easier.

Hang in there Floridians |hurricane

I have my doubts about the hurricane film. The shutter over my guest room's window kept the broken tree limb from coming through it's window.

Robots is very good.
http://www.foxstore.com/detail.html?...1&u=1123117611

Just four more movies to go…

Yea Cleo, I may have to look into the clear shutters next season. The film on the windows is better than nothing, but certainly not as durable as shutters.

Looking more and more like we're in the path of this one. I'll be making final preparations tomorrow morning. Strapping down or moving anything loose on the property that can get airborne or slammed around. Moving the generator/chainsaw/extra fuel from the shed to the garage. And pulling all the outside plants inside.

From there...just ride this sucker out. They're now saying landfall should be early Monday |hurricane

Also remember you have to keep the traveling speed in mind. If it's a 130mph storm and traveling at 30mph, the bad side will actually have winds at 160mph.

Anticipation…
Would think that with the shutters up I would have been able to sleep in this morning but ended up waking up early to turn on the news and see what this storm is doing.

Now what…

nice to see the storm is where I last saw it last night....and for the last 2 days.

No, it's moved and now the eye is back over warm water. It's so huge that at its present rate of travel I should start feeling tropical storm winds by this evening.

They admit that they are not very good at predicting how strong it will be by the time it gets here. Anything between a Cat 3 and a bad tropical storm. Also I'm on what will probably be the bad side with strong possibility of tornados. Not worried about flooding since I'm on what is very high ground for this area and storm surge isn't expected to be a problem but my neighbor's house which is on the Intercostal water way is at risk.

Just finished putting up the rest of the shutters. I even put the big ones up that cover my screened in porch that I didn't put up for Katrina and then sat there watching and thinking how much I wished that I had put them up.

No one else on my block seems to have put up shutters. Call me Misses panic but I just got a huge savings on my Windstorm insurance for being up to hurricane code with shutters and all and it says right in my policy that shutters must be up for coverage. Anyway I've seen what happens when you loose a window and then the wind comes in and lifts your roof off.

Wow! Long thread. All set for the storm here, shutters are up, generators are ready! Blah Blah etc. Wishing everyone the best, stay safe. Be glad to see this sucker get the HELL out of here.

Oh and on the power tools discussion, for power drills it's gotta be Milwaukee. Everything else (except trim guns) Dewalt. That's my .02 on it anyway. LOL

Stay safe all! |thumb

My bad, I went to the local news site that still had last nights map up, serves me right for not looking at the time posted.

It has finally moved off Mexico and looks like Havana is getting it now.... HURRY UP DAMMIT, I want this shit over with.

Torn have your wife start waving her boobs

Final preparations done...all secure and ready to go.

Best of luck to all my fellow Floridians...hang on bubba |hurricane

Cleaned the gutters. Every bit of debris trapped in the gutters ended up on me. And I think some dirt from the ground splashed up on me too.

Thank you for calling WilmaPhone, Today's remaining showtimes are:

A Perfect Storm, 8pm, 10pm, 12am, 2am
Twister, 8pm, 10pm, 12am, 2am
Cast-Away, 8pm, 10pm, 12am, 2am
Mosquito Coast, 9pm, 11pm, 1am, 3am
Hard Rain, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, 11pm, 12am
followed up with
Point Break, 4am

I'm fucking bored!

Waking up at sunrise and putting up shutters is not a good way to start the day. I keep on thinking it is night and then I remember that I have the shutters up.

Just woke up from a little nap. Probably should try to get some work done but I'm so distracted that I don't seem to have any focus.

Oh yeah, Vette is acting up. One of the sensors for the traction control system must have gotten water in it the other night when the parking lot that it was parked in flooded. This has happened before so I had needed information printed out and stashed in its glove box. Basically the dash tells me that there is a malfunction and the car will be running at reduced power and the check engine light comes on. The car then will not go much faster then about 20 mph and I then have to pull over, shut off the engine, turn the key to on without starting, press the reset to clear out any displayed errors, press and hold the option button and then press the fuel button four times within four seconds, then it displays all the diagnostic codes and I can clear them all out, then remove the key, then start the engine. Last time this happened all was well in a few days after everything dried out so I'm hoping this is the case again. At least I have the top secret codes found by using Google until it either stops acting up or it goes in for service or I guess explodes. www.corvettefever.com/techarticles/9915/