Bonnie and ....Charley?

Florida is gearing up on two fronts in preparation for Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley. I've included links to the weather maps for Bonnie and Charley if you are so inclined, courtesy of weather.com.

I've lived in Florida for all but seven years of my life. While not giving away my actual age (hint: I'm over 21), I will admit that I need more than the fingers on both hands to count the years. I've been through many hurricanes, tropical storms, depressions, stormy weather, and our "ordinary" afternoon Florida thunderstorms. What I'm getting at is that I am very familiar with preparing for a storm of any kind. I'm not going to worry about Charley yet, but I will be keeping an eye on what's going on with him and will take the appropriate precautions as time nears landfall.

The thing about hurricanes is that they are unpredictable. When they start to slow down, chances are good that one of two things will happen: it will intensify and/or the direction will change. Charley seems to have slowed down a bit and I am thinking that it will turn more easterly. The current thought is that it will hit landfall somewhere between Venice and Ft Myers. I'm thinking further south. Although I could be wrong and it will continue on it's present course, turn more northerly or even westerly.

If things hold true, as they have for the last 6 years, Manatee County will notice little effect. You see, in 1998 Hurricane Georges was headed for Manatee County just before Dale and I got married - I'm talking days before. We were considering postponing the wedding for several reasons, the hurricane at the time not being one of them. Well, we decided to continue with our chosen date (September 26) when Georges decided to that he would come across the state from the east and exit out into the Gulf of Mexico using Manatee County as his pathway. Now we really were concerned about the wedding. Our caterer cancelled out on us (something about not being able to get to the shop through the flooding - the wuss!) and we started getting regrets from family and friends around the state who didn't want to be traveling in the middle of a hurricane. Can't say I really blame them. Anyway, the storm suddenly turned away from us just before hitting the county line (honestly...it was that close). Can't remember whether it went north or south, but instead of waking to a driving sideways rain, thunder, lightning and all that goes with a hurricane, we woke to sunny skies.

It was the talk of the town how Georges sidestepped us. I thought I knew the reason. My mother, who had passed away three years earlier, had gathered a veritable choir of angels. They all gathered at the county line and started flapping their wings at the storm and drove it in another direction. Now, I know you're probably laughing, but I'm serious. Mom wasn't about to let anything as insignificant as a hurricane stop her only daughter's wedding.

It happened again a year or so later. Another hurricane, the name escapes me right now, was headed, according to one forecaster's words "right into the mouth of the Manatee River" (the Manatee divides the county into two parts at the Gulf). I went to sleep expecting to be awakened during the night to rain, storm, lightning, thunder and the works. Didn't happen. And again, woke to sunny skies.

Dad went to join Mom in 2001, so, now we have both Mom and Dad guarding us. And that's a tag-team that not even a hurricane can beat.