Everyone Knows It’s Windy

Everyone Knows It’s Windy was Originally Posted on August 5, 2014 by lavarock

A hurricane turned tropical depression just passed us by, but now we have 2 hurricanes headed directly towards me. They are expected to be downgraded but time will tell. A few years back, a hurricane headed towards my island and stopped dead offshore and fizzled out. We think the tall volcanoes stopped it, but the weather people say no. However, we have not had a hurricane hit this island (the Big Island) in recorded history, so there may be something in a wind meeting an immoveable object 14,000 feet tall.

Costco was very busy and so was Home Depot and Lowes. I got 6 pieces of plywood at Home Depot and got to checkout and they run up at 2 different prices. I took them back, waited for help and finally abandoned them. Went to Lowes and got what I needed. I have already boarded up the bay window and have 3 sliding doors to do before Thursday. I still have to gather anything loose on the property and store it away.

I stocked up on sandwich items like corned beef which does not have to be refrigerated,  some bread and hot dogs with buns. The hot dogs can be grilled on the propane grill outside. I saw lots of people at Costco buying gas generators, but at $750 a pop, I figure that if the power goes off, I’ll work around it.

I bought 2 big bags of ice (which were somewhat smaller by the time I got home in the heat). Those are now in the deep freeze and if I lose power, they will go into the ice chest with refrigerator items and the deep freeze will be kept closed. Yes, it is possible that I could lose power for many days but I don’t have a lot of money invested in food and the power company will reimburse us to an extent.

One thing that you learn out here in the middle of the Pacific is that you can be self-sufficient if you try. We lose power often enough because of trees and/or accidents along the one road. A propane grill and some canned items can tide you over for a few days. Many people start filling the bathtubs with water to be able to flush toilets if they lose water pressure. I happen to have tens of thousands of gallons of water in tanks on the property, so toilet flushing is not an issue here. It would also be clean enough to wash in if necessary.

I will stockpile 5 or 10 gallons of fresh water for the dogs, I have my medicine and my cellphone and tablets are charged, thus I can get online if there is internet. Even after out 6.8 earthquake years ago we still had internet and although trees can take down out internet in a hurricane, I’m not too worried. I also have VOIP (internet phone) apps on my cellphone and can use them to get home phone calls that way if my internet connection is down but the cellphone data is working. It is a lot like a giant call-forward.

So all in all, I think I have things covered and will be happy if it is all for naught. (It is not often you can use the word NAUGHT in a conversation but these are special times

I still need to stop up and get some gas fro the ATV and diesel for the tractor. I don’t foresee cutting any grass in the next week, but there have been times when tree limbs have come down and blocked my way out of the driveway. It is simple to push them out of the way with the tractor, or grind them up with the flail mower on the back.

So as the storms head my way I leave you with this:

Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I’ll be seeing you on the other side (of the storm that is).