Hurricane Charley - the pre-storm report

Well, as of 8am there is absolutely no wind here.  And I mean no wind.  The tree just outside my office window is absolutely motionless, not even a twitch.  That's kinda weird, actually.  As for the skies, there is cloudcover over the entire sky which is very strange for Orlando.  Usually the clouds just kinda come in clumps and pass through quickly, but today is genuinely overcast.

Looking at the NOAA website, Charley remains on course for Tampa Bay and then on into central Florida.  The local hotels are filling up with evacuees from the gulf coast, including a friend of Kris' who got into town last night at is staying at Disney's Pop Century resort.  All of the local theme parks at this moment plan on opening at their normal time, but will shut down as the situation warrants.  Disney is guessing that the Magic Kingdom will close at 1pm today.

Me, I plan on getting as much work done as possible this morning before I have to shut down.  I've just got too much still to get done on our current release at work, and hate having to possibly lose a day.

So that's my report from the calm before the storm.

Today's WDW Hurricane Update

Being a licensed travel agent (ain't that a gas?), I receive travel agent notificatins from Disney.  The status for today:

Disney's Animal Kingdom:  closed for the day
All other theme parks: operating from 9am to 1pm
Blizzard Beach: operating from 10am to 1pm
Typhoon Lagoon and Downtown Disney:  closed for the day

All guests staying that the Fort Wilderness Lodge Campground have been relocated to other resorts on property

For guests who had a WDW vacation planned for this weekend, all penalties are waived for no-shows on guest arrivals between August 11th and August 15th.  Any guests who had reservations during this period may cancel their reservations without penalty, and can either apply all of their deposits towards an alternate date or else have all of their deposits refunded to them.

So Disney is doing the right thing.  Good to know.

Sara

Have I mentioned how much I really fucking hate my god damned bitch of an ex-wife?

I called her yesterday evening to find out what she wanted to do with Ben today. She didn't answer her phone, so I left a message saying I would touch base with her today, but that if the eye of a hurricane was passing over my house at 5pm I really wasn't going to be dashing over to pick Ben up for the weekend.

She didn't return my call.

I phoned again this morning a little before noon. No answer, I left a message. Storm's coming, what do you want to do, call me back.

She didn't return my call.

I phoned again at 2pm to tell her that the first storm squall was passing over my head, that it would probably reach her in a few minutes, that there were tornado warnings in the area, and that I wasn't going to be driving anywhere.

She called me back at 2:30 to bitch me out. "It's really fucking late in the afternoon to be calling me and telling me you're not coming. You're the one with a cell phone to use if the phone lines go down. You're the one with the laptop to keep Ben entertained when the power goes out."

To which I pointed out that A) I had left her two earlier messages that she didn't see fit to reply to, B) my cell phone was already not working because of the storm, and C) the battery on my laptop lasts less than two hours. Not to mention that at that moment I was looking at a picture on tv showing the new path of Charley, and showing the eye of a category 4 hurrincane with sustained winds of 145mph passing *directly* over my apartment in about four hours.

Jesus fucking christ on a goddamned crutch, if she wanted me to come get him early she could have just returned a call. By the time she bothered to call, it was already too late for me to be driving anywhere.

But of course, I'm the asshole.

More updates

Squall number two passed through at about 5pm. It was strong enough that over on the Bee Line Expressway (a highway I drive on several times per week) a wind gust blew over a panel van moving truck onto a minivan. From what I have heard there were two fatalities and several people trapped. One assumes there are probably children involved.

Our tv reception has gone completely, and I have disconnected the sattelite dish and stored it in the patio closet, lest it become a projectile flying through the sliding glass doors in a couple hours when the real storm hits.

Kris is sleeping in the bedroom. Or at least, she is pretending to sleep. I expect to have to shut down the computer again shortly when the next squall comes through.

probably my last report for the day

The Emergency Broadcast System just broke into the radio broadcast to report tornado warnings for exactly where I am sitting, and saying to expect winds in excess of 100mph within an hour. I'm shutting down now, and don't really expect to be back online tonight. I fully expect to be without power within two hours. I'll post more when I can.