With a tapping, as of something rapping. . .

. . . you heard me rapping, right?

Actually, most of what I'm hearing is wind through the leaves, with one small thump as a dead branch maybe 5' long and 3" at the thick part bonked to earth by the corner of my house.  An hour or so ago, a good gust caused ominous "tree gets WEAKER!" noises to emanate from a couple houses down the street.  Minimal rain thus far at Gothopia Moon Base Alpha North (GMBAN), and not even all that much hunkering.

I have coffee, and leftover beef tataki that K made for dinner, and am thankfully almost out of the cheap-but-filtered vodka.

The bunny likes the wild weather a lot more than K does.  Heh. ;-)

In other news, Ivan finally grew some balls and became a hurricane. :-)

Update for the St. Pete Folks

netgoth & critus just lost power, and there's no 727 or 813 number for them to publish phone posts to without it being long distance.  As far as I know from text messaging, they're fine, just lacking go juice.

Me, being a genius, suggested they come over here, forgetting that whole "need to drive across the Howard Franklin Bridge" thing, which is inconveniently closed.  Natch.  I am apparently tasked with hunkering for three now. *hand*staple*forehead*

Oooops, power flicker here, too. .

You Are Here. . .

Well, actually, -I- are here. . . "here" being defined as "Just east of 275 where it veers slightly west of the N/S surface street midway between Seminole Heights and Sulphur Springs."

( Real-time rain map )

Thanks to thoemeringue for the hookup of the near-real-time weathermap!

First Weather Nigh-Casualty [UPDATED]

[No cause for alarm, everyone is currently A-OK]

The small live oak between Christina & Mike's (our next door neighbors) and our house split, and is currently leaning against their roof and utility lines.  The electric company has been notified, and we've bungied the one cable with some slack in it out of the way under their eaves.  Pix are up, with today's date, in the ninehells.com/gallery, along with a shot of the downed palm leaves by K's car in our yard.

Now: Hunkering with Hummus and Hops!  (a hip, a hop, a hip, a hibby-ibby!)

Update: One of the big live oaks in front of the elementary school down the block just let go, roots and all. Pix in the usual location.