With the HUGE amount of frustration going on around town, to complain about not having power is a minor, minuscule thing. But the level of my frustration, let alone Marcia's, was real, even though it did not match the level of those who are drying out their home from two weeks earlier.
Side Note: This hurricane hit so quick after the last one, that they (those cleaning up the debris from the last storm) did not get everything out of the street. For two days before Milton hit they worked both night and day to get the debris over to a bulk waste dump area. They say that in two days they cleaned up and moved more debris than they normally do in a month. I can only imagine how much debris would be all over the place had they not removed it.
We got home around 1:30 pm. No power, but the house was more cool than hot, but with humidity, not comfortable. I opened two windows and the front door with the screen door closed, turned on the water, and did a quick check of the freezer by grabbing the boneless leg of lamb. Went out and got in the Camper Van and we sat there a bit. I decided that the sound of the generator, even though it is a very low sound, could get other condo owners upset as they did not have air conditioning. So we drove over to Winn Dixie and I took a 45 minute nap. When I woke up, I looked on my hand-held and WOW, I have a connection to the Romba (Vacuum Cleaner). I quickly check my cameras, and after a reload...I got cameras. Our power is back on! Stress drops off considerably. When I get back inside the Condo, I notice the clock on the stove/oven says 1:20. Heck, I was in the home 90 minutes ago...the power came on probably just after we drove over to Winn Dixie. Three trips of our cart, and we have just about everything we need.
No damage at all in the condo. A few trees down in the neighborhood, did not see anything that fell on cars or houses...but there are stories after stories on the news. What we did see is something I had not seen the '70's...GAS LINES! The gas lines started just south of Crystal River. I thought I could make it to Spring Hill before we hit gas shortage land...well, we didn't, should have topped it off in north Crystal River. Due to the hurricane, the port that gasoline comes into was down for 2 days. Station after station started to run out of gas. Our governor declared an emergency, and employed the National Guard and other stated entities to be used to help distribute gas to gas stations throughout the areas hard hit by Milton. Today (Sunday) things are better, by Tuesday I am confident all will be back to normal. Good thing, no price hikes during this whole disaster. We ended up home with a 1/2 tank of gas...ended up we did not need more.
Those lines look like something out of the '70's!
With our power outage we did lose a few things in our fridge, saved all the freezer stuff. I think the 6+ pound boneless leg of lamb acted like a big block of ice...and with no one here to open the door, the coldness held up.
Today I walked over to the Camper Van and filled the cart with the perishable items from the fridge, and a few other minor things. It is all set up for starting the generator if batteries fall below 12v. Tomorrow we are going to stick close to home and relax.
