Eta Bearing Down on Us

 

So...start with a Tropical Storm which may be a Hurricane when it passes off our coast (close enough that we will have high winds and massive rains), or do I start with pictures of Indy.  Well, as you can see, Indy wins again!  Took her to the dog park twice this week.  The first time was kind of a dud, as she had the small park to herself while the large dog area had a number of large dogs there.  But today, she had a few dogs just her size.

This dog, which is an older dog, was the right size...but too old to want to run and play despite Indy's many attempts to get it to play.  Eventually a dog about a third of Indy's size showed up, and it was too small.  I was so concerned about how she would interact with it, that I did not get pictures...but Indy did very well with the little dog.  

On our way home from the dog park, I decided to drop by the public library to see how it looks on Sunday.  Now, with voting over, it is once again closed down and no one was around.  So now my plans are take her to the library on Sundays, and to the dog park mid-week.

When I pulled up to the dog park, she got very excited.  When I pulled up to the Library and parked in front of the pond, she was not as excited...until I rolled down my window.  She jumped on my lap and stuck her head out and started to growl.

It was those Sandhill Cranes again.  Right after I took this picture, Indy nearly jumped out of the car.  She is fast, but I was faster.

Drove to another area by the pond and finally got her to see an Egret.  The Egret stood still for a long time, and she just did not take notice of it.

On Monday while Indy and I were at the motorhome while Marcia was at Bible Study, I was rolling down the driver window so Indy could look out and suddenly there is a BANG, and the window drops, and drops, and drops all the way down despite me taking my finger off the button.  I knew right away that I busted a window regulator.  Thank goodness I take my Kindle and the Air Card each Monday, and I was able to find out how to remove the Door Panel.  I then was able, using a pair of long nose locking pliers to hold the window in the up position, but it was still open by an inch.  I taped the inch portion to keep bugs out, and went to take Marcia home.

Once home I looked at another YouTube on how to get the regulator out and put a new one in.  Not much room to work with, and you have to drill out some rivets.  Also I found out that this is a very common item which breaks on the Fords.  I went back to the motorhome with a couple of clamps, bought a small C-clamp from ACE Hardware, and after cutting a wire from the regulator which was binding, not allowing the window to raise up, I got the window up, secured it with the clamps, and now we can drive until I get it fixed.  Talked to Arny, and he also told me that this is a very common breakage item with Ford, and if wait until we get back to California he has all the tools and new rivets to fix it.  I just wanted to be sure we could drive it in case this pending storm got real big and real close.

Which brings me to ETA.  Eta hit the coast of Nicaragua very close to a category 5 hurricane.  It turned north into Honduras and made another turn to the east and headed to Cuba.  It dropped to a Tropical Depression, but back to a Tropical Storm before it hit Cuba.  Now it is battering the Keys just shy of Hurricane strength.  Above you can see the current track projection, which takes it off our coast and hitting Florida between Cedar Keys and Crystal River.

 

 

Above is the projected wind speeds.  A level one hurricane has winds from 74-95 mph.  Sometime Monday and into Wednesday morning it is projected to be a Level One Hurricane.  But it is projected to drop back down to a Tropical Storm Wednesday as it gets closer to the Tampa coast...we are just north of Tampa by some 40 miles.  So if all holds, it will be a Tropical Storm as it goes by us.

Above is the radar of the storm passing over the Keys.  So far we have only had some minor winds, with no rain...but by tomorrow the rains will come and last through Friday...very heavy at times with heavy winds from time to time.  For now, we will ride it out as is...but if it intensifies, we will probably drive inland and/or south.  It just doesn't look like we will need to do that.

Indy Watching TV and Hurricane Season Not Over

Sunday has become Dog Park day.  Looked like it was going to rain, so I took her over around 1 pm.  Pull up and I have her look out the front window and boy did she get excited.  We enter, these two dogs were the only other dogs in the park at the time. She goes over, turns around and follows me to the bench I sit on.  The other two dogs gave her a quick sniff, but did not follow us.

Did not take long and she went right over to join them. Eventually she and the white dog were chasing each other all over the area.  The other brown dog joined in a little, but did not want to run as much.  Both of these dogs are adults, and Indy is still a puppy...she was slightly bigger than the other two, and much faster.  Two other dogs arrived, both smaller than these three, but they did not come over to my area, and Indy was off exploring the smells of the park.  Never saw her mark the territory so much, like six or seven times!  She came over to me and I could tell she was tired, so we left.  She is REALLY getting to love the Dog Park. 

Ended up that the rain missed us completely...but with the very HIGH humidity, I am glad we went early.

So-Far-So-Good on the Condo and Service Dog notification we sent a couple of weeks ago.  Since the form, which we worked out through a mediation through HUD and the Condo Association back in 2014, is NOT an application but a "notification", there is nothing they (association) should vote on or approve.  But earlier this year with Bubba the Board, as it was constituted then, tried, to no avail, to take action.  We shot that down very quickly.  I have a feeling that with this new board president, things will go as smooth as it is suppose to go with Indy.

So that we don't have to watch the bombardment of Political TV Ads, and the bombardment of the Medicare Commercials and the "Abused Boy Scouts" Commercials, we have been streaming McLeod's Daughters, a Canadian TV Series which ran eight seasons from August 8, 2001 to January 31, 2009.  It is just one of those shows you can watch without having to worry about what is going on in the world.  We entered season six yesterday, so by the time we have word on how the election turned out, we should be done with it.  Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts commercials will run through most of November, and Medicare will run into January and beyond.

But the thing is that Indy has been watching the TV too.  Sometimes she will get up from her bed or the floor she is laying on, give a growl, and go over to the TV and stand on her legs.  Many times a baby or another dog or a horse will have caught her attention, but sometimes it is just whatever is on.  I have tried to get a picture of her doing this, and finally got this one above with my phone.  (The reaction from when I push the "take picture button" and the picture actually being taken under poor lights made it hard to capture.)

We have a couple more weeks of the Hurricane Season.  This one has been very active, but has missed Florida for the most part...although Hurricane Sally took a bridge out in the Pensacola area along with damage to some structures.  Above is the predicted path of Hurricane Zeta, taken days before it actually hit the US.  For the most part it followed this path, although the time line was sped up by a day or two.  It is amazing how well they are predicting these things now days.

Paul Dellegatto is the local Fox station weather guru.  He has been with Fox-13 since 1990, and has been the Chief Meteorologist since 1997.  He worked as a Meteorologist in Portland, Maine then became a Chief Meteorologist  in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  By far he is the area's Hurricane expert. Hard to say how many hurricanes he has monitored, and unlike "some" weathermen, he does not go out into them for "show"...he has a huge respect for them.  He is also a huge Tampa Hockey, Baseball, Football and Soccer fan.  I think he likes Hockey the best.  And with the "lock down" he has been doing much of his weather from home, and his dog Brody is famous for interrupting one of his broadcast. (youtube it)

Anyway, his latest tweet about Tropical Storm ETA (above) provides a bit of an apprehension as if we will dodge the Hurricanes this season or not.  Look at this latest NOAA forecast below...

So our eyes will be once again watching another Hurricane.  The "what ifs" are many right now, with a worse case scenario of it turning into the Gulf of Hondurus, follow a path between Cuba and Cancun and head right for the Tampa Bay area.  Then again, it could just head north and hit Louisiana again, or make a U-Turn and head over Cuba and out to the Atlantic. 

Lots of "what ifs" now, but we should know within a few days.