Boats, Cattle, Horses...you name it, whatever the "poison" you make the conscious effort and responsible decisions. Some you can pick up and move...others...not so fast or HARD NO. Its why insurance is so high, too many stupid people making bad decisions. Couple that with beginners, old people and tourists...yeah. Toss in milennials...BOOM. Every geographical region has it's pluses and minuses. Yin to the Yang. Sweet to the Sour. I spent 14 f'n frosty miserable rotten years outside of Detroit, MI (Rochester Hills to be specific!) and liked very little of it. Not seeing the blue sky and sun between the months of Sept/Oct thru Apr/Jun...unacceptable. Then the weekends would come and it would rain? Snow. Sleet. WTF!!! Some years you'd be lucky for the $hit to start in late October and give up the ghost in April. That's a good year. Couple all of that with being raised in Cali and spending time in VA before calling Florida home in 79. Moved away in 85 to join the Army. Knowing full well what the winter was like there, and slogging it out shoveling snow, ice and sludge until the grass would turn green again and the trees would have leaves? UNBEARABLE. Moved back in 2000 and I'm NOT moving anywhere else but in this state if ever again. Yeah, Florida gets hurricanes. Not every year. We also get heavy rains that cause flooding and tornadoes in some areas. I'll gladly take it over that Sub-Arctic Winter frozen Hell toppled with potholes and people that want to carjack you for crack. We have to stay in-place because of my wife's animal sanctuary. Can't just leave them unattended and take off because a storm is barelling down. We lost both of our Florida panthers late last year. We still have a black bear, foxes, a bobcat (he has his own room in the house), lemurs, owls, goats, hawks and vultures. We have the normal cats, dogs and horses too! They're enclosed and still need care and to be fed. During the storm we made several walkabouts to check the integrity of enclosures and make sure the animals were okay. The bear was the only one that stressed out and needed Melatonin hidden in salted carmel brownies to stop her pacing and panting. She was monitored hourly after that. So, hell or high water we were staying. The ones that wanted to use it as an occasion to get liquored up and binge through their liquor cabinets...I have no sympathy for. They made a decison to go balls out during a natural disaster when you need all of your faculties...mental and physical to navigate what's being thrown on top of you. We were warned that that was going to make landfall somewhere between Cape Coral and Tampa Bay. We were told it was going to be a Cat 4 and maybe a Cat 5. You run from this if you can. You take personal affects and what's important to your family and book it. Yeah, the storm can change direction and it will. You constantly monitor the weather channel or radio station...both if available. As close to you as possible. There's a reason why we have a tax free period where we can stock up on storm related goods in Florida. Generators, chainsaws, gas cans, batteries, water. You prepare. For you and your family.
When you come through it...you reach out. Family, neighbors and friends. You do what you can, where you can. Help might not be as fast or even come. Even worse if you live out in the country. You can't rely on any government assistance to rescue you. Worse case you have to house extras, cut down trees, drag away debris and feed extras. This time God spared us. We fully realize how lucky we are and offer up our prayer of thanks to Him. Doesn't matter where you live. There's the sour to your sweet. The Yang to your Yin. Just don't be stupid and rely on others to make all the decisions for you. God has this.
DrMaddVibe wrote:
