I was unable to post anything last night or moderate comments because of Hurricane Ian. I live just south of Tampa, Florida. We were on the north edge of the hurricane. Not a bad place to be compared to those poor folks on the south side. I lost power (but had a generator) and the internet and cell phone service disappeared. It was a back to the future moment. There was a time when we lived quite contentedly without the internet and social media.
Power came back on at 1530 hours edt today. Now I am back online.
Here’s a brief video chronology of my adventure. We were spared flooding and significant wind damage. Friends and colleagues south of me fared worse. They were hammered. My only suffering was not being able to communicate with you in a timely manner. My apologies.
This is the damaged plant life that I had to prune in the aftermath of the storm. My two Rotties were terribly interested in all of it.
One more thing. I have a natural gas fired generator. My neighbors do not. But I did the neighborly thing and let neighbors plug in:
You were on what we in Navy call the least dangerous semicircle. Lucky. But Ft Myers and Naples faired far worse.
Good luck, Godspeed.
RL
I was in contact with Joe Flynn, Mike’s brother, until my cell and internet crashed. He was getting plus 100mph winds. I got a max of 80 mph.
LJ
We had an 80mph hurricane in London in 1987 which was at its worst in early morning. Few were injured but I woke to no trains, buses or taxis, no electricity, trees down and the BBC transmitting from a wartime hill in Kent. It took up to 6 months to clear the roads from Hampshire to Essex.
Stay safe
THANKS for telling us, honored Larry: I’m relieved you’re okay & sending fervent hopes that all in Ian’s path will be well, too.
Your dogs are cool. Their just checking out their new surroundings. Probably looking for a snack. Dogs are like that. “Fish snacks dogs, find the fish snacks.” 😀 😀 😀
As long as they have stuff to smell they’re cool.
Glad you are safe, Larry.
Dear Larry, Andrei from the Saker was not so lucky. Wishing you all the best!
I feel really bad for him. I hope he was not on the water.
Glad you came through unscathed Sir. Hope your neighbours to the south pull through. Nature’s fury truly is terrible
I’m glad you came through it okay. I hear hundreds may have died from effects of the storm in Lee County.
How did the Tesla owners come out with the storm?
I was thinking about that today as my generator was being used by neighbors to keep their refrigerator and fish tanks on line. If a neighbor had a Tesla and asked for a charge I would tell them to fuck off.
You made my day, Mr. Johnson! :))
Yo tambien!!!!!
I find it Strange that Electric Cars don’t come with a small (maybe 2-3 KW.) AC Inverter that could run quite a while on that Battery. Would be handy in a situation where you are stuck at Home for a few Days in a Storm….
LJ, glad to hear you and yours are well! F##k electric vehicles….
I rode it out hunkered down in St. Petersburg a couple hundred yards from Boca Ciega Bay with my trusty gasoline fueled generator.
I did not lose internet or cell at all. Power was out from 4p Wednesday to 10a this morning.
Gusty winds and one avocado tree down was the toll. Hurricane Irma back five years or so was worse.
I would not want to have been in the Saker’s area. I rethink whether I want to live here every hurricane season.
Best to all affected.
Glad you are safe and were spared the worst of it.
I really appreciate your regular assessments of the situation in Ukraine. Media coverage here in Australia is very much biased towards the western view, as you would expect.
Larry,
God Bless you and the family. One question, regarding windows. Do you have those roll down storm shutters ? Are those standard these days ?
Loved the photo of the extension cords and coffee maker
You did the neighbourly thing , which is very American. Good for you.
To anyone who has only seen America through Hollywood’s eyes , they are lying eyes.
Apologies to the Eagles and many more.
nice pool.
You’re a good neighbour to share the power from your generator like that, Larry. As a Canadian, I admire Americans for their friendliness & helpfulness — and I remind myself of that now as I witness their government’s malfeasance around the world!
Love the green outlook from the poolhouse – the palms are great.
Glad you got through it fairly well, I see Andrei over at the saker was much less lucky.
«…the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and their stability.»
I hope thi quote from by Ho Chi Minh helps to raise morale. All the best from Lisbon in Portugal.
wish you well larry , hope everything will be fine in short time.
Good to hear you and your family are doing alright, Larry! Stay safe and god bless!
Thanks for the update of your personal situation. I just wonder whether you’ve used your intel analysis skills when you picked out the spot where you wanted to live in Florida. Is the south-of-Tampa area less frequented by super hurricanes or is it just pure luck that you’ve got through this quite well? I’ve heard that there exist ‘tornado lanes’ in the Midwest. Is the same applying to Florida with some places being more vulnerable and others not?
Anyway, you’ve managed to get online again just in time before Russia is starting something big…
Your videos are tame enough make a guy homesick. Yep, you dodged a bullet.
Nice bothy!
Just a drop of drizzle for Scotland . . . (smiles)!
Glad you are safe!
Glad you survived with little inconveniences. A relative in Ft Myers tells me they may be without power for weeks.
Glad you’re doing OK Larry. Looking forward to your next beautiful article.
Hi from Moscow, Russia. Happy that all ok with yoou, Larry. How offen does it happen in Florida? I mean so horrible herricanes
Actually rare. This area will experience a storm like this about every 5 years.
don’t be so sure. i’d bet money i don’t have that within the next 2 years you’ll get one that creates some beautiful coastal real estate for alabama. at least it might finish off the annoying ex-cubans who still sit around bitching about castro all day.
Wait Larry! What!!? Are you saying that MSM lied to me and it is not a *scientific fact* that this is happening now all the time and much more “aggressive” because the policies to fight climate change/global warming (another “scientific fact” that doesn’t require evidence) are not receiving enough support!!!??? 😵😵
Glad to hear you are good. People that think usually are. You had a generator. I am sure you had other preparations. Fools are always surprised.
Still better than beign in Europe.
Glad to hear you made out fairly well. Being on the northwest side of the eye is always the best place to be. My place had the misfortune of being on the east side of Ida last year but I was fortunate and made out far better than most. Good luck to the rest of Florida in getting things back together, no doubt they will.
Glad you’re safe Larry.
Learning you have 2 Rotties has me more convinced than ever that “The Old Man” is art imitating your rich life.
Spoiler alert – Jeff isn’t actually the old man 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDu1Q9r6HDo
Thank the Lord for your safety, Larry.
Ouch!
Thank you!
Take care and stay safe…
I live in North Broward County, just felt heavy rain, and wind, just some pruning to vegetation, the South got destructive tornados, wrath of God.
Glad y’all are safe. Thanks for all you do. Reckon Saker will need some crowdfunding?
Glad to hear all is good.
But have question, why people live there?
according to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_hurricanes
gambler will not live there, odds are no good.
thanks.
Good for you. Such a nice place. Here is some light reading:
Zelenskyy Begs For NATO Entrance After Destruction Of Nordstream or: “There must be some way out of here”
Said the joker to the thief
https://pamho.medium.com/zelenskyy-begs-for-nato-entrance-after-destruction-of-nordstream-or-there-must-be-some-way-out-of-e1ddf1a959f0
Larry:
There is something that puzzles me, and I’m not trying to be sarcastic, but it’s the idea that we collectively understand the natural systems of Earth the way you can describe the underlying interests and conditions in Ukraine. All joking about Teslas aside, and here in Canada I’d freeze in winter without natural gas, there are long term predictions of drought for the US mid-west, and if climate change progresses there’s likely to be widespread crop failure (due to high variations in humidity and heat). You can imagine what might happen to our cities without viable agriculture.
This comes from UN scientists, and is not intended as wild conspiracy theories, for example:
https://theanalysis.news/a-dire-warning-about-the-end-of-human-civilization/
…
Also, from your previous posting “Nordstream. Cui Bono?”, even if the American govt were filled with elder statesmen on the level of Xi Jinping or Putin, America’s financial capitalism is what has engendered both instability abroad and at home, and likely the state of American govt and civil society. From the posting is this link to a salon article about the consequences of focusing on profit and shareholder value to the exclusion of all else:
https://www.salon.com/2018/12/23/shareholder-capitalism-and-the-slow-death-of-u-s-manufacturing_partner/
The idea that Mankind (i.e., men and women) can control the climate; can control temperature rise and fall when they can’t prevent the starvation of millions or create peaceful cities suggests this is delusional arrogance. Moreover, by lying to themselves that Tesla and other EVs are “clean” energy vehicles while ignoring the expensive rare earth minerals required to produce the batteries required to power these vehicles once they are charged is but one more example of ignorant arrogance.
Good morning Sir,
Ian faked us out with it’s hard rights and hard left. I’ve never seen such a squirrelly hurricane. I was cut off and couldn’t escape. I have a camper just north of Titusville.
Ian’s eye passed over my camper and it rode out 80+mph gusts. When I got back to my camper I found it unscathed but my lot was under a foot of water. The St. John’s is still rising.
I feel so bad for our fellows who took direct hits on our West Coast and Charleston, South Carolina.
I’m glad I found your site. Check out readingjunkie.com. The site is run by a blogger named Ian Cummer. He reminds me of you. He’s also a Firearms Instructor. His site is my favorite and your site is now right up there with it.
Oh, and no apologies are necessary.