Fay bears down, while I honker down...

Once again paradise awaits the decision of a big wind in the tropics. Lady Fay ponders her choice of direction to the annoyance of many. As with all tropical storms and hurricane issues here in sunny Southern Florida, we never know what the outcome may be, so we wait.

And watch.

And wait some more.

We're lucky with Fay. She's already in the Keys. Usually we spend a week or more watching a system well out in the Eastern Atlantic lolligag, wobble, build, loose strength only to rebuild then barrel down on God knows where at the last minute.

This is a good time to think about protecting not only home and property but your documents, such as important papers like birth certificates, insurance policies, warranties, titles, family photographs/photo albums, and yes, your computer documents such as manuscripts, stories, articles! These are all things that are either irreplacable or would cost much to replace in the means of stress, tears, and trouble.

While we rush around preparing the obvious, the last thing on our minds are the computer documents that could be lost. I suggest routinely backing all documents up on a flashdrive, memory stick, or online storage. I use my flashdrive and memory sticks all easy enough to utilize, so I am not familiar with online storage but I know they are out there. If anyone knows of specific sites please, by all means, post a comment, and I'll post the links.

If you utilize memory cards, flash drives, and/or memory sticks don't forget to take them with you if you have to leave. I remember one year we had over 21 named storms and at the time we lived in a double-wide manufactured home. All my papers, photo albums, and loose pictures spent the entire hurricane season in the trunk of my car! It was easier than packing them up and carting them out of the house each time we had to evacuate, which was a lot.

Now we live in a nice concrete block bunker, LOL but still the risks are the same. You just don't know until you've gotten past the storm what damage it may cause so its better to be prepared and nothing happen then not prepare and loose everything.

As for Fay, she is predicted to make land fall on the southwest coast but for now she sits annoyingly dormant torturing the Florida Keys, so we sit on a sigh awaiting her decision. Regardless, we will be affected in some degree, as all the convection, rain, storms, and winds are on the eastern side of the storm as are we on the south eastern coast.

I've backed up my files, prepared and protected my property and now wonder: do I have to go to work tomorrow or do I get to work on my muse an extra day this week?

hmmm...

Dayana~