Clearly, we\u2019ve got some work to do. I don\u2019t mean to make light of a serious situation \u2026 it\u2019s just what I do. But if there\u2019s one thing that little puff of a Tropical Storm Colin taught us, it\u2019s that we no longer know what we\u2019re doing. We\u2019re tropical turnips. We Floridians have gone far too long without serious weather threatening us. We\u2019ve atrophied from battle-hardened, tropical troopers to sad, clueless chimps. (\u201cSo is a tropical storm when you crouch under your desk in fetal position or when you bring all the plants and cats in?!?\u201d)<\/p>\n
I feel you, friends. And that\u2019s why I think Colin was a great wake-up call \u2014 a reminder to be better prepared in case a far-worse storm comes. Here are some of the most important lessons I learned this week: <\/p>\n
\u2022 I don\u2019t have a \u201cmother\u201d plan. This is not \u201cwhat to do with my mother\u201d \u2014 for the most part, she\u2019s plenty capable of taking care of herself. What I\u2019m referring to is a plan for how I DEAL with my mother. For instance, like the phone call I got at work on the day of the storm. It went something like this: Mom: \u201cBrian, I need you to come over and move the silver to a higher location in case it floods.\u201d Me: \u201cMom, it\u2019s already in the attic!\u201d Mom: \u201cYes, but I want you to take it up to a storage center in Charlotte, N.C., just to be safe.\u201d Was NOT prepared for that! And it made me want to start drinking, which would have thrown all my other plans off.
\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 All of my emergency batteries have been used in the Wii, my daughter\u2019s toys or are leaking so much acid in the closet that they burned a whole through the floor. Which it turns out isn\u2019t that big a problem since the flashlights and other lights are scattered to the four corners of the Earth and cannot be found. <\/p>\n
\u2022 My dog will not go outside to pee in the rain. This is a major issue! We\u2019ve never been through a big storm with Lily. And it occurred to me in this little storm that the lug-head has zero interest in getting her precious little feetsies wet when it\u2019s raining out. I could be wrong, but I think the sad, pitiful look she gave me was a request for me to carry her to do her business. That\u2019s not happening!<\/p>\n
\u2022 Thanks to a perfect storm of too many channels and the fact that we only watch Disney Channel, Netflix and it seems the new version of \u201cRoots\u201d at my house, I no longer have any idea how to find The Weather Channel. WHAT CHANNEL IS THE WEATHER CHANNEL?!?<\/p>\n
So, the lesson? Be prepared. And if you have suggestions on any of these eventualities, please write me at your earliest convenience. (Including if you know of any silver storage centers on high ground WITHIN the state!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Clearly, we\u2019ve got some work to do. I don\u2019t mean to make light of a serious situation \u2026 it\u2019s just what I do. But if there\u2019s one thing that little puff of a Tropical Storm Colin taught us, it\u2019s that we no longer know what we\u2019re doing. We\u2019re tropical turnips. We Floridians have gone far too long without serious weather threatening us. We\u2019ve atrophied from battle-hardened, tropical troopers to sad, clueless chimps. (\u201cSo is a tropical storm when you crouch under your desk in fetal position or when you bring all the plants and cats in?!?\u201d) I feel you, friends. And that\u2019s why I think Colin was a great wake-up call \u2014 a reminder to be better prepared in case a far-worse storm comes. Here are some of the most important lessons I learned this week: \u2022 I don\u2019t have a \u201cmother\u201d plan. This is not \u201cwhat to do with my mother\u201d \u2014 for the most part, she\u2019s plenty capable of taking care of herself. What I\u2019m referring to is a plan for how I DEAL with my mother. For instance, like the phone call I got at work on the day of the storm. It went something like this: Mom: \u201cBrian, I need you to come over and move the silver to a higher location in case it floods.\u201d Me: \u201cMom, it\u2019s already in the attic!\u201d Mom: \u201cYes, but I want you to take it up to a storage center in Charlotte, N.C., just to be safe.\u201d Was NOT […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[554,558,569],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-nutshells","category-florida","category-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1442,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions\/1442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}