Floridaze

For those who read my blog from time to time, it's apparent that I've been absent for quite some time. I have lots of excuses, including computer and server problems, ice storms, thunderstorms, raging floods and just plain procrastination. Yes, all those things really happened.


I live on the Gulf Coast of the Florida Panhandle and this year we've faced more storms than in years past. A few months back an ice storm brought my part of Florida to a standstill for several days. Roads and bridges were shut down and only those with 4-wheel-drive managed to get from one end of town to another without slip-sliding all over the place. My two dogs, Shani and Dude, thoroughly enjoyed playing in the ice topped with a tiny bit of snow.


Florida normally gets thunderstorms year around, but this year we've had some really wild ones that lasted for hours and hours. Dude is afraid of thunder, so he had a lot of bad, sleepless nights. I don't much care for thunderstorms, but if I'm really exhausted I can manage to sleep through a storm now and then.


A couple weeks ago we were hit with 'The Mother of All Storms' which dropped between 17 and 30 inches of rain here on the Florida Panhandle and the Gulf Coast of Alabama. Thousands of homes were flooded, including over 350 homes near where I live. No, my house didn't flood, but houses less than a block away did flood under several feet of water. According to the latest reports, approximately 30 inches of rain fell in my neighborhood in less than 10 hours. It's being reported as a "500 Year Flood." I hope that means there won't be another deluge of this magnitude here during my lifetime. But then, you never know.


To sum things up, I'm "The Queen of Procrastination." I needed a break from writing and blogging. Though I never intended to take this long of a break. But now I'm ready to jump back in and write, write and write. Oh yeah, unless I decide to procrastinate some more.


For the record, I've been reading lots of books over the last few months. So in my next post I'll list some of those books I read and loved.