The Shifting Hurricanes of Fortune

Our fence didn't pass the final inspection.  Because we have a pool, the gate has to be self-closing and self-latching.  My reaction to this development surprised me:  I just gave a weary shrug.  The fence company will fix it; we've only paid them half of what we owe, so they still have plenty of motivation to fix it.

I do wonder what happens if it's not fixable.  But the plan for a non-motorized, sliding gate was approved by the city, so there must be a non-motorized fix.  Again, I shrug.  The fencing company will need to figure it out.

Part of my reaction has to do with Hurricane Florence, which right now, isn't coming our way. But I do have many friends and families in the Carolinas, along with places that mean so much to me that I can't bear to think about the destruction headed that way in hurricane form.  Part of my reaction comes from a year of hurricane destruction and the trying to get our lives back together--and we didn't even have the kind of destruction that others did. 

On the surface, my neighborhood, and indeed, this whole side of Florida, looks either untouched or recovered.  But look closely, and you'll see blue tarps on the roofs and roofing signs in yards.  If you know the landscape, you can see where big trees once stood.  You can't necessarily tell where the flood waters came and how they receded, but I'm sure we aren't the only ones still working our way through that recovery.

And of course, I feel bad.  Our flooding was nothing like that experienced by those in the path of Hurricane Harvey.  We didn't have the full force of the winds of Hurricane Irma.

It's going to be a long day today--the forecast track of Hurricane Florence is shifting south.  I don't really expect to find us in the cone, but at this point, nothing will surprise me. 

At 4 a.m., I wrote this Facebook post:  "The hour before the 5 a.m. hurricane update is the longest hour, even when you're out of the cone of uncertainty. Although in some of the overnight models, I'm seeing a drift to the south with this hurricane, so the existential question bubbles up: are we ever really out of the cone?"