“It’s Nothing”

As I write this, it is 4 o’clock in the morning and I’m in a tropical storm. One thing is missing, there is no wind and little to no rain. I awoke a bit ago to an alarming quiet. There are no howling winds or pounding rains. What kind of storm is this?

Yesterday Mr. Pop and I beat ourselves up mentally over whether to put up the hurricane shutters or not to put up the hurricane shutters. The local yokel weather people were on TV all day with their “up to the minute” storm reports. Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore in Miami said, “ I’m not going to hype this thing. It’s nothing.” So was it nothing or was it, as the local weather guy was saying, comparable to Hurricane Wilma? Let me clue you in on Hurricane Wilma. That storm was a blistering bitch of a hurricane. I watched the winds of that baby lift up my neighbor’s car on it’s shocks. It’s tires didn’t leave the ground but the car lifted up as high as it could go without leaving the ground.

About five o’clock yesterday afternoon we decided to leave the shutters in the garage and take down anything outside that might blow around. Okay, decision made and cocktail hour began. We’re watching the reports and feeling pretty damn smug that we hadn’t taken the, we’re all gonna die, bait. So what’s the next thing we hear? Our next door neighbor’s drill as they are putting up their shutters. Ut oh! A moment of did we do the right thing, raises it’s questioning head. Another cocktail tells us we did.

Still, with that silent question floating around in our head, we call our friends across town and inquire about their shutter decision. Yep, friends have their shutters up and they’re all snug inside. Oh no! Have we screwed up? Second guessing our decision becomes the subject that is not spoken.

Well here it is, early Wednesday morning and my potted plants that I put out to get drenched in the “tropical storm rains of ten inches or more” aren’t yet soaked and not a leaf is stirring outside.

Later today things weather-wise may go to hell in a hand basket, but as of now, Mr. Cantore was right not to hype this thing because, “It’s nothing”. It was wetter outside the night I put the hose in the pool to add some water and forgot about it until the next morning. Now that was something!