Tropical Storm Prep

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

Have you ever experienced a tropical storm? Well I haven't, as far as I can remember, but I have experienced a hurricane. Twice. So I'm guessing that a tropical storm is basically just a less severe version of a hurricane.

The reason why tropical storms are on my mind is because there is currently one making its way through Florida. It has mostly been effecting the west coast, not central Florida, but we've definitely received our fair share of rain and wind today. Plus, there's no way to say for certain whether the storm will make its way toward us, so it's best to be prepared.

Before the storm was supposed to hit this afternoon, we took advantage of the calmer weather to go swimming. We lucked out and had quite a while in the backyard before the sky opened up. My little sisters were like fish today; they have been gaining a lot of confidence in their swimming abilities since we moved down here, and they're finally taking some risks. They had been sort of timid in jumping into the pool, but are finally at the point where they're telling us to back up more and more so they don't just jump into our arms. They are working on holding their breath so that they can swim underwater for longer periods of time, and they've been doing really well so far. They loved showing off their moves today.

When we got out of the pool, just in time I might add, we had to make sure that all pool toys, noodles, goggles, floats, etc. were put away somewhere so that they wouldn't be carried away if it got windy. Let me just say that it was a good thing that we took those precautions, because the wind certainly kicked up a whole lot.

The crazy wind didn't last too long, but it was powerful for the short time that it had our attention. From my bedroom, where I had been sitting calmly after drying off from the pool, I heard this loud crash and I jumped up. I have a back door on my room that leads out to the lanai, and through the window in the door, I could see that a cabinet had fallen over in the lanai. It was one of those lightweight cabinets that we had to put out there purely because I own too much stuff (and my mom was sick of looking at it all in my room), so the wind had knocked it, and all of my stuff, right over.

My mom and I ended up running out to the lanai to move everything away from the walls to the backyard, where the wind was whipping through the screens, and made sure that everything was secure. The rain had picked up, the wind was crazy, and we thought for sure that the storm was going to be a huge deal.

Of course, as soon as we had secured everything, the weather calmed down. By the time my dad and sister got home from the store, the rain had almost completely stopped and the wind was just a slight breeze. I mean, thank goodness that it wasn't more serious, but we seriously went running out there for no reason. Still, I'm glad that we took all of those precautions because the storm may get worse tomorrow. I'm just hoping that it takes a different path and doesn't hit very badly throughout central Florida, because I do not want to be driving back and forth to work in the middle of a tropical storm.

All of the chaos on the news as people have been preparing for this storm reminds me of the hurricanes that we went through in New York a few years ago. I was talking to my best friend earlier, reminiscing about when my family had to evacuate and go to his house during the first hurricane. That was my first weekend of college, but I had gone home with an orthodontist-related emergency. I ended up being stuck at home for quite a few days due to flooding and whatnot. Oh, and Twin A, who was a year and a half old at the time, was in a body cast... from her chest, halfway down one leg, and all the way down the other leg. That was fun, trying to get her from our house to my friend's house in the pouring rain, in a cast that couldn't get wet. We had to hold a garbage bag around the bottom of her... it was hilarious. But it was definitely chaotic having twin babies and all of us kids evacuating our house. Can you just imagine the amount of stuff we had to pile into the car with us, all of that baby gear and everything? It was nuts! And then my best friend, my brother, and I ventured into town, walking through the flood waters to see what everything looked like. I'm just glad that we're not going through all of that again... this storm shouldn't be half as bad as that was!

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Thanks!
Taylor

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