Storm reports are coming in from all around the US indicating freezing temperatures and/or feet of snow being deposited. Poor upstate New York! Here in N. FL, we are among those with the below freezing overnight temperatures, with two nights in a row showing at 28. First of all, that is far too early for us to be this cold. Secondly, that temperature is always too cold for us! It doesn't seem to be going very far south so the hopefully the crops won't be affected. Justin and his buddy, Ray, each purchased insulated jackets a couple weeks ago from Wal-Mart, so they are ready to face the cold. At least, I hope the jackets do the trick.
Connie has covered the plants along our walkways and property, including using a set of old sheets I had offered her as drop cloths. Glad to see them pressed into service already. The property at The Club once again looks like a bunch of ghosts as the shrubs and greenery are dressed in white sheets. I'm sure they have extras since they use them in the hotel (not the same ones, I am sure). Yesterday it warmed to the mid-50's and today it was in the low 60's for the high temps.
What a week of goofy weather it's been. Monday, as we ladies had our sad lunch at Longhorn, after being told we wouldn't meet again until 2015, people all around us were having their phones going off. Our waitress came to tell us that Duval and Clay counties were under a tornado warning. They weren't sure if we should stay or go but most of us were in favor of heading for home. I called Connie to let her know, so she could button things up on the property, but Rose had already alerted her. Connie told me the elevator man was there greasing the cables in anticipation of the freeze but hoped he'd be done by the time I got home. Thankfully he was, and he took me up to my floor for his test run. Whew!, no steps to scale with the storm behind me.
I took this picture when I got up to my courtyard, looking west as the storm headed our way. Justin was in the house, aware of the storm because his phone also alerted him. He suggested we make sure our devices were charged because a couple times our electricity blinked, and he brought me an extra charger for my phone to speed the process. First the winds came, and the sideways rain, and then, it was over. The temperature had dropped from 82 above to the 60's, and only went down from there. Perfect night for us to go shopping, right???
The worst part of the storm occurred on the Southside and Arlington areas, and downtown. Some of my friends posted pictures taken from the taller buildings downtown, and reported feeling the buildings swaying in the wind. A tornado was sighted but did not touch down, thankfully, but damage from the high winds was evident. Gas station roofs torn off, trees down on the wires, 6000+ without power for a while, and trees through people's roofs. November is not the month for tornadoes nor for freezing temps! We object!
My friend, Pat, lives a few miles south of me along the river and experienced for the second time in 2014 the loss of multiple trees on her property, taking with them her power and other connections. I feel so badly for them having to go through this again, and hope she can get some help with the clean up, and get her connections all restored quickly. The utility guys will have a few extremely busy days getting things back up again. They are heroes when they do!
