Thanks for the concern
I finally got my internet up tonight. The past week has not been very much fun. I'll give a rundown of my happenings.
Thursday- Started this thread not thinking that anything would actually happen to me anyway. Trimmed palm trees around screened in porch closure around pool so they wouldn't tare it up when the wind blew.
Friday- unplugged computers and brought everything outside inside needed. Got ready. Went over to my friend Mike's house who had a generator. With a big storm coming at us, we actually played on the X-box and waited. Started getting nervous when the news kept changing the direction of the path closer and closer to my house. St. Cloud is right next to the kissimmee area, which was posted above, the eye came through that night. Mike, his dad, and I started talking big after it didn't seem so bad. "I bet the power doesn't even go out." Power went out, generator came on. we watched until we saw the eye was fairly close, so we went outside to play in it. It was fun. We were trying to see how far we could lean into the wind with it holding us up. Ran into the wind, ran against it, spat into it, got soaked. Went inside to play X-box through it. Didn't seem so bad...
Saturday- Woke up, cell phones were out, same with power, and land phone lines. Decided I needed to try to make it back to my house to see how it, my mom, and pets were doing. As we were driving, we saw many trees down and trees fallen on power lines over the road, the lines the only thing holding them up. Made it to my neighborhood, and three power poles were on the ground, and the lines completely blocked the entrance. We had a gated community there for a while. After finally making it to my house (had to go around the lines through the grass) everyone in my neighborhood seemed to be alright. There was a loral oak tree down in the front yard, and my screen in porch completely collapsed and is now in the pool.
Sunday- picked up sticks, walked around collecting shingles. Had the tree in the front yard chopped up, and I helped carry branches to the road. I was sweating like a pig farmer in the Florida heat. Continued to be one of the 2 million people in FL without power.
Monday- After finishing all the yard work I could do, my thoughts turned to my neighbors and friends. times of emergency seems to bring out the best in people. Our next door neighbor let us have an extension cord off of his generator to let us run our refrigerator, and another neighbor gave us a bag of ice. We helped our next door neighbor drag limbs from some of his fallen trees around back.
Went to the grocery store. All Publix grocery stores are now built with generators. entire isles of food were gone, and there weren't any bags of ice in town.
Street lights were out, making roads dangerous. all stop lights were supposed to be treated as a four way stop, causing much confusion and collisions. we tried to stay off major roads
Hardware stored were selling chainsaws and generators right off the truck. long lines for each generators, even at $600 a pop.
Cell towers were back up Monday night.
Tuesday- Finally got electricity at 10 AM, land phones at 2 pm, and water at 4pm. No more taking a bath in the pool with the screen in porch for me! I also walked around to every house in the neighborhood letting them know we decided to hold a neighborhood meeting at my house Wednesday night
Wednesday- got an estimate on screened in porch, and had him take estimates for neighbors. All services have been extremely busy, and has become impossible for people to get services such as this along with tree choppings, and roof repair. neighborhood meeting tonight to share services with each other when we can get them. also an appearance by a member of the school board, the sheriff, and channel 2 news. Gotta love the neighbors.
Also, just got internet up tonight. Its good to have robotics back up in my priority list, but still have a ways to go. Taking a nice break, and am aching from yard work. I'm discovering muscles I didn't even know I had!
All in all, I'm okay, my friends are okay, and this is just something we will all get through. No school until Monday for me, so I have a bit more time to get things straightened out, and perhaps even take an actual break. Thanks for all the prayers, they have been greatly appreciated. Hope everyone else is okay in the community. I will try to have a couple pictures up once I get some developed... I'll keep the number that I post limited.
Thanks to all,
Barry B.
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Chair of Florida FIRST Alumni
Orlando Regional Planning Committee
FIRST Tech Challenge Florida Leadership Team
Program Planner on the Orion Spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center
Twitter: @FL_FIRST_Alumni
Events I'm Emceeing/Game Announcing:
1/10/2015 FTC Jacksonville League Championship
1/11/2015 FTC Central FL Tesla League Championship
1/17/2015 FTC South Florida League Championship
1/24/2015 FTC Tampa/St. Pete League Championship
2/7/2015 FLL Orlando Regional
2/14/2015 FTC State Championship
2/26-2/28/15 FRC South Florida Regional
3/8/2015 FLL State Championship
3/12-3/14/15 FRC Orlando Regional
4/22-4/25/15 FIRST World Championship Event - FTC Franklin Field
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