HERE they come!

At least IKE isn’t directly hitting, nor anywhere near this area.  We’re just getting flooding and power outages from the storms.

Today, the casino was forced to close - the power went out and the road flooded away.  Guests were still sitting at their machines, refusing to leave them, even as the power flickered and the generators kicked in with the robotic voice telling them to PLEASE CASH OUT NOW.  YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES BEFORE POWER FAILURE AND MACHINE LOCKDOWN!

Crazy eh?

Most of the lower areas of town are under water now - about 3 feet or so.  The water is lapping at the seawall about 4 blocks from my house, so I may have to leave…. again LOL

We evacuated Mississippi and headed to Florida.  Traffic was horrendous!  On the interstate, it was down to 2 miles per hour, at best.  The contraflow made things worse!

We took a back way from Mississippi, through Alabama and hit Florida about 8 hours after we left home.  (normally a few hours drive…).   We’d get up to 45 mph, then get stuck in a snarl and go 5 mph.  Then things would speed up and we could go 60.

We left later than we would have liked, due to half of us having to work!!!!!!!!!

The feeder bands from Gustav started rolling in about 45 minutes after we left, about the time we hit Gulfport on highway 90.  Storms and winds.  Lightning.  Accidents everywhere from the sudden 3 inch downpours.

Gas stations were already running out of gas, ice and drinking water (glad we all filled up the night before and loaded our coolers down with ice and drinks and food).

The sky is red right now, as the sun comes up.

BUT… IT IS BEAUTIFUL OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW!  It’s not humid.  Not hot.  Not anything but pleasant and calm.

I feel nervous and anxious.  Jittery.  Wired.  Jumpy.

I couldn’t sleep.  I got up when my roomie left for work at 5 am.  Last minute closing duties.  They have to secure the freezers, coolers, storage.  Pack what they can onto the waiting semi-trucks to take north.  They should be done around noonish.

Gah, I still need to get the patio furniture tied down, or brought inside, if I can find a space to shove it all.  The trashcan needs to be bungied to the fence or something.  I’m not bringing that nasty thing inside with me in case I am stuck here.

The landlord hasn’t put wood over the windows yet…  they always think there is more time than there really is.  At least we don’t have any trees really close - just across the street and down a ways.  We have 1 palm tree in the yard that didn’t fall down with Katrina.  HArdly any trees anywhere since Katrina.  Nothing to slow the wind or storm surge down…

I need to fill some more jugs with water, in case I can’t get out of here.  I should hurry and bake some bread loaves maybe, before the power goes out.  We have food, but I don’t know if we have any propane.  GAH!  I can live on PB&J for a while, I’m not too picky when it’s an emergency.

The casino….

From the latest Discussion and Advisory # 24, issued at 2 pm EDT

SO MUCH FOR A SLOWDOWN IN THE INTENSIFICATION RATE OF GUSTAV.
YESTERDAY AT THIS TIME WE CONVEYED THAT RAPID INTENSIFICATION OVER
THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN WAS POSSIBLE…BUT THIS IS A LITTLE MORE
THAN WHAT WE HAD IN MIND IN SUCH A SHORT TIME. THE HURRICANE HAS
REACHED CATEGORY FOUR STATUS WITH AN INTENSITY OF 125 KT…HAVING
BEEN A STRONG TROPICAL STORM JUST ABOUT 24 HOURS AGO.  THE MAXIMUM
SURFACE WIND VALUE IS BASED ON A FLIGHT-LEVEL WIND AT 700 MB OF 141
KT…SINCE THE 90 PERCENT ADJUSTMENT TO THE SURFACE USUALLY WORKS
RATHER WELL FOR INTENSIFYING MAJOR HURRICANES. THE AIRCRAFT FIXES
INDICATE THAT A NORTHWESTWARD MOTION HAS RESUMED…AND THE INITIAL
MOTION ESTIMATE IS 315/12…RIGHT ALONG THE PREVIOUS ADVISORY
TRACK. NO CHANGES TO THE 1500 UTC FORECAST TRACK HAVE BEEN
MADE…BUT THE INTENSITY FORECAST HAS BEEN ADJUSTED UPWARD THROUGH
96 HOURS. GUSTAV COULD INTENSIFY SOME MORE DURING THE NEXT FEW
HOURS OVER WATER…AND ONE CANNOT RULE OUT CATEGORY FIVE INTENSITY
BEFORE CROSSING CUBA. THE FORECAST NOW CALLS FOR A PEAK AT 140
KT…CATEGORY FIVE INTENSITY…OVER THE SOUTHERN GULF WHERE OCEAN
HEAT CONTENT WILL STILL BE HIGH…FOLLOWED BY A VERY GRADUAL
WEAKENING OVER THE NORTHERN GULF WHERE OCEAN HEAT CONTENT IS LESS.

Even so, the Casino said the show must go on and our vehicle give-away is planned to start at 7 pm.  The PTB are still threatening terminations for any that refuse to show up to work today and tomorrow, even with the evac status changed to recommend leaving tonight, as the storm may arrive sooner than expected…  At least all the current projections have the eye missing us this time.

Hmmmm where to start.

I’m working on a render (oh really now? …. ).  With V3 (oh, REALLY now? …. ).  haha.  I’m not sure what she’s doing yet in it.  I was going with a sci - fi -girl - with - a - BFG theme, but I’m not sure if I’m keeping it or not.  I might file it and come back to it later.  I hate when an image just doesn’t ‘feel’ right, and this one just isn’t flowing.

I have so many unfinished D|S projects laying around right now…  A dagger using rogue, a priestess taro like image, a few holiday cards (halloween is coming!), another mermaid, some more WOW portraits (thankfully, just my characters, or else I’d have some angry people following me around lol)…

I’m just having a hard time staying focused on a single project right now.  Very unlike me.  I’ll blame the Graves’ Disease and my interrupted schedule due to houseguests.  Sounds good, eh?