Results of the Storm

They told us Milton was going to go north and hit Tampa. After we lost power and cell signal on Wednesday afternoon, the hurricane turned and came ashore 8 miles from our house at our favorite beach in the world. The roaring wind was pretty bad. We only found out we were the direct hit when we got cell signal back for a few minutes when the eye was right over us and we could make a few calls. We ran the dogs outside to potty while it was calm and still. Then the wind came back even stronger than before. It was 2 am before it let up. 

 

 

 

After the storm, the sun came out again. 

 

 

We walked around the house and this was our only damage - the top came off our royal palm and landed right at the base in the front yard. Daryl and Parker made short work of getting it out to the curb. With Ian (whose eye also went over us), we lost our front doors, had flooding in the dining room, lost our floors and our pool screens. We are so thankful that this was it.

We drove down to check out Grace Venice. The pumpkins had already been delivered and the patch set up. They took all the tents and tables down but left the big pumpkins out on the pallet. Daryl was worried they might float away.....but the church is evacuation level D and the storm surge didn't make it all the way up to the church. The pumpkins were all still sitting in the patch!

I waited in the car while the boys wandered through all the buildings to check for damage. They probably lost an air conditioner on top of a roof and there were a TON of branches down all around and some standing water in the playground. But no water intrusion - not even where someone broke out a window in the corner of the Fellowship Hall to get shelter from the wind.

Between Grace and the beach is the Venice airport. There were a few small planes that had literally been flipped upside down, like this one.

 

Then we drove downtown to check out my office and First UMC Sarasota. As we were driving up 41 (with no working stoplights) we got to a spot with cell signal and suddenly all our phones went off with missed calls and text messages! We knew downtown had flooded but had heard the flooding only came up two blocks to Palm Avenue and missed the church completely. Being surrounded by all the high rises ended up protecting it from the wind too. My office is on the second floor above the preschool and all our windows were intact. The church had NO damage! This was the office building one block over from us. Their wind damage was almost exactly the same from Hurricane Ian.

We went 48 hours without power but were so thankful for the generator that we bought right before the storm. It worked beautifully to charge the refrigerator, microwave, one small TV, the wifi router and our phones. Damage reports came in from the district... much less for us this time and mostly concentrated in Manatee county. The other districts were much worse with their damage. 

And Then the World Shifts - Hurricane Ian

Hurricane Ian is headed to Florida. For a few days the track put the storm into Tampa. Then it shifted into Venice and Sarasota. We prepped and prepared the house as best we could. This parsonage came equipped with storm shutters all the way around - plexiglass ones for the front of the house, steel shutters on the sides of the house, and giant tarps to close in the back lanai. Parker came home from FSC to help and to hunker down with us. 

The view from inside the house through the tarps out to the pool. 

The view from the house from a window covered with the steel shutters. 

And we've got the hurricane bars latched down bracing in the two car garage door. And we made space for Parker's car in the garage too. 

The storm path has shifted south again. More towards Englewood for now. 

We're ready. Just watching and waiting and praying. 

Parsonage Updates

 We received the installation of four new kitchen appliances this week. And they're awesome! 

New refrigerator with tons of space (and the old one went out in the garage for sodas/extra storage). 

New microwave and stove/oven - this one is convection with an air fryer option. 

And also a new dishwasher - this one shines a blue light on the floor when it is running that turns to green when the cycle is complete. Mind blown! And no, it's not blue - we just had not taken the plastic wrap off of it yet. 

Scenes from a Weekend

Daryl's sushi from Drunken Poet Cafe in downtown Sarasota on date day - Spicy salmon roll on the left and Tamp roll on the right. I had "drunken noodles" which were amazing! 

Davis' grumpy face when we were waiting for Parker to come out of his dorm room on Friday night. He was tired of waiting to see his big brother. 

The five of us at Disney. Celebrating a full week of college done for the big boy. We snuck it at the end of the night and got in line for Rise of the Resistance. Then we went over to Disney Springs for late dinner - ie, dessert for everyone! and some shopping. 

Saturday we all chilled in the pool and the back porch. Including the cat. 

Sunday we all got to go to worship at Grace Venice and hear Daryl preach (first time as a family of five since July 3rd!) 

Rooms Taking Shape

Each of the boys ordered new comforters for their rooms.  

Wesley went with Bucs because his room is themed "sports mancave." 

Davis picked a multicolored dragon because his room theme is "All things Asian". 

And Parker picked a beach theme - this replaces the fancy beach comforter set we had from my mom's house in the guest room before. But it was 11 years old and not in great shape anymore. It needed a refresh. And Parker wanted to honor that - his room will be the guest room when he is not home. 

Here's a video of more of Parker's room - just waiting to order the bedskirt and replace the valances on his windows. 

 

Random Scenes of Life

Yes that's a deer in our neighbor's yard. The dogs always need to be leashed in the evening to do their business because - there are deer around! 

The corgi swims, but he really enjoys chilling in the pool floats. 

And the boys are LOVING the pool. 

 

 

The House Is Coming Along

Our back patio is settled and we are certainly enjoying the pool. The backyard has no fence, but it backs up to some woods so it makes for a very nice relaxing space.