....so, as I was saying,..'05 was starting badly!

As the months went on from spring break into the early summer we were scaring the shit out of the tourists, our life's blood of money flow. The God hit us with the coup d'grace! Most of the "bad" storms were occuring in the late August, September, early October periods, and most of the tourists were home snuggled up with thier weathe channels all on watching and gleefully jumping up and down litttle kids saying "We were there last year, weren't we Daddy"
Anyhow along came Hurricane Dennis, right in July, the peak of the tourst season. Full scale evacuations in effect, tourists oblivious to them, then they figured it out! "Holy Shit Martha, get the kids in the car we gotta get gasoline before they all run out down here and then head back home quick."
What is it with humans. They all get the same collective idea simoultaneously! So one by one over a five hour period every single gasoline station in town goes dry, lines are backed up a mile from the station just to get in, folks are bumper to bumper trying to get off the Island (you got your 331 bridge, your Mid-Bay bridge, your Carrilon Beach Bridge, or your Brooks Bridge. That's all there is folks take your pick. Well they took 'em all and jammed everything up to beat the band. You got the idiots who decided to stay, but the Innkeepers who told them "No Way Jose,...you're outta here, NOW!!!"
Suffice it to say a mandatory evacution in the height of tourist season has to be done earlier than usual, by about two days from landfall of the hurricane, to be sure we get them all out. Us locals? Those who were leaving ain't no dummies, they left the day before the tourists! The rest of us just "rode it out"...again.
Well then came Katrina which really screwed up the works. Now don't get me wrong, but it brought a really nasty crownd to our area in place of the usual crowd. I learned more ways to be scammed and chiseled from those folks than all my years growing up in the city!
Anyway we got through it,...somehow!
'06 was nothing, not even a whimper, so we chilled out, said a few extra "Thank You Lord''s" than usual and relaxed.
But somebody replaced "relaxed" with "complacent" so for the past winter and into this summer all we've heard about is the "Be prepared, Be ready, know your evacuation route, put your valuables together in one place for easy removal, stock up and get yourself a generator, and on, and on, and on to ad nauseum!
Now we are all fidgity about things. The real Estate market is still depressed as hell, hurricane insurance ratees have gone up 300%, (what cost me $800 a year four years ago is now costing me $5,400!, and if I don't have it it's a default on the mortgage!) So needless to say we are all nervous as hell.
Either hit me with a real nasty ass storm so I can collect my insurance and move to Utah, or stop with the big pep rally that's wearing our nerves to a frazzle!
But then again the sunny days in the September to December period are all worth it,...sigh!
Well, a few more '05 pictures and I'm off to relax.