Waiting For Ernesto

At the insistence of the Blogmeister, I am continuing our blog. After a whirlwind visit home in late July and now a repeat visit to Disney World with Michelle, Doug, Ryan and Daniel, I am making comment on the current conditions in Florida. Since we have arrived it has consistently been in the 90's, humid and has rained everyday-at least for a little while.

All we can say is that the press and public services are plumb crazy and making the population nutso, too. Yes, I know that the hurricane season was terrible last year, however, the news coverage and precautions incurred by emergency services virtually shut down the state.

Even our children succumbed to the hysteria and re-scheduled their flight out from tonight to last night. Given that they were leaving today anyway, their decision was wise, however, for those of us left behind by choice, we just shook our heads over the hype.

When we awoke to the 8:00 a.m. news that the weather service was standing down from their original predictions, we couldn't believe it. The Orlando airport was shut down, Disney's Airport service was down and the Orlando schools were closed. People were lined up for gas and store shelves empty. Good grief!

So, we turned on the Disney Channel and hunkered down to watch Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, such a great movie. Then, we showered up and headed out to the "House of Blues" for lunch at Downtown Disney. From there, we decided to wait out the 2:00 p.m. Tropical Storm Ernesto by seeing Invincible, a wonderful movie about the Philadelphia Eagles' Vince Papale and Dick Vermeil. While it was overcast, it was hardly dangerouse outside. So, we decided to take in another movie, World Trade Center, with Nicholas Cage and Michael Pena, a tribute to September 11, 2001. Both movies are highly recommended, but take lots of Kleenex to the 2nd one. I cried through the whole thing because real footage was interspersed with the movie and it took me right back to that horrific day.

Then, we returned to our room to wait out the 8:00 p.m. onslaught from Ernesto. Nothing! There were kids swimming in the pool in the drizzle.

Of course, we are happy that the weather was relatively calm, but why did they have to scare the bejeebers out of everyone.

According to the weather reports, it will remain in the 90's, be humid and will rain everyday-at least for a little while. Imagine that. Everything is normal for Florida, except for the reporters and politicians.