Here are a few photos to share from "the calm before the storm". The one feeder band, or outer pinwheel arm, has already passed overhead giving us a taste of what is to come. It is very calm outside right now; the skies are clear, but the wind alternates from dead to brisk. There are no birds in the sky. We all know it is coming.

	This is a shot of the front of our house. You can see the fiberglass shutters on the left, and the plywood over my home office window. The Black Grand marquis is the "Wendy Mobile".
	This was a house down the road. During Hurricane Andrew people sprayed their house numbers and insurance plan numbers on the plywood in front of their house, or more somber messages like "still alive". Since the storm has not hit yet, a little more bravado is evident
	3/4 inch plywood is the shield of choice for most windows and doors. They were selling the stuff out of the backs of trucks, on the side of the road, out of businesses that don't even sell wood. I was pleased to see that the prices were not really that bad. It was a community striving to defend itself.
	This is the boat I grew up on. Mom and Dad still live there. The marine community here in Fort Lauderdale is enormous. There is an entire community that lives on the water. Here, you can see "Tattoo" with her Storm lines out, ready to meet Frances.
	Dad called this temporarily engineered buffer a "bumper board". It goes by many names. A neighboring captain asked dad if he had any "junk board", and Dad knew exactly what he meant.
	As the storm gets nearer, boats no longer travel the waterways. Sailors run lines across the waterway, and concrete pylons are what they are interested in.
	Here is a view of Tattoo from the bow. Do you think we have enough lines? Me neither. Let's put a few more out there.
	Here is Dad taking up some slack on one of our many springs
	There's Dad. Pretty good looking guy, eh?
	Danny in repose as we check the lines on Tattoo
	It is common practice to dump your patio furniture in your pool ; unless the storm goes right over your head, it is a pretty safe place. After Andrew, they even found a shark in this one home's pool!
	This is me holding up one of the branches that came down during the one feeder band that passed over head. I can't wait to see what the city, streets and my yard looks like after the hurricane itself passes! NOT!

Posted by Michael at September 3, 2004 09:08 PM