Tropical Storm Wind Warning, Tornado Watch

The front page of the St. Petersburg Times this morning says it all "Fay is Fickle". I'm not complaining - I'm glad all this preparation was for almost nothing. I told my DH when he put up the storm shuttes that he had personally guaranteed we would not have a hurricane (by being so proactive). So, now I am off work today because the City closed down. This is what it SHOULD look like today:




Apparently we will get lots of rain, probably some flooding, but since the wind of the storm will be coming from the east (over the bay but not the gulf) it should not present a strong surge causing severe flooding. It's a little confusing because Pinellas county is a penninsula on a penninsula.

It's a good thing work is closed today because I got very little sleep last night - maybe 4 hours. There was some sort of banging noise outside, the ratties had 3 barking fits in the middle of the night so I ended up closing off the dog door, Chloe or the cat wanted out everytime I closed off the dog door, wind was creating movement and shadows (what we could see of it through the shutters anyway), etc.

Luckily the change in the storm means I won't have to put up the last 6 or 7 metal shutters, bring in patio furniture, plants, etc. That's a good thing because I am exaughsted from all the up and down last night. I ended up sleeping on the couch so they wouldn't as easily hear that noise on the side of the house. I went out this morning at 7am to look and I heard it just before going into the side yard and waited but it didn't repeat while I was there. The noise remains a mystery.