Preparing for Hurrican Felicia

Tom has a weather alert system on his computer called STORM PULSE. A few weeks ago an alert popped up about Hurricane Felicia and Tom called out from the office, "Babe, we've got a big storm on the way. We need to check the emergency kit."
I ran into the office to look at the alert. All I could think about was we had about a week to get ready for Felicia and I was going to get a day off from work! I got on my computer and goggled "Hurricane Emergency Kits". I printed out the two page list and we went out to the storage container to check our supplies.
Well, it had been a couple of years since we had checked and updated supplies. What would we find in the container? I DON'T LIKE THINGS THAT CREEP AND CRAWL! Living in Hawaii, we're "blessed" with so many different types of lizards and insects. As much as I HATE Hawaii's roaches...I'd much rather find one of them than a gecko! I mean, I'll spray a roach with Avon hair spray and stop it in it's tracks in a heart beat! I just can't do that to a gecko. All I can do when an "iguana" appears is call out to Michael to catch it as I stand on the dining room table (crouched down so my head doesn't hit the ceiling fan!) until he takes it outside. SOOOOOOOOO...I was casually leaning against the railing on the lanai (at least 10 feet away) as Tom opened the lid of the emergency container.
He pulled out my first neatly labeled "sub" container. The label read... LARGE FLASHLIGHT... LANTERN... SMALL CHARCOAL GRILL...TONGS... CAN OPENER... EMERGENCY CAT LITTER PAN. Man I'm good! Everything was in place and ready for Felicia.
Tom pulled out my second "sub" container".
"MICHAEL...bring me gloves, a putty knife with a telescoping handle and a sterile mask!" We read the neatly labeled "sub" container... TOILET PAPER... PAPER TOWELS... STERILE WIPES. Everything was in place and also covered in gecko and roach poop! Can the critters really read? Did they actually "use the bathroom"...wipe...then sanitize?
"Michael...bring a large black garbage bag!" As we tossed all the items into the large black garbage bag, I thought to myself, "We still have time to replace the ruined items!" We strapped down the lanai furniture with industrial bungee cords (that actually had gears that tightened). We were getting ready for Felicia! All I had to do was email Tom the Costco list for the hurricane!
Those of you that know Tom, know that he is the "Costco King". When a Costco opened just blocks away from Tom's office, he camped out for three days. It was almost as if The Beatles were performing! If there is any such thing as a "Costco Groupie"..Tom is one of them; so I wasn't really worried about replacing any crappy items.
I made a Costco list and emailed it to Tom. It included water, paper towels, toilet paper and wipes.
Tom called the house when he was about 5 minutes away. "Have Michael bring "THE CART" down and meet me in the parking lot. Now "THE CART" (which was purchased at Costco) is a heavy duty, flat bed savior on wheels! It can carry up to 5,000 lbs. of stacked goods without even breaking a sweat! When Tom and Michael wheeled the supplies in; not only had he replaced the crappy stuff...he had three cases of water, two cases of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup (we don't even like chicken noodle soup), 1 case of Spam, six flashlights, a "green" lantern, 800 batteries, a 5,000 piece set of plastic cutlery, 600 paper plates and a 50 lb. container of Tang! We were ready for Felicia!
Felicia was a category 3 storm now! I was so excited! I was going to get a day off! Would she hit on Tuesday or Wednesday??? I needed to keep the girls at work posted! Tom had all this high technoligy stuff; so I needed to let them know what was going on. I went on Storm Pulse to check. I got even more excited!!!!!!!!!!!! "Felicia is now a Category 4 hurricane. Felicia is moving N NW at 14 miles per hour and with sustained winds of 120 MPH." OK...what does that mean? Are we going to be off Tuesday or Wednesday? I clicked on the detailed map. At 2 PM on Wednesday it looked like the most concentrated part of the storm was on us. OK...that meant we'd be off on Wednesday. Tom pointed out that the area in front that looked like a huge cylinder would actually hit us first. OK...that meant we'd be off on Tuesday! WHY ISN'T THERE A WEATHER ALERT THAT SAYS..."Winds will begin to pick up at 2:14 on Tuesday followed by flooding at 8:05 of Wednesday."? I went to work on Monday feeling confident with my forecast.
"We're going to be off tomorrow! Storm Pulse says that we're going to start feeling the effects of the storm tomorrow and the strongest part will be Wednesday!" We were all so excited!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone planned their shopping trips to Costco to purchase their Felicia items.
As we ate lunch on that Monday, we looked out the windows at the sky. Everything was pretty clear!? I knew it could happen quickly! A napkin on the table fluttered! Were the winds kicking up? We all held our breath! The skies remained clear and we all went home hoping for rain and winds!
As soon as I got home, I ran into the office to check Storm Pulse. "Hurricane Felicia continues as a Category 4 hurricane. Felicia continues to move N NW at 14 miles per hour with increased sustained winds of 135 MPH." YIPPEEEEEEE! She's getting stronger! I ran out to the lanai to look at the sky. Blue skies and small patches of gray clouds...gray clouds were a good sign!
I called Janelle (now nick named Stormy) to see what the weather was like in town. "It's a little gray and it's drizzling every now and then...but nothing big." IT WAS DRIZZLING! THAT'S HOW THE HURRICANES BEGIN!
I ran inside to check Storm Pulse again. "Hurricane Felicia has now been downgraded to a tropical storm". NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I already had plans for Wednesday!
"Felicia is expected to keep dissipating as it moves closer to Hawaii's coast". NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I have two cases of chicken noodle soup!
When I got up on Tuesday morning to the sound of birds chirping and blue skies; I ran in to check Storm Pulse.
"Felicia has now been downgraded to a tropical depression. Hawaii can expect some heavy rains at times and some gusty winds."
WHY CAN'T YOU SAY "HAWAII CAN EXPECT A DAY OFF"????????????
I got ready for work with a heavy heart and a can of chicken noodle soup for lunch. My co-workers glared at me as I walked in. As I looked around the office, I started feeling a little bit better. Everyone was having "Costco size" canned chicken noodle soup for lunch!