Sometimes it takes a hurricane to stop a guy from posting on this forum

That's what Hurricane Helene did to me last Thursday through this past Monday.

The right quadrant of the thing blew through Gainesville here last Thursday night, knocking down a 20-foot dogwood tree in my front yard as it passed by, which tree just missed my parked Chevy Malibu by a few feet as it fell.

Also the scattering of pine tree branches, small and large, all up and down my street, and certainly all over my front and back yards.

But the storm as well knocked out my TV and Internet service (Cox Cable) during the above-mentioned time period, Thursday through Sunday, breaking contact with the outside world.

And putting a stop to any Internet forum posting on my part during that time.

Things are more or less back to normal now, but using my chainsaw to cut up a 20-foot dogwood with large branches, then moving it all to the street curb for city pick-up (northern cities offer plows for snow removal, Florida cities offer special pick-ups for hurricane debris removal), and picking up and trash-canning all those aforementioned smaller branches, will be time-consuming.

So any of you waiting anxiously (yeah, right!) for any topical threads or humor posts from yours truly this week, I'm afraid you will have to wait until next week.

But turning serious for a moment, may we take a minute or so to remember just what a terrible storm this has been, and all the damage and disruption it has caused, and all the lives it has so violently impacted?

It may be that as a resident of Florida I relate especially well to what a particularly vicious hurricane can do to people and their things, but, still, we can all sympathize with their plight.

God speed as much help to them as they can get!

And I'm further south in the Tampa Bay area. I live in Largo Fl but started telling people I live in Clearwater since it's bigger and gets mentioned more often.

Good old Hurricane Helene was a good bit off shore and a fast mover.... The storm surge it pushed inland broke a ton of all time records by 30+ percent. There's enough sand inland that a person could start another beach... The bad news is that if the sand is dirty, it CAN NOT be put back on the beach. Protecting Sea Turtles and other wild life is "a way of life" to many.

This is my fourth hurricane season in Florida. Each one makes me scratch my head and ask myself if the nerve racking storms are worth it... Then again, I live in a mobile home park... and it's been here well over 40 years... Out of 654 neighbors, we lost one carport and had a few other minor things got blown away... AND six miles that away - people lost everything.

When you said Chevy Malibu I was thinking wow, I wonder if the 81guy maybe has a '68 Malibu. I checked and I didn't know Chevy still makes them. Oh well, I'm still glad the tree missed your car.

When I checked I noticed the Malibu is being discontinued to make room for more electric models in Chevy’s lineup. The automakers all seem to have this fantasy that there will be an infrastructure to handle all electric vehicles in just a few years. Should be interesting to see how it pans out.

mattam said-

"I wonder if the 81guy maybe has a '68 Malibu."

Yeah, it would be great if I did!

https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1153821/1968-chevrolet-malibu-for-sale-in-brainerd-minnesota-56401

(BTW, asking price for the one in the above photo was $19,000 -- it's sold already, ad says -- and it had odometer reading of 86,000 miles. Described as in "Driver condition with a few minor chips.")

Also BTW: a quick question-and-answer from Copilot:

Q: what is the average cost of a 1968 Chevrolet Malibu?

A: The average price of a 1968 Chevrolet Malibu is around $41,647. Prices can vary significantly based on the car’s condition, mileage, and specific features, ranging from as low as $4,850 to as high as $65,000.)

No, I'm afraid my Malibu is the more contemporary 2014 kind:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailv2&ccid=78rq7c7y&id=c785cf7ce826c65352b8f7aaef5ee479ab50e3f6&thid=oip.78rq7c7ysjwcml3qrgb50whae6&mediaurl=https%3a%2F%2Fwww.motortrend.com%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F10%2F2015%2F11%2F2014-chevrolet-malibu-ls-sedan-angular-front.png&cdnurl=https%3a%2F%2Fth.bing.com%2Fth%2Fid%2Fr.efc450ec2ed8b095829a5dd0460079d3%3frik%3D9unqq3nkxu%252bq9w%26pid%3Dimgraw%26r%3D0&exph=1275&expw=1920&q=2014+chevrolet+malibu+photos&simid=607999106042894555&form=irprst&ck=71bf642ee6f7bf9ac328a138f223b3a5&selectedindex=0&itb=1&idpp=overlayview&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0

Above photo is exactly what my Malibu looks like, even the color.

But it's been a very good car, with a nice "feel" to it when I drive it, and mechanically very reliable.

"I'm still glad the tree missed your car."

Thanks, so am I!

I feel very grateful, as I always do when escaping a hurricane's fury, as I hope others on this forum who were in its path were able to do.

But at the same time with feelings of much sympathy for those who were less fortunate.

Jack64 -

Thank you very much for the kind words! Much appreciated!

Finishing up the post-storm clean-up today. Things getting back to the normal routine.

I still have a few post-ready threads in the hopper. So I'll use one of them to get back to posting on Monday, bright and early.

Hopefully something of interest, and PCa relevant!

Have a nice weekend, everybody!

Steve n Dallas:

Yeah, what a pain, huh?

It's almost as if the hurricanes get together in June each year and frequently decide that Florida will be their shooting gallery for that particular storm season.

I little conversation I just had with Copilot:

Q: what are recent years when Florida has had multiple hurricanes?

A: Florida has experienced multiple hurricanes in several recent years, especially during active hurricane seasons. Here are some notable years:

2004: Florida was hit by four major hurricanes—Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne.

2005: This year saw multiple hurricanes, including Dennis, Katrina, and Wilma.

2017: Hurricanes Irma and Maria affected Florida.

2020: Florida experienced impacts from multiple storms, including Hurricanes Isaias, Sally, and Eta.

These years are just a few examples, and Florida has had other instances of multiple hurricanes in a single season.

More on this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_florida_hurricanes_(2000%e2%80%93present)#:~:text=the%20following%20year,%20irma%20in%202017,%20was%20the

Scientifically speaking, i guess it makes sense that this would happen in some years.

That is, if meteorological conditions, things such as ocean temperature, barometric pressure, approaching pressure fronts, El Nino/La Nina, and the like, remain more or less constant during a particular hurricane season, then it would seem to follow that multiple storms forming under those same conditions would wind up following the same path, or close to it.

And if that path happens to run toward a particular location, such as the state of Florida, then it's just a natural event.

Similar forming conditions, similar results.

Change one or more of such factors, and the subsequent storms go somewhere else.

Simple physics?

But re this year, I guess "here we go again" says it all.