Rain, Rain, Go Away ...

I'm starting on day 4 of Tropical Storm Fay; as a tropical storm she has made history - she's been unpredictable and just as dangerous as the hurricane she could have been.

I spent two days at home, yesterday was better BUT also worse. I had no power loss [major kudos to JEA and the St. Johns county, Duval county and the City of Jacksonville personnel] so I was able to keep a watch on the conditions. The rain and wind was just as bad, if not worse. At one point the rain was a steady downfall for 4 hours and since we were in what was considered the tail of the storm the conditions spawned tornadoes on land and water spouts over the ocean. To me this is scarier

In my previous post, I indicated that I spent a lot of time on the NOAA/GOES website; I've included in this post their image of the day for yesterday so you can see how big this tropical system is - at one point I listened to a report that stated that Fay was over 600 miles in diameter and reached from Miami to Atlanta. WOW! How funny is it that the outer bands of this storm stretch all the way to my family in Georgia?

Because I currently reside in the Airstream, many of my friends and family have called me throughout the past 4 days, I am grateful for their love and concern and their outpouring of kindness in offering me shelter.

I am not fooled, I know that we are not through with Fay, we are still receiving occasional showers and gusts of wind but I can't help but smile at the ray of sunshine bravely pushing through a rift in the clouds brightening the inside of the Airstream. Illuminating the skylights through which I had previously watched the wind whip the trees into a tempest.

I wish you all wonderful weather and if not, that you find a ray of sunshine when the storm has passed.

Pippin this isn't Kansas and that's no tornado ...

Growing up, I've lived in mobile homes which meant you kept a watch on the weather. Living in Florida, hurricanes are a given, I've even enjoyed many a hurricane party in my twenties.

Now that I'm living in the Airstream, I try to keep a closer watch on the weather - with the awning out terms like "wind speed" and "gusts" take on a whole new meaning. Because I do not have a vehicle that can move this house on wheels, I have become a watcher of the skies, a listener of weather forecasts, and a constant visitor to the GOES-NOAA website. This allows me time to coordinate with my Dad (keeper of the vehicle big enough to pull my home to safety) a plan for moving the Airstream should a hurricane decide to carve a path towards my current path in life.

The Keys are currently being evacuated due to Fay who is currently a tropical storm but due to hit the warm waters of the Gulf and expected to become a hurricane. Should I need to flee, I will keep you updated.

Goodnight, I will sleep well as the gentle rains lull me to sleep.

Learning To Let Go

I spent this past weekend photographing a wedding at Fort Clinch; a state park on Amelia Island in NE Florida. The winding drive to the beach brought back so many memories of happy summers in that very park discovering the sea and all it's natural treasures with my son when he was young.

I miss you JT and hope that some day you will be able to visit that same park with your children.

Living in the Airstream you learn to let go of other things as well - space, a sense of privacy, freezer capacity and a few others that don't come to mind just now.

There are a few other things in my professional life that I am learning to let go of as well. To maintain sanity and to provide myself with the ability to move forward with completing my degree I am learning how not to take everything asked of me as my responsibility. And I'm learning to do this with the help of my boss.

But one thing I'm not letting go of is my artistic side - a side of me nurtured and encouraged by my mother. I've recently purchased a new Canon Rebel XTi, a digital SLR camera - I am having SO much fun discovering the digital world. The photo above is Fort Clinch at sunset on August 1st after a storm.

Learn to let go of something ...
Learn to embrace the things you are given ...
Rediscover something your creative side ...