Hurricane Season

Time to put together the Hurricane Preparedness Kit. Since hurricane season is half gone, this might be a good time to get one. It mainly consists of three gallons of water for each family member, a jar of peanut butter, some cans of tuna, and a flashlight. The local news stations and newspaper begin reminding us of it around the end of May- as in: it's almost hurricane season so be ready with your Hurricane Preparedness Kit. A special pull-out section of the paper goes into great detail of every item that a person will need when the BIG ONE hits. Public service announcements air regularly to make you nervous about not getting your HPK together yet. By July they have you feeling really guilty if you haven't made a HPK by showing pictures of homeless pets and worried children on the public service announcements. In August they are wagging their fingers and tisking at you for being so irresponsible and not rushing out to buy six gallons of water for every family member and some cans of tuna (with a manual can opener). But every year around Labor Day, we get a scare. A hurricane will make it into the Gulf and start heading our way. That's when the Action Weather Team(motto:We really, truly, sincerely care about you) shifts into high gear. The leader of the team is parked out by the beach in a poncho screaming into his microphone. The rest of the team is spending the night at the station making elaborate maps of where the storm might go and drawing pictures of what the mass devastation will look like. It generally resembles a lunar landscape with homeless pets and worried children walking around. We bring all the lawn furniture into the garage so it won't become guided missiles and hope for the best. The kids eventually get cabin fever and go out to see their friends. Then, just as we suspected, the hurricane goes around us.