Of all times...but of course!

We've been offline here since last night, which in my case means the phones were down, for the island, means ATM's were down. But, as of 30 minutes ago, we're back! I'm doing lots of catch up, but of course the big news is TS Ana and its follower, 90L, with them expected to be here Monday and Thursday...which of course, is a forecast, not a definite. . I'm just going to post these graphics to show why we'll all be busy today. The winds of Ana aren't expected to be *dangerous* just enough to blow stuff around, knock out the stuff that gets knocked out (water, electric, though sometimes they just keep on going great, we never know! It's a surprise!), etc. 90L is another question mark, but could be fairly stronger. So cleaning up yard stuff, securing it, all the last minute stuff goes on today.

Today is the life celebration of Peter des Jardins over on St. Croix at Hotel on the Cay. It sounds like it will be a large event and I wish I could teleport myself over there, but also know that I can be there in spirit, the same way I can be with Peter in spirit. For all of you who miss him, we're together in being grateful that we got to share in his life and hope that we can carry on his example of positive, generous joy, even if we do wear shoes!

Weather weather everywhere

I always love, when the update is pretty nuts like this one, the line at the end that says, elsewhere, tropical cyclone formation is not expected....I mean sheesh! isn't this enough for one evening?

I'm posting this because in a tropical moment, things are heating up fast...TD2 is coming back, 90L is continuing to make a play. This isn't usually what happens with these systems, usually one or the other backs out, off, down. So it's time to pay attention, if you haven't been already!

NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
800 PM EDT FRI AUG 14 2009

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

1. SATELLITE IMAGES AND DROPSONDE DATA FROM A NOAA HIGH ALTITUDE JET
INDICATE THAT FORMER TROPICAL DEPRESSION TWO LOCATED ABOUT 1000
MILES EAST OF THE LESSER ANTILLES IS REGENERATING AND COULD BECOME
ONCE AGAIN A TROPICAL CYCLONE TONIGHT OR EARLY SATURDAY. UPPER-
LEVEL WINDS ARE MARGINALLY FAVORABLE FOR ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT AS
THE SYSTEM MOVES WESTWARD AT 12 TO 15 MPH. THERE IS A HIGH
CHANCE ...GREATER THAN 50 PERCENT...OF THIS SYSTEM BECOMING A
TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

2. THE BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE CENTERED ABOUT 400 MILES SOUTHWEST OF
THE WESTERNMOST CAPE VERDE ISLANDS IS ACCOMPANIED BY A LARGE AREA
OF CLOUDINESS AND THUNDERSTORMS. THIS SYSTEM IS GRADUALLY BECOMING
BETTER ORGANIZED AND A TROPICAL DEPRESSION COULD ALSO FORM TONIGHT
OR SATURDAY. THE LOW IS EXPECTED TO MOVE WESTWARD AT 15 MPH. THERE
IS A HIGH CHANCE...GREATER THAN 50 PERCENT...OF THIS SYSTEM
BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

3. A TROPICAL WAVE INTERACTING WITH AN UPPER-LEVEL LOW IS PRODUCING
DISORGANIZED CLOUDINESS AND SHOWERS OVER THE WESTERN CARIBBEAN
NORTHWARD ACROSS CUBA AND THE BAHAMAS. THE ACTIVITY IS MORE
CONCENTRATED JUST NORTH OF THE COAST OF CENTRAL CUBA AND IS
EXPECTED TO SPREAD WEST-NORTHWESTWARD OVER SOUTH FLORIDA AND THE
SOUTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. THERE
IS A LOW CHANCE...LESS THAN 30 PERCENT...OF THIS SYSTEM BECOMING A
TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

4. DISORGANIZED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE NORTHEASTERN GULF OF
MEXICO ARE ASSOCIATED WITH A WEAK TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE.  SURFACE
PRESSURES ARE RELATIVELY HIGH IN THIS AREA. THERE IS A LOW
CHANCE...LESS THAN 30 PERCENT...OF THIS SYSTEM BECOMING A TROPICAL
CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

ELSEWHERE...TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE
NEXT 48 HOURS.

$$
FORECASTER AVILA

Of course, nothing happened

Yesterday's morning jazz turned quickly into a blue skied, hot summer day. I'd not even tied my hair up, expecting to have it cool enough to not have sweat head. Wrong! What did happen was - a colt wandering around by Mini Mas (I don't know the end of that story yet, I notified a couple of people I thought might know who a colt with no mama around belonged to), a discovery of magic stairs out in the bush along with some old corrals, and a peaceful end of the day. At least an 8 on the scale. Not bad at all.

Follow the signs!

Even from up the street at the cart, this cat looked HUGE

Investigating (that's what kids do!)

Where can I go next?

Are you taking my picture again?? Aren't I deliciously cute?

Speaking of delicious, this is my angel Sylvia,
bringing me one of her glorious mangos. Yum!!

A walk in the bush view of town

Town dos

Some deer prints...big deer prints! Thought I was in NC

Minding my own business (sure) I found this stairway,
in what is now the middle of nowhere. Sort of.

Like the Secret Garden, but different

Looking down the steps

An old cattle corral

Make do, make a fence

A rugged old tree in magic light

My daughter Sarah told me about a wonderful podcast, This American Life that I listened to for the first time last night. NPR is hard to get here so we miss lots of great radio unless we use the internet to listen. There are many options, but this program is a good one. I'm new to podcasts, but with my mac, I use itunes, click on the podcast link and then fill in the blanks. It works! So I can listen to the full show for free and/or go back and listen to old ones as well. Addictive. And, there are many more shows available, as well as finding straight NPR live broadcasts. In case you're interested...

Lastly, I got this in my email from the tinyhouse blog and really liked it. If you, like me, can't stand to see all the pallets that get thrown away (and we have lots of those here), here are some ideas for using them. While this chair looks pretty rough, I bet it's comfortable and anyone with another tool or two could round off those harsh corners, making it a little more asthetically pleasing. Maybe this will be a new business...hmmm.