ABSENCE
R. A. Schultz
As I’ve been away from my computer for longer than usual, I feel compelled to account for my absence to anyone who may have missed me.
Earlier this month (September, 2019), we were being treated to horrific threats, no doubt exaggerated and magnified by the Make-Believe Media (just because that’s what they do), of major destruction, even total obliteration, at the hands of Hurricane Dorian, which many of us are still trying to figure out if it was he, she, or xi. Whatever it was, it presented some extremely peculiar behavior, even for a sexually-befuddled Category 5 storm, hovering as it did over the northwestern Bahamas for days before slowly moving northward, skirting the US East Coast until pummeling the Outer Banks, and finally winding up entertaining Nova Scotia as still a Category 1 hurricane.
This time, Annette and I, accompanied by Keoki the Cat, actually abandoned our rental home in Flood Zone B of St. Johns County on Florida’s First Coast.
The threat of sustained winds of 185 miles per hour near the eye wall, with reported gusts in excess of 200 miles per hour, convinced us. Our frame dwelling just isn’t up to withstanding that kind of beating. So we retreated some twenty minutes south to take refuge in the concrete-block construction house of Annette’s daughter, Trish for two days while Dorian decided what the hell it was going to do. In the end, neither house lost power, the highest winds at both locations having achieved nothing higher than tropical storm level.
Back at home for less than a day, my accursed computer went schizophrenic on me, causing all records of everything to disappear, likely into a vault somewhere on the campus of Fort Meade. Before evacuating, though, I had taken the precaution of backing up everything on a pair of high capacity thumb drives. So I anticipate everything will be back to relative normalcy, once I get my accursed printer reconnected to my accursed computer!
Anyway, we’re glad to be back!
