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Title: Tropical Storm Fay interrupts my Halloween production!
Tags: cart, coffin, fay, halloween, media, preparation, production, storm, tropic
Blog Entry:   This was Tropical Storm Fay last night about 7:30. I live in Naples. This is my story.... The last two weeks have been really busy for me. I have been so anxious as the Minwax top coat was taking SO long to dry on Zeke... The cool result of having to wait, however, was the fact that when I photographed Zeke at night, there was a full moon behind him! Creepy and cool!! He's really gonna be a great addition to my cemetery. For now, though, Zeke moved into my kitchen for Tropical Storm Fay. Not that I mind a zombie in the kitchen, but this storm has delayed my Halloween production!!! I had to totally break down the workshop area I set up in my garage so I could protect my car from the storm. I run a 17,000 square foot furniture store and EVERY PIECE of furniture had to be put onto blocks since we are in a flood zone and this storm came right in to our area! We have no significant damage (whew...) but it takes time and tons of physical labor to install all those storm shutters and to lift all of the furniture. Then there's the preparation at home. Everything has to be put away! It's funny because the coffin cart actually came in handy as an oversized wheel barrow! The cart was nice and heavy and I put it into a protected area so there was no chance that it could blow away if Fay became worse that what it was. My real problem is with the media. The freakin' media sensationalizes storms like this and tries to scare everyone. "Watch out for high winds!" "Watch out for storm surge!" I know their job is to prepare everyone for the possibility of a greater storm, but come on!! The flunkys standing outside reporting from streets during the storm last night were ridiculous! "The wind is really kicking up now!" Yeah, right... gusts were 50 miles an hour about six hours after they reported that the wind was kicking up and the puny palm tree they were showing moves that much on any given day. Storm surge! Ugh! Since they really couldn't tell us to 'hunker down' this time, they repeated storm surge so much that we made it a drinking game! Well, I couldn't really drink as often as they said storm surge because that would simply be alcohol poisoning! The storm surge after the horrendous Hurricane Donna in the 60's (I wasn't alive for it, but my family lived through it) was a true storm surge! That was a massive hurricane! This little storm and the ridiculous pictures the media is shooting out now is just sad. The media hasn't had a storm to report on for two years and all the equipment and staff that they've accumulated since that terrible year when we actually did have many hurricanes have sat idle -- waiting to be used. Talk about crying wolf! One day, when we really do need to take the media seriously, no one will be listening because we simply don't believe them anymore! And quit interrupting my Halloween production!!!! ~ArtsyChiqua