Hunker Down!

The last couple of days I have been skyping or on the phone with The Boy regarding whether he should come home to get away from the hurricane that is out in the gulf or stay at school.  On Sunday, The Boy was very nonchalant about it all.  He was staying down there, his room mates were staying.  Everything was okay.  No biggie!  In one ear, out the other.  He's not concerned.

That's great (not really).  They aren't in a flood zone and are not directly on the coast.  There were no mandatory evacuations down there yet.  The only problem was that they have no food or water in their apartment.  They are on a meal plan so they go to the school cafeteria three times a day to eat, which is not very far from the apartment, unless there's a hurricane coming ashore with 50 mph winds and driving rain.

Then the cafeteria is VERY far.

Not very conducive to walking around campus to eat with debris blowing around and The Boy doesn't have a car down there so no driving.

I told The Boy that they need to go the store and stock up with water, snacks and flashlights with batteries.  His room mate has a car and even if his room mate wouldn't go to the store, The Boy could have gotten some water and snacks from the campus book store to tie him over if he can't make it to the cafeteria.

Of course, he didn't do anything.

Then yesterday evening he calls me in a panic.  Apparently, the winds have kicked up down there and he's gotten a taste of what it's going to be like when Isaac comes ashore.  He doesn't like it at all!  He begs me to come get him.  The only problem is that by now the interstate that goes down there is closed to southbound traffic.  All traffic is heading north so people living down near the coast can evacuate.

It's amazing how much things can change in 24 hours!

By then, Zones 1 and Zones 2 had mandatory evacuations.  Zone 3, where The Boy lives does not have a mandatory evacuation.  His room mate who has a car does not want to leave.  He wants to ride it out.  The other room mate who's parents live nearby, bailed out and headed home.

At first The Boy said his dad was going to find an alternate route and driving the 4 hours to get him.  Then I was going to take him back down at the end of the week.  But I guess his dad couldn't figure out a way to get down there safely, not to mention the traffic coming back north is probably backed up for hours, so that plan fell through.

I haven't heard from The Boy this morning, but he's probably still asleep since all his classes have been canceled for the next two days.  It looks like Hurricane Isaac has moved even further west and Mobile and Pensacola is not going to get the worst of it.  That's good.

We've gotten good reports from the condo association about the weather in Pensacola Beach.  Things are looking good.  Nothing really bad yet.  They expect business as usual for Labor Day.

I'm sure it still isn't going to be fun experience for The Boy.  They are going to get very high winds and heavy rain for a few days.

At this point, however, there's nothing left to do but "hunker down".  I've heard that phrase a lot the past couple of days!

Ambiguities From The Boy

Yesterday evening I was sitting outside on the porch swing talking to the Boy on the phone and watching the sunset through the trees in our neighborhood.  It caught my attention because it was striking and looked like the trees were on fire.  I mentioned this amazing sunset to the Boy and he said the sun had already set where he was, which is only about 240 miles south of where I am.  I always thought that since he's directly south of me that it would get dark about the same time.

Now I didn't realize there was such a difference in sunset times between Birmingham and the coast.  I questioned him.

"Was he SURE it had set already?"

He said it was probably because he's at sea level and I'm at a higher elevation.  I had trouble believing him and questioned him again about just how dark it was there.  He said again that it was almost dark, but not totally dark.  Doubtful, I asked him again if the the sun had gone down.

He said  "YES! It had!!"

Perplexed and curious about this sunset mystery (I just got back from spending a week at the coast and didn't think the sunset times were any different there than here), I decided to google sunrise/sunset times in Alabama today just to see the exact sunset time here and the exact sunset time where The Boy lives.  I would have expected from my conversation with him last night that his sunset would be a few minutes before mine.  Imagine my surprise when I see that my sunset time is actually 5 minutes earlier than his sunset time.

 Now, he told me the sun had already set where he was, but mine had not.  I have to ask, Was it cloudy there and he was just incorrect in his sunset assessment?  Was he just not paying much attention to the position of the sun and wanted me to shut up about sunsets in general?  Are the charts on the internet just all wrong??

 Or is he on a road trip somewhere east of here (where the sun would have already set) and just making me think he's at school studying hard.

I haven't had time to question him on this discrepancy, but it probably won't do any good if I do...

The Dolly Parton Bridge

General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge
aka Dolly Parton Bridge

It rained during the entire drive back home from the beach today.  We stopped along the way and took The Boy to lunch before we headed back.  At least the rain will wash some of the yellow pollen away just as we are getting home to the "ham".

It is amazing how much cleaner the air is at the coast.  My sore throat and sinus issues cleared up immediately and so did Ken's.  I hope the worst of the pollen has passed and we will have cleaner air.  (at least as "clean" as it can get here).

This is a bridge that is 20 miles north of Mobile, AL on Highway 65.  It spans the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and is about 7 miles long.  We travel across it whenever we head south to visit The Boy.  Ken says it's the ugliest bridge he's ever seen.  I think it's kind of neat the way it seems to appear out of nowhere as we get closer to it.  Out of curiosity, I googled it and found out that it is called the General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge after one of the engineers who designed it.  It's also known as the Dolly Parton Bridge for obvious reasons.  Now I will never be able to travel across it without thinking "boobie bridge".  Thanks for that...