Tuesday - March 17

 Happy St. Patty's Day

Our day started early with a trip to the Sanctuary for lab work and then breakfast at Bob Evans.    After the nasty storm last night we wanted to assess the damage to our lot and neighborhood, and though it was not that light out, we could see many palm fronds down in our street.    When we came back, we drove around the park....some streets had absolutely no damage and then others....including ours got hit hard with some major tiki damage, trees uprooted, broken items (glass) under tikis, furniture blown around and many fronds down.    

Not sure what actually came thru last night - some said straight line wind?   Micro burst?   Tornado?    Other reports of damage around Fort Myers included a private school that is closed today cause of all the damage, downtown, etc.   

Our work campers are the best and they were out and about picking up all the debris along with several resident volunteers.    It is chilly (50s), dreary and still very windy.    A good day to hunker down.

We went for a walk this afternoon (bundled up with heavier jackets and gloves!)    Chatted with some neighbors and Jim and Lydia who were back in the park.    Gosh, so much tiki damage (makes us glad we don't have one) with some of the tops totally gone and piles of wood on the ground.   Also damage to our neighbor's truck from a falling frond.

The St. Patrick's Day parade here at CT scheduled for this afternoon was canceled cause of the cold/wind,    They had a party in the clubhouse with food/music but not serving traditional St. Patty's fare.....Philly cheesesteak sandwiches or BBQ pulled pork?

  By 5:30, the wind had died down and sun came out for just a bit.

We had Kevin's orange chicken tonight (no corned beef and cabbage this year) - "Kevin" is the brand that Publix and Costco carries.   It was good, but we still prefer Trader Joe's.

So many people were on our street today checking out the damage either by golf cart or on foot.

Drew made it back home to Cedar Rapids - late!