A buddy came by today and we got the storm shutters locked in place, and removed all the potential projectiles from the front and back yards. One of my closets is a full time "survival" bunker, because I refuse to be one of those nimrods on the nightly news running around in a panicked circle buying water and candles at WalMart at the last second. 12 guage, 9mm, and .357 are ready to go, and strategically placed (watch the movie "The Dogs Of War" for a hint...). If anyone wants my water, sardines and guitars, they're gonna earn it the hard way. "Warning shot" is not in my vocabulary. My apologies if I sound cold-blooded, but I know this area better than you do. Lucky#7 will understand. Just mention California Avenue and Deats Road.
According to my friends at the Health Dept., the County is going to call for a evacuation at 7:00 AM Thursday, which is a political "cover my ass in an election year" tactic, because that's too late to accomplish anything except cause mass confusion. I made my decision to stay this morning. Call me nutz, but I feel safer here than sitting in traffic for 15+ hours like I did during the Rita evacuation. A lot of ugly stuff happened out on the highways that day that was never reported by the media.
The storm doesn't worry me half as much as the prospect of spending the next week (or more) without air conditioning. Yuck!