As I write this, Hurricane Dorian has become a category 5 storm, causing devastation in the Bahamas as it heads west towards Florida. Earlier in the week, Orlando was right in the line of the storm’s path, but newer computer forecasts show the storm turning north and heading up the coast of Florida without making land fall. Orlando is still in the cone of uncertainty. This is all happening on Labor Day weekend, which was already a long weekend because of the holiday, and now the city of Orlando, as well as Orange County, have shut down through Wednesday. The result is cabin fever, since most events that I would want to sketch are also cancelled.
For three days in a row Pam and I have taken the dogs to the dog park to let them run and expend some energy. The result is calmer, sleepier puppies. Although Donkey is a bit of a hurricane in her own right. That dog had already eaten a coffee table and several TV remotes. Couches are shredded and toys are just tiny shredded bits that get clogged Debbie the Deebot in any clean up attempt. The threat of a possible storm outside pales to the ongoing devastation from Hurricane Donkey inside.
At the dog park Donkey runs everywhere at full speed with her long tongue hanging out of her mouth. She has a high pitched bark that is created without her ever moving her jaws. Sprout, on the other hand, tracks dogs in order to hump them, from the front or back, it doesn’t matter. He was fixed but that doesn’t stop that primal urge to shake those hips. The final trip to a dog park ended with an outer rain band soaking everyone. I was the only person with an umbrella but it wasn’t much help with the rain coming in horizontally in high winds. Now we are hunkered down and just waiting to see if the storm will turn to the north before hitting us. The forecasters might have fancy computer models, but the storm will do what it wants. Right now Orlando is under a tropical storm warning and I can see the hurricane on my iPhone radar. For the first time I can watch the storms progress any time I want. I’m hoping the winds that hit Orlando will just be around 39 miles per hour. We will just have to wait and see.