Remembering Charley, and a Confession of Sorts

Confession

Okay, skipping the nap before work shift begins = BAD IDEA! I don't know if DeAnna noticed or not but I was totally nodding off during the 11am show. I don't mind admitting that because I didn't make any mistakes ... or maybe I only dreamed I didn't make any mistakes!!! OH NOES!!! Maybe I'll go into work tomorrow and find out I'm being suspended for sleeping on the job!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did put my head in my arms briefly during a commercial break at one point ... I could have sworn I lifted my head up again, but maybe I only dreamed I did!!!!!

Crap.

So I came home and went directly to my bed, I did not pass go, I did not collect $200, I passed the eff out. Woke up around 7pm to a torrential downpour. Surprisingly that did not make me go back to sleep. That's how committed I am to making this blog post every day, I made myself get up so that I wouldn't miss my chance to get my post in on time today. It's going on 3 weeks now; in fact, I think tomorrow it will be 3 weeks solid that I posted every day. Just one more week to go!!!

I'm telling you right now dear reader, after this NaBloPoMo challenge ends I'm taking a week off. I'll have to look ahead and figure out which week has the least amount of interesting things on the Wacky Holidays calendar ... actually, looking ahead, I don't see a good week at all, so maybe I'll just take a few days off.

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Remembering Charley

Today marks the 5-year anniversary of when Hurricane Charley hit the southwest coast of Florida, decimating the little town of Punta Gorda and just generally wreaking havoc in all of southwest Florida. Charley descended upon the Peace River corridor as a Category 4 hurricane. This occurred the year before I moved down here, so I can only tell you what I've heard. But I can tell you I lived through Hurricane Wilma, and although Wilma was worse than Charley in some ways, in other ways it wasn't nearly as bad: if nothing else, Charley prepared SWFL for Wilma which occurred 14 months after Charley.

Check out this scrapbook of sorts that the station I work for, NBC-2, put together: click here.

The video below is not the special that aired tonight in honor of the 5-year anniversary. Still, it is an awfully good representation of what SW Floridians experienced, waiting for this monstrosity of nature to unleash it's wrath. You will also see a team of meteorologists, reporters, anchors, photogs and production personnel giving their best work through that time - none of them were any more prepared for Charley than anybody else living in SWFL at that time was! Charley seasoned my co-workers the way Wilma seasoned me.