Goliath

We awoke to threatening storm clouds. Our beautiful sunny hot weather may be over for the year. The picture below was taken around 7:00 am, that tiny bit of blue sky was pretty much the only time the sun shine shone through the clouds today.

 

Ruth and Nancy came over with quite a story. The ferocious winds from this storm named Goliath picked up their balcony table and slammed it down breaking it, then picked up a chair and threw that over the railing down 3 flights and blew it all the way to the road. Nancy joined us for breakfast while Ruth and Fedi went for a walk on the beach before the rain started. When Ruth got back she and I walked over to see the progress on Diane and Mike's condo. Below are a few pictures of her condo.

 Above is John Honegger in what he calls the study. Diane decided to put up a curtian rod and curtains that can be used as a privacy curtain so this room can be used for sleeping too.

 Looking the other way is the dining area and the kitchen behind that. The next two pictures are of the kitchen.

 The picture below is looking off one of her balconies toward the pool.

 In the picture below Diane is standing on the balcony the last picture was taken and this time I am looking out at the Gulf of Mexico.

 Ruth, John Honegger and I left there and came back to our condo to play scrabble with mom. During the game we heard some yelling. The kids all came running in to tell us there was a water spout out on the Gulf. The camera was grabbed out of the bedroom and I went running to the balcony but it was too late the spout had dissipated.  Below is a bunch of the group out on mom's balcony talking about the water spout.

 The waves today were huge, crashing into each other and as the wave would come up to peak and start rolling in, the wind would blow a froth off the top of each wave. This almost looked like thousands of horse manes blowing in the wind as the steeds galloped toward shore.

 

The waves were so impressive I took a short video clip.

When the Scrabble game was over (Ruth won but mom came in a close second) We were looking for umbrella's for John and Diane to get back to their condo. Diane pulled out the umbrella below but found out it was broken. These beach umbrellas don't last long down here. That one was thrown away and another pulled out.

The wind and rain stopped. At least the wind died down enough for Mark and I to take a walk on the beach. We quit when the rain started back up but by that time were almost back to the condo. The kids all headed over to Joan and Tim's condo for games. Mom and Mark worked on painting the ceiling where a water stain had marked it up. When Mark finished his black shirt had turned gray and his gray hair had turned quite white. The paint spray even got on his glasses. He had quite a time cleaning up. Mom, Mark and I walked over to Ruth's condo to go hot tubbing when the air conditioner man showed up to replace mom's outdoor unit. Mark went back to help while mom and I stayed at Ruth's and had a nice visit with some people while enjoying the hot tub. Nancy got tired of sitting in the tub and just wanted to stay inside and write. She is having a blast on this vacation. 

For dinner Mom, Beth, Spark, John, Mark and I went to DeSoto's for their early bird special. While there we started hearing of the horrible weather happening at home. Rhoda sent the picture below of her back yard. She said the ice is bringing down huge trees. Her trees were losing big limbs.

Her yard was filling up with icy tree limbs. There are power lines down everywhere. Emily called to report there is a big tree down over mom's drive. She drove to Middle Grove to check on the horses there which were all fine but back at the Hanna City farm Evan, Hadassah, Rosaleigh and Roxanne were not. Those horses were shivering and were all moved inside. They all have shelters but the wind was blowing too hard through them to keep them comfortable. The wind, rain, sleet and ice is making things miserable. She also reported the lakes are full to over flowing. She was thankful the electricity was still on although it was flickering a lot. 

After dinner we went to Joan and Tim's for games. We walked in to a rousing game of electricity. That was a ball to watch and nerve racking when we were asked to join in.

 More players arrived as that game finished so the next games were charades. The young adults played very loud active games on one side of the room while the adults played a loud game of Mexican Train.

We had another great day!