July
, 2020
...the only thing worse than watching your home and all your worldly possessions go bouncing down the street is to be inside it when that happens.
As I write this I am about to be, as Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler so eloquently put it, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea*.
Here in otherwise sunny Florida, hurricane season runs from June through November. This being the end of July, I feel like I've pushed my luck nearly to the breaking point. A potential Category 5 storm is heading in our general direction and, as objectively interesting as it might be to experience that in person, I believe I’d rather read about it from afar. Very afar.
In theory, a 50 mph wind can push a travel trailer like mine over. That’s only a Category 1 hurricane. The numbers go up from there and greater winds might just turn my house into a tumbleweed. And the only thing worse than watching your home and all your worldly possessions go bouncing down the street is to be inside it when that happens. I would probably not fare well in that situation and that’s the “devil” part.
Normally, I'd have been long gone by June 1st. But these are abnormal times, which is where “the deep blue sea” comes in. If I choose not to stay, then the only option is voyaging out into a world wrestling with COVID-19.
The virus is currently having its way with a large and growing number of people in the U.S. If that’s not enough, being man of a certain age (I’ll never see 65 again), I am in the statistical Danger Zone. Without boasting, I’m in great shape. I take no prescription drugs, I have all original parts and the only bit that has surrendered to aging is my hairline. Ordinarily I wouldn’t give the virus a passing thought. But unfortunately it's not ordinary. This critter doesn’t seem to care how healthy you are. The information we’re getting, albeit somewhat conflicting, indicates that it strikes in unpredictable ways. For example, some millennials have ended up on ventilators or have even died from it while a few centenarians have survived it. Go figure. Add to that the fact that it can take you down for 2 weeks to a month (longer if you’re hospitalized) and you realize that it's one big, scary, inconvenient pain in the ass.
So I'm forced to pit threat of the virus against the prediction of an “unusually active” hurricane season, which is a no-win choice.
But at the end of the day, I've been in Jacksonville far too long. So I've decided to use the storm as an excuse and bug out.
* (Speaking of The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Click here to listen to a really cool cover of Mssrs. Arlen and Koehler’s jazz classic, this one by the amazing Annie Ross and the great Gerry Mulligan. Your ears will thank you for it.)
UPDATE: As storms will do, this one zigged a bit to the east while I zagged, heading southwest to visit friends in the Tampa area. My trip was calm and sunny all the way and a day or so later the winds and rain only grazed JAX. So far, so good.