I’m doing what all Floridians are doing today: hunkering down in my apartment, waiting for Hurricane Matthew to pass.

I starting preparing a few weeks ago. I’ve always stashed batteries, candles and that sort of thing; I’ve got battery-powered lanterns aplenty, a good digital radio and something most folks here never get: battery-powered fans.

And food. I’ve got lots of canned food. And plenty of bread, buns and bagels, all of them whole grain. Butter, jams, cream cheese. Pre-cooked sausage, a fair amount of lunch meat and cheese and ten day’s worth of brown rice cooked and ready to eat. (I love my version of vegetable fried rice; believe it or not, it works quite well with brown rice.)

I’m certainly not going to starve! Did I forget to mention peanut butter? No pantry is complete without some!

We’ve lost power five times so far but got it back within four or five minutes. And even though I’m about as well-prepared as one can be, I am hoping we’ll dodge the bullet and not end up using all that battery-powered stuff we’ve stashed away! I guess we’ll see…

I lost power for three days when Charley came calling twelve years ago. Didn’t lose it with Frances or Jeanne. Whoa! Just lost it again! Okay, it’s back on now. That was for 30 seconds or so…

I think I better publish this post, as my laptop will be fine for a few hours if we lose the juice and don’t get it back, but I’d have no internet connection, of course! I’ll do that in just a moment.

If you’re here  in the Sunshine State, too, I hope you’re riding out this storm in fine style. If you’re in Brevard County or the other parts of our Peninsula where folks were told to evacuate, I know this sucks even worse for you and yours. Here in Orange County, we’re not doing too badly.

Stay safe! And remember, another calamity will strike the citizens of our fine state in about 72 hours from now: we’ll all have to show up at work on Monday morning! Yikes!

Battening down the hatches in Orlando, I am,

“Bulldog Ben” Basile