Florida has basically been drenched in rain the past two weeks.  Last night – the area around Disney received what you might call a small afternoon thunderstorm.  It lasted all of fifteen minutes – but the winds were as severe as a hurricane!!  It was pretty scary and I had to drop off my coaching class call early because of the lightening.
Those of you who follow me on Facebook saw this message last night:

It’s like a frackin’ hurricane outside!!! Just had to run outside and save the pillows off my bench out front – they had blown away and were floating down the driveway. I’m soaked and I almost wet myself when lightening struck while I was outside. Yeah .. laugh … go ahead. I would.

That was after I ran outside to save the pillows off my front porch bench.  I probably should have just let the pillows go … but they’re so pretty!!!

This morning I opened up the front blinds and saw the some did some light damage to the property – and I just spent a portion of the morning doing some clean up:

1. TWO branches from the Maple Tree down.   The Maple Tree is only two years old – so they were small branches.  But they were large enough that I needed to cut them in to threes to get them to fit in the garbage bin.  Now my tree looks lopsided
2. Mulch washout in front of house.  A good portion of the mulch from the flower beds covered the sidewalks.  I got most of it back .. but with another storm coming I know I’ll be out again tomorrow morning sweeping it all again.
3. Plants on front porch basically drowned and will more than likely die.  It’s difficult to move them to another location – as the rain comes from so many different directions you can’t predict where will be safe.  For now they’re all sitting in direct sunlight.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed they dry out enough before the next rain.
4. Back yard – soil erosion around back porch from gianormous waterfall streaming off roof.  Gutter Investment will def. pay off!!  I’m awaiting HOA approval so I can schedule the guys to come out.
5. I had to rescue a slug and a really cool snail from climbing up the house.  Guess they’re looking for higher ground as well.  I actually carried the snail over to the conservation zone to live.  The slug went on a piece of mulch and over the fence out back!  {yuck!}
6. Rain/Water damage/issues:
     
   

   Storm Damage!

   • The grass is now spotted like a brown cow.  I need to call TruGreen – I’m sure they’re going to tell me it’s from the rain.
   • The plants are all overgrown – I clipped back the front bushes but need to invest in new clippers so I can prune back the ground cover roses.  {Which amazingly are shooting up like a regular rose bush instead of climbing over the ground.}
   • Mulch in the backyard is a complete washout.  I’ll need to haul in about 30 bags of mulch to redo this.  So not looking forward to that project – and will wait till the gutters are installed on the house.

   Also – while walking around the house – I saw on the back corner of the upstairs that some of the Stucco has chipped off – as the metal flashing can be seen.  I’ll need to get my House Painter out to pressure wash the house, repair the stucco, and repaint the house.    The thing that pisses me off is this house is just 2 years old and shouldn’t need repainting.  BUT I’ll do it because I need to protect my investment.

   All of this from a SMALL storm.  Heaven help me if we’re hit by THE BIG WIND later in the summer!!

   Perhaps I should look in to a hunky male roommate – who just so happens to be a handyman.

   {wink wink – nudge nudge}