La Tempesta

It started with a little bit of rain that we obviously laughed at. However, I checked Windy.com and saw that we were going to get the edge of Hurricane Lydia.

It started to rain and at first, we didn’t worry too much, but as the afternoon wore on we started to get a little more concerned. There was a little bit of a retreat deeper into the patio to avoid the splashing rain. At one point I rushed upstairs and found that most of our stuff in the palapa was soaked. I grabbed the TV and any electronics and retreated to the downstairs patio.

I eventually took the TV indoors and set it up so that we could watch some Netflix…then the power went out. It was still fairly light out so we weren’t too concerned. As the evening moved on we started to look for candles that we knew we had but couldn’t find. Last year Dave and Barb bequeathed us a citronella candle, so we used that for light. Also, I used the illumination from my MacBook to give us another form of light. We could still read our books on our phones so that was some consolation.

We had a good stock of tequila and wine so we decided to enjoy that and make the most of a bad situation. Then our neighbour Jacquie came by! She and the folks in Bungalows Itzell suggested that we move our car as it was in danger of being flooded. This was in the middle of the storm. Rosalie looked at me and said with a tear in her eye “I don’t have to come with you, do I?”

I grabbed one of our umbrellas, waded my way to the car and took it to a safe location. It took seven minutes there and back and I had to wade through knee-deep puddles. By the time I got back, the umbrella was wrecked. It was like our parents saying they had to walk to school uphill both ways in two feet of snow. Except I was in a T-shirt and shorts and the water was a balmy 25C.

The neighbours were putting up flood barriers so we had to take things seriously as they were obviously more experienced than we are. I had been tracking the storm on Windy and knew that it would be over by morning. I told them that, but would they listen? No, of course not.

Later, the power did come on. However, we noticed that the roof was leaking in the living room and also at the foot of my side of the bed. Rosalie will get used to sleeping on that side, I know she will.

Meanwhile, we were both fairly pissed and enjoying the whole silly situation. I guess that we know that if you want to live down here you just have to roll with these kinds of punches.

We woke up this morning to a beautiful sunny day. Our stuff will dry out soon.