Yesterday I left my raincoat at work, so today I wore a black trashbag with holes cut for my head and arms. Although I had seen them plenty, it was the first time I had ever worn such a garmet.
Stylish enough to wear anywhere, yet comfortable enough for everyday wear, economical and functional. It goes with anything, keeps you dry, and it was big enough that my computer backpack would fit underneath, not outside in the rain like with my raincoat.
So, it was a good thing!
My car’s in the shop, getting a new muffler, there was ascraping sound, I figured front end, big $$$ but it wasn’t so bad. The tailpipe was scraping the tire on right turns. That’s why I’m riding my scooter in the rain.

It was a good weekend, Saturday OI Girl and I took the two dawgs to a training session. They both did very well. Ditto better than Sheba. We’ll be going back for several weeks. Sheba seems to be improving, but she’s still hardheaded. Also we went to the Pirates week landing and parade and Saturday night we watched fireworks from our roof.
Sunday we went to the beach, it was sunny and hot till it suddenly started raining.
Today is windy and cold.
This is the kind of post nobody leaves a comment on.

Yesterday I didn’t see the light of day. I got to work at 4 AM and didn’t leave till 7:30 PM.Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. Well, that’s not true, but you get the idea. Major computer problems

I just hope I can leave at a reasonable time today.

The devastation on the Brac was pretty complete, but there’s someone working practically on every roof, they put up new light poles on it seems like the whole north side of the island. Everyone’s working in the year, cleaning up. Nobody is defeated.

Brac Reef will be gutted and rebuilt, keeping it the same, but newer.

The Brac will be better than before in the long run

It is a lot more efficient having 50,ooo people on Grand Cayman helping 2000 people on the Brac , instead of 50, 000 needing to be helped by 2000.

The Hurricane left Grand Cayman largely untouched. But Cayman Brac got devastated. Paloma was an unusual hurricane. Usually, hurricanes here travel east to west, and the left side of the storm is weaker than the right side. So, the south side of a Caribbean island is usually more vulnerable than the north. If the hurricane passes to the south, the island gets the stronger side of the storm, and the north is protected by the island itself, and if the storm passes north, the island gets hit with the weaker side of the storm. I was told that this storm, traveling the wrong way, west to east, went north of Cayman Brac. So the North Side got the strong side of the storm, and was devastated very badly. I also heard that Little Cayman, while suffering an almost direct hit, isn’t damaged badly at all compared to The Brac.
The hotel(s) and beaches are mostly on the south west part of the island. There were two hotels, Divi Tiara and Brac Reef, Divi has been closed for a couple of years, and I loved Brac Reef.
The east end of Cayman Brac has a huge ridge-like cliff, but the west is largely flat. The way I understand it, storm surge passed completely over the island and destroyed Brac Reef Beach Resort with the weather coming from the north instead of the south. It took the roof off almost the whole thing and flooded it out. It will have to be razed, I heard.
Also, villages along the north were very severly damaged. They had never been hit like this before. Normally the Bluff protects them. Some of my friends lost their entire houses to 25 foot waves. It’s a miracle that nobody got killed
Least damaged is the south east part, where there are less houses, and they are more built to take the storms. This part was protected by the Bluff this time.

In the past 12 years, I’ve been to Cayman Brac many times for work, it was always a pleasure to go. Brac Reef is where the OI Girl worked when I met her. I have only good memories there. Cayman Brac is one of the best places on earth. Another kick in the groin is that the hurricane season is almost over, and a lot of people, myself included, were relaxed, in the cool rainy weather, that hurricanes were finished for the year. This one came out of nowhere and fast.

I’m really sad about this.

The worst is over here in Grand Cayman as the storm went south instead of over. But it looks like Little Cayman and the Brac will be whacked again. Hope they make it through OK.
Hope my house made it through OK too. I look forward to going home and going to bed!

Oh boyoboy, if it happens like this, we’ll get the right side of the storm, which is the strong side. Think Hurricane Michelle, far away, but gave us big waves. Michelle is the one that sent waves straight through my apartment and almost washed my Dawg and me out to sea!