Hurricanes in general - Wilma in particular

I live in Florida. My property is sided on the west and backs up on wetlands - hence the 'swamp' descriptive.

I was born here - I'm one of those rare 'natives' who moved away and went to see the world. Six years ago I came back to within 50 miles of where I was born. Now I might not have come back had my sister not moved down. Outside of cousins, family-wise, we are all we have left - so I came home.

I woke up on Thursday to the Tampa-based radio station I use for an alarm saying, "This is the biggest hurricane, the lowest pressure ever seen, and it went from Cat 1 to Cat 5 overnight..."

I lay there thinking about what I had just heard, muttered 'oh fcuk,' pulled the blanket over my head and refused to get up until the dogs complained.

For the first few years back here, hurricanes weren't exactly a big problem - last year it got personal - I got traumatized. This year has been dicey - this year I'm more offended than frightened...

We have been missed but at a horrendous cost - God knows, no one deserved Katrina or Rita.

Wilma has caused a bit of concern 'in these parts,' up until about 5 p.m., but it looks like this area is going to be missed again - Tropical Storm action only... We hope it keeps diving south - WAY south, like, we like Key West the way it is.