While I was in Dubai the week of August 17, Fay was passing through the west coast of Florida. I tuned in to CNN.com, to the Tampa Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times online editions, as I followed the path of the storm, calling my children to find out what was going on.
‘It is wet and windy, dad,” my daughter Elena told me. “But nothing major here.”
That reassured me and I did not give any thoughts to my own house, which was built 24 years ago and has survived many storms and hurricanes with only tree branches falling here and there.
When my neighbor Ken called me a few days ago,however, I knew something was not right.
“Mario, I think your house was hit by lightning when the storm passed thru Tampa, and part of your roof is exposed, and several tiles have fallen off,” he said on the phone.
Today, I arrived home and came prepared for the worst, so it was not as bad as I thought: about 20 tiles are gone from the roof of my house, and some broken tiles were found on the deck behind the house that leads to the scenic Hillsborough River.
The biggest surprise, however, was that not only did lightning damaged the roof, but it also blew up the battery box in my garage that provides me with telephone, cable television and, most important, wireless connection to the Internet.
So, today, I have spent the day at home, dealing with roofers, telephone technicians, and getting all those things we take for granted repaired.
The irony of it all is that by the time my television service was restored, the first image that was on the screen was that of our local weatherman on Channel 8 showing video of how a new hurricane, named Gustav, is creating havoc in Haiti, and moving west.
Indeed, it is hurricane season in this part of the world. For now, the roofer should come tomorrow, and I just got my wireless back!
The sun was shining all day, and it should be sunny and warm tomorrow again, so not so bad for the roofer who will have to climb up there to start the repairs.
As for me, I hope to be able to abandon domestic duties long enough to return to TheMarioBlog and my usual musings about our craft.