No November Noel

Wildfires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, volcanos, ice storms, drought -- depending on where you live, Mother Nature has lots of tricks up her sleeve. The ones she likes to share with us here in South Florida are hurricanes and the occasional tornado.

Hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30 every year -- but about the end of October, we start to breathe a sigh of relief. That's why news about a Tropical Storm named Noel out in the Caribbean last weekend didn't seem too serious. Wrong!!! Noel turned out to be a deadly storm that did a lot of damage in the Caribbean, and killed about 100 people.

Here in Florida, the winds caused beaches to be gobbled up by the rising surf, knocked down sea walls, and created other damage and concerns -- but, thank dog, no fatalities, no evacuations, no animals in harm's way.

Mom was in Tallahassee, the state capitol on Monday and Tuesday. She flew up early Monday morning on a commuter jet and had a very bumpy ride thanks to swirling winds. When it came time to fly back home on Tuesday afternoon, she and one of her friends looked at each other and decided to drive instead. It took 7 hours, but they were blissfully bump-free. And we were tail waggingly happy she was back.

Dogdad worked from home the two days Mom was away so that we could stay here instead of another trip to camp. We had lots of fun -- long runs on the golf course, treats at lunch, good guy talk!!! He's a little harsher than Mom about our barking, though, so we had to choose our moments.

And now Noel is out to sea. It's expected to weaken into a nort'easter affecting Cape Cod and then Nova Scotia. So we hope our friends up there stay safe. And the only Noel we'll be looking for is the one planned for December 25.

Jake and Just Harry