And in an amazing case of vu jàdé, Ivan made this Robyn fly right over the cuckoos nest. Or in other words, here we go again.

this entry was last updated on 09.10.2004 @ 11:42 PM EDT

Yep, that's right. Three strikes and we are officially out(ta here). With a baby, pre-existing roof damage from Frances, living 13 miles inland from the Gulf, and being legally disabled with a health condition...all things considered...well, it just seems foolish to take the gamble this time around. Especially seeing the aftermath already left in Ivan's wake. We have a few more advisories to get through — and then we select our final path (and hope we choose wisely young Skywalker) as Mother Nature begins the final crescendo in her 'bad things come in threes' opus.

We've already made two sets of plans — one to the east of here north of Jacksonville along the FL/GA border, another to the west at a family friend's condo on Panama City Beach. Hopefully Ivan won't turn on a dime last-minute once our travels are underway and leave us screaming, "Why, oh why, didn't I take the BLUE pill?"

I snapped the photos at left a couple of hours ago. (Click for larger pop-ups if you're so inclined.) They pretty much describe my mood at moment. At first appearance, bright and cheery and bathed in sunshine. But upon closer inspection, starting to wither and rot away at the very core. I'm so exhausted and drained by life right now that I can't even begin to describe it. And I have absolutely NO right to complain either. I know that. But it's my hurricane party and I'll cry if I want to. So there.

I'll update once more when our final plans are set, and of course from the road up ahead as I can.

UPDATE 1 (5:05 p.m. EDT): I went through three hurricanes in four weeks, and all I got was this lousy radio loot!

I had planned on taking our son out to fill up our car after watching 'Bear' on the TiVo with his afternoon bottle since most people wouldn't be off work still, but Todd called about an hour ago and said there was a rumor going around that they were going to start rationing gas this evening. We decided the bottle was going to have to wait and I rushed up to 7-11 with the baby in tow.

(I should state that WFLA is currently reporting that the state has no official plans to ration gas. However, certain gas stations are already taking it upon themselves to do so at their own pumps.)

A big local radio station was broadcasting live from our local 7-11 since the atmosphere was so insane. Every pump had a 6-8 car deep line to get to the pump. And I'm not talking each lane. I'm talking both sides of EVERY pump had 6-8 cars in line on both sides, and there were two pumps in each row, so each row had about 12-16 cars total in line on both sides. It was NUTS! Thankfully I'd filled up last week for Frances, so I had about 3/4 of a tank still. Normally I don't top off so much, but when it went full at $6, I kept going 'til $6.50. So we have a full tank now. But holy cripes to get it! Let the panic and hoarding begin...

UPDATE 2 (7:37 p.m. EDT): By the time Todd began his commute home this evening, there was no gas to be had. The lines were either winding through every inch of available concrete around the pumps and out into the streets, or the lots were completely empty with plastic-wrapped pumps. They say additional deliveries are coming, but we've yet to see them anywhere from Brandon up to the far north end of the Bay area now. Thankfully he doesn't have to have gas for his car. For now. We won't be taking it with us when we leave. It's just a matter of will he be able to find gas for it when we get home again? Not only are there still shortages on the East coast, but I've also heard it described like this in the past... With a massive storm such as Ivan, and the great potential for storm surge and flooding, the remaining gas in area tanks also risks being tainted with water. Oh joy.

I think the Mr. has realized my rope is about theees thin right now and it's not the time to go tap-dancing on it, because these flowers arrived at my front door shortly before he did this evening (photo 1, photo 2). I guess that's his "get out of jail free" card for the weekend!

And apparently back-to-back-to-back hurricanes are starting to take a toll on the tiniest member of the Tobyn clan, because when I was on the phone with daddy hashing out our daily "I don't know...what do you want for dinner" ritual, I returned to find my boy face-down and out cold in his exersaucer. The cutest thing of all — when I went to gently lift him out and put him down for a nap, he started bouncing up and down "playing", with eyes closed — like, "I swear I'm not tired mom! Just a few more minutes!"

UPDATE 3 (11:42 p.m. EDT): PaperFrog.com has another good list of Florida hurricane bloggers — and as always, our list of Florida bloggers is here.