NOTICE: The photograph at left showing our son's partial-face has been replaced with a different zoom-in of his OU shirt. We just don't feel comfortable leaving the image up on the Internet for the long-term. Please drop me a line if you'd like to see the photo that originally appeared with this entry.

this entry was last updated on 09.12.2004 @ 7:12 AM EDT

Todd and I don't make it a habit of making photos of our son public. Sadly in this day and age, we simply don't feel it's the safe thing to do... But every once in awhile we'll snap a photo that we feel conceals his face just enough that we can act (brag?) like new parents and share our pride and joy with anyone who will stop and look. You know, "You gotta see the baby!"

We waited almost eight years of marriage to be able to share and pass down one of our mutual true passions -- Sooner football. Our son inherits this naturally, as our school fight song will attest:

I have to say the boy makes that crimson and cream look goooood, just like dear ol' dad!

Shifting gears: When the 5 p.m. track for Ivan came out on Saturday, we started to let our guard down and toy with the idea of staying put. It appeared things were certain to shift far enough to the west we wouldn't have to worry as much any longer. However, His Category Fiveness decided to play a nice little game of "I'm with you, Ted!" and up the ante for the 11 p.m. track update. Our local weather chick all but admitted they had no clue what Ivan planned on doing after he blew north of Cuba, because a high-pressure front that had kept him on a west-northwest path was about to fall apart the further north the system went. As such, the catch-phrase of 2004 — "cone of uncertainty" — broadened to twice the size it had been across the peninsula just six hours earlier.

"I would say it might look like we are out of the woods, but we are not out of the woods yet,'" said Richard Rude, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin...

...If the latest projected track holds, the closest Ivan would get to the Tampa Bay area would be about 114 miles west of Pinellas County on Tuesday evening, Rude said.

Residents could expect 18 hours of rough weather beginning Monday night and stretching into Tuesday. [link]

So... We've pretty much decided that we'll be going with Plan A, and will be taking off for southeastern Georgia, just north of Jacksonville, in the morning just to be on the safe-side. Charley pretty much showed everyone that even "accurate, up-to-the-minute" forecasting don't mean squat when a hurricane has its eye set on landfall. And Frances left us without power for 24 hours — and our neighborhood a flooded, mangled mess — as a mere tropical storm. With one of the lowest barometric pressure readings in recorded hurricane-history, it's just not worth the gamble for us.

Even if it turns out in the end that we're fleeing needlessly, the worst that can come of it is getting me prune hands in the hotel room's whirlpool jacuzzi. Our hotel has wireless high-speed so hopefully I'll be able to update the site from exile. Until then...

UPDATE 1 (7:12 a.m. EDT): Quote of the Day — Local ABC Channel 28 News Reporter Barron Johnson this morning on the still-gasoline shortage / crisis in the Tampa Bay area: "They [local Hess station] do have diesel fuel still, but keep in mind folks, that's not for gasoline engines."