In the end though, our house suffered little damage. There are no large trees around our house like many other houses have. One house on our block actually had two large trees fall on it, but luckily, the damage wasn't bad. Charlie blew some of our soffit from under the eves on one side of the house and blew one screen out of our back porch. While most homes on our block suffered the loss of many, if not all, of their shingles, we only had one broken shingle. One house on our block was unhurt, but others had considerable roof damages. We had no power for five days, but many other areas went without power for much longer. At this writing some are still without power.
When we were trying to find a restaurant (very scarce here for several days), it was an experience because with the power out in much of the eastern Orlando area, most traffic lights were inoperative and few people were courteous at intersections. Gas was scarce, but we had filled up before the storm. A station with gas and also power to pump it usually had very, very long lines. It was impossible to find ice in stores, although a few places were set up, not near us, where volunteers were passing out free ice, drinking water and Deet insect repellent. Grocery stores open for business were also scarce, and if you found one, it was without milk and many other necessities.
Our street had many downed tree branches, but many streets were even impassible for a few days until people and crews cleaned them out. Some areas had no water, and where sewer lift stations had no power, there were problems with sewer backups, although not in our area. Our subdivision has underground utilities, but our wellbeing depends on the feeder lines that come to us on poles. I saw pictures of streets where an entire line of wires and poles were broken off laying on the street. Progress Energy said that much of the grid had to be rebuilt.
There were some sad stories about people who died more or less as a result of the storm. I was unaware that a storm could affect people's pacemakers, which was the problem for one as well as his lack of oxygen. Trimming trees is also a dangerous job, which resulted in a couple of deaths. It was an experience I hope not to have again for a while. However, many neighborhoods certainly helped each other out with food when somebody had power and others didn't. Some also shared generators. The paper and TV was full of stories both sad and good for days. I'm glad we didn't live on the gulf side of the state where the storm came ashore with much more power.
We also worked two days at the same hotel for the Sybase [http://www.sybase.com] (TechWave 2004) show that took place only a couple days after hurricane Charlie. The attendance was about 1,300, including 300 employees, in spite of hurricane Charlie. That attendance surprised management under the circumstances. They promoted PowerBuilder 10 as well as their other products, and put on a great production.
While working that show, we certainly noticed that many Progress Energy workers, along with some utility workers that came in from out of state, were headquartered at the Gaylord Palms hotel. Their parking lot had many utility trucks and there was an inventory of power transformers, wire and other important parts. The hotel prepared some great meals for those hard working folks, however I'm not sure who paid for that and the rooms. Power line damage was very severe in that area.
After making your choice, set your price, which should be over their base price to make money for you. They handle all the ordering, sales and shipping, then send you a check when you have accumulated enough. Hopefully, their accounting is accurate. Not a bad deal considering you have nothing invested except your time and creation. Be sure you don't infringe on something copyrighted, especially phrases and sayings.
That's it for this month. Meet me here again next month if your editor permits. This column is written to make user group members aware of special offers or freebies I have found or arranged, and my comments should not be interpreted to encourage, or discourage, the purchase of any products, no matter how enthused I might sound. Bob (The Cheapskate) Click [ bobclick@mindspring.com ]. Visit my Web site at [ http://www.dealsguy.com ] for interesting articles from user group newsletters. I also posted some interesting Web site pages for your viewing. They contain new product announcements that I received over a period of time in 2003. More will be forthcoming when I get the ambition.
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