Miata Turbo Forum - Boost cars, acquire cats. - The AI-generated cat pictures thread

Some of my good friends from 20+ years ago are hunkering down in western FL right now.

One, in particular, is having a serious crisis. She barely (for real) survived hurricane Charley in 2004, with the front of the house caved in, covered in sofa blankets in a back closet and gripping onto the main water line coming up out of the foundation for dear life (FL homes don't have basements) with the dog literally tied to her chest with a belt in case they were sucked out, and pressing her feet against the closet door to try to keep it closed against 150 mph winds.

(Pro-tip: don't live in an old house in hurricane country)

But that was 18 years ago.

They're now living in a newly built home at considerable elevation now (more than 20 ft above sea level), but her parents, in their 70s, are probably gonna lose everything, as their home is on the beach in Zone A. The parents are staying with them. She's trying to remain calm enough to keep the parents calm.

She called me in hysterics. She... is prone to hysterics.

But they're now living in a newly-built (read: modern code) house which is at some elevation and a couple of miles from shore, so with the detachment of being a thousand miles away, I know that while they're going to take some damage, they're probably not going to die. (I mean, obviously, they're going to die, just probably not this Thursday. I made that clear in our communications.)

My folks house weathered the same storm as theirs in 2004, the only difference being that it didn't have a huge bay window in the front, and was constructed to post-Hugo building codes.

We spoke for several hours. And also texted photos back and forth. I signed off with this:

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I'll leave you with this, for now.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c95d0e08ac.png

This photo is from an RV trip which the whole family took from PC to Houston and back in 2019. My Godson / nephew's high school graduation. And we did tons of other stuff along the way.

This photo is looking backwards from the passenger seat of the RV (Wayne & I exchanged driving vs. navigating in shifts), and whenever I was riding shotgun, much of the time consisted of that very large dog's asshole and / or balls banging against the back of my head.

The next few days are gonna be a little bit like that for you. You're in the passenger seat, and can't control the things that are coming your way. But you, and I mean you specifically, the woman who once called me in absolute hysterics, standing on top of the sofa because there was a cockroach on the floor and was eventually talked into slaying it, have the power to choose how you're going to react to them.
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And I think they're gonna be OK.

The specific response was "I'm laughing my ass off and crying a bit too. Joe....those were the exact words I didn't know that I needed to hear. For myself and for my family I need to chose to do this differently."

Apparently, that helped immensely.It was a mix of voice and text, as she's dealing with the elders at the same time.

But, you know those Florida Man memes?

Her dad, aged as he may be, is the epitome of Florida Man. Assuming they all come out of this alive, he's going to be tending bar for the lineman crews working to restore power.