Hurricane Irma is finally pounding Florida. After a week of wondering where it would make landfall, it finally decided to clobber the Gulf Coast side of the state. Unfortunately, a lot of folks left the east coast and went west because the initial estimates showed the storm would head north sooner, right up the coastline.

Nature, it seems, can be a stubborn minx.

My oldest daughter moved there last month. This will be her first hurricane. She's on the east coast, so hopefully the storm surge and winds will not damage her place. I don't even have her new address yet. Then there's my sister, who lives right in the Tampa Bay area where Irma will directly hit with the major winds of her eyewall. She did get out to stay with one of my nieces, but her husband's job wouldn't let him go. Hopefully he is in a safe spot and their place doesn't get thrashed. They had a couple of ducks that would waddle over for breakfast daily. With any luck they got the message and flew off to Kansas.

I'm working on distracting myself from the constant news coverage. It isn't easy. I already baked another two cherry cheesecakes and a Bavarian cream pie. That's really bad for me because I'm diabetic.

I went online to read and vote on some nodes like YOUR HEAD A SPLODE. Then I started writing some more, but I don't want to flood the "new writeups" nodelet

Sigh...

My MFA classes are winding down for the quarter, only a week and a few days left. I'm enjoying them, and it looks like I'll get all A's. Nice start for me. I just signed another contract for a drabble I wrote for my flash fiction class. It will be appearing on Trembling With Fear (website and anthology). They also asked if I'd be interested in an interview, so I said yes. Every bit helps when you're a full-time writer.

If you're in Florida, stay safe. If you're not, stay safe anyway.