PAULB Are you OK?

What happen with Mr. PaulB? I hope things are fine 💪💪👍👍

The last time I heard from Paul he was in the eye of a hurricane. :)

I thank everyone for your concern from the bottom of my heart!!!!! That hurricane only lasted for two hours from north eye wall to south eye wall. I had only minimal damage to my place. Sustained winds of 105 mph with higher gusts can cause a lot of damages, but thankfully it had a very fast forward speed of 25 mph. Had it been moving at 10 mph like most of them do, the damages would have been extensive due to a longer time of exposure. Driving around the next day, I saw only about two large trees split in half. We had no power for only 40 hours and are still under a boil water advisory, so I cannot use ice cubes from my ice maker. I had quite a mess to clean up when my chest freezer completely thawed out. Where I live, most now have their power restored, but friends in New Orleans are still without power. But walking out into the completely calm eye was a truly incredible experience that was once in a lifetime. The eye is very low pressure of about 16-21 miles wide in diameter for this one, with the highest winds surrounding the circumference. The eye wall is hell on earth! Sometime today, a major hurricane named Eta will be striking the eastern coast of Nicaragua. Catastrophic destruction is expected, so for those who love rums from Flor de Cana, this is your clue to stock up on them before supplies become less available. Today is the very big day in the USA as the whole world watches. It is election day to decide who will be our President for the next four years. I wanted to spring for a bottle of Appleton Joy to celebrate, but that will be foolish because the outcome probably will not become official tonight. However, the best of my three Dictador rums are here waiting for late tonight!

Glad you’re ok! Hadn’t heard from you for a few days and I worried

Hurricane Eta will be knocked down to a tropical storm after it crosses the mountain range in eastern Nicaragua today. It will also be too far away from the Flor de Cana Distillery to affect it, but the sugar cane crops that it needs will definitely be affected. Time to go grab a bottle of their 12 year old in a little bit. Good and cheap! I have been watching hurricanes for the past 60 years and have been through way too many to count. Since they also affected my Caribbean playground, I also watch those storms as if they were threatening me personally. After hitting Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, Eta will veer off to the NE and hit Cuba.

Hey Paul, I think standing in the eye of a hurricane is a real personally treatment ! ;-) Is it not very annoying to get arranged with the hurricanes every year? It reminds me of the villages in the swiss alps, every winter treated by avalanches.

Paul, Glad to hear that you’re OK.👍🏼 It must be a special feeling and experience to be in the eye of an hurricane. Let us hope it does not become a human hurricane after your important election over there.

Rene and Stephan: It used to be that I modified my list of what to bring on each evacuation that could not be replaced, such as photo albums. As the years went by and hurricanes came and went, the list of things to bring along got smaller. This now all fits on one large flash drive! So it was always evacuate and cross my fingers to see if I still had a home to go back to. I have often wondered where in hell could I move to to avoid these damn storms. But actually, no place in the southeast USA is safe from them, as seen by this last one. For Katrina in 2005, I told myself to go where others don't in evacuation, so I drove only 200 miles to my east hoping that it would change course to where I was and I could go back home west to be on the weak side. This did not happen and I rode Katrina out in a dog friendly motel in Zone C, which was high and dry. All of us at this motel had nothing to go back to, so we all sat around by candle light getting drunk as an extended family. Then 4 days later, I found out that I was one of the few lucky ones who still had a home to go back to. Dodging these storms is like playing a chess game with Mother Nature. Having to usually evacuate is why I have never been able to walk out into the eye on a direct hit. At least modern forecasting really helps in avoiding trouble. However, I could never deal with avalanches!!!! So why do I stay in Louisiana? For our four seasons: crawfish, crabs, shrimp, and oysters. Mardi Gras has kept most of us here, but I now hate that in my old age.

Glad you are OK @Paul B, stay safe and happy election for USA.

Rum Funk: Thanks. It was a nerve wracking election and votes are still being counted a full day later. We should have a new president announced in the next day or two. So glad that I had my Dictador XO Insolent for election night. Today, I'm sipping on Brazilian caipirinhas made with Cana Boa Cachaca..

@Paul B, yay a Dictador!! YUM!! I have this White Appleton, buy 1 get 1 promo LOL And I am ready to poke her on Saturday night.

Ok Paul, I see you getting use to or getting arranged with the power of nature. And in the end, it's a part of your life and creates always a story to tell. Crawfish, crabs, shrimp, and oysters are really a reason to stay ! I love seafood when it's fresh, usually when I'm on vacation, unfortunately we have no sea in usable range. But we have lakes, the sweet water fishes are ok. Here, we have winter storms, probably every 10 years with marginal damages in certain regions, then there’s strong wind for 3 or 4 days with 120 - 140 km/h with one day with high peaks of 160 - 200 km/h but nothing like hurricane ! Lucky me !

Rene: Good gosh! Those winter time storm winds are higher than a hurricane, but how long do they stick around? A hurricane can linger for 1-8 hours with those kind of winds, which is where the major damage can come from. It has been only one week after Hurricane Zeta and watching the USA Presidential election returns come in like a dripping faucet after three days is even more stressful. I am drinking Tarro Platinum on the rocks, which is the absolute cheapest rum that I have ever found and posted a review on it yesterday. No point in wasting my good rums for this kind of crap.

Paul: It's a different wind, it's coming in like waves over days. Starts usually with some gusts and getting stronger for 24 - 48 hours, then with heavy gusts for 12 - 24 hours and in the end, it needs another 24 - 36 hours to get chilled. On Christmas 1999 we had the storm "Lothar" with over 200 km/h and major damages in the forests (12'700'000 m3 wood only in Switzerland) You will need a lot of cheap rum until the crap is over ;-)

Rene: The crap is over with and the remaining Tarro Platinum will be used as toilet bowl cleaner. President Elect Joe Biden will give his victory speech at 8 pm EDT tonight. Then it will be back to the Dictador XO Insolent. This is a truly great day for the entire world!!!!

Bravo ! In hope of the orange don’t entrench himself in the WH, it would be an undrinkable Dictador !

Rene: The orange won't be able to entrench himself on January 20th! I still have some of that Dictador XO Insolent left and it was some great speeches followed by incredible light shows from programmable drones. Now they all get right back to work! His first order of business can be done with a few signatures. The USA will rejoin the Paris Agreement to combat climate change as well as rejoin the WHO to combat COVID-19. And this is just a start! As I said before, this is a great day for the world!

Paul, congratulations! I can only agree that this is a great day for the whole world and for us who care about each other. Finally the reality show in the white house is over.

Paul, Must correct my last sentence. The reality show will most certainly go on a while more, till the installation.

Congratulation. Germany is also happy about Biden's victory and we hope to improve our economic relations again.

vomi1011: Angela Merkel has already congratulated Joe. He will be so much easier to work with because he does what is best for all good people. Trump only did what was best for him. That is a HUGE difference!