Categories
“Poloniu — er, I mean tea?”
Category: The Current Situation
It’s the day after Hurricane Ian in Tampa.
The yard’s a big green mess, and I’ll need to drive a couple of nails into the fence, but upon preliminary inspection, there doesn’t seem to be any appreciable damage.
I normally don’t schooch my car that close to the fence and alcove, but I did so for the hurricane, and I’m glad I did! A branch from one of our live oaks came down on it, but its force was blunted by the fence. It didn’t even make a scratch.
Scott, a local developer is building two houses behind ours, and I just called him to let him know that one of the palm trees on the lot keeled over in the winds. Luckily for him, it fell away from the houses.
I should get some work done, and I’ve got a hot date with a rake and broom later on this afternoon.
There are still a lot of prudes here in the Excited States, as evidenced by these headlines, listed in order of increasing inanity:
- AL.com: Florida reporter protects mic with condom during Hurricane Ian broadcast
- Yahoo! News: Florida Reporter Wraps Mic In Condom: ‘Safe Hurricane Reporting’
- New York Post: Florida reporter defends putting condom on mic during Hurricane Ian broadcast
- TMZ: Here’s a Tip … REAL REPORTERS USE CONDOMS!!!
The reporter in question is Kyla Galer, a reporter from Fort Myers’ WBBH News, who used an old sound engineering trick to protect her microphone when reporting on Hurricane Ian’s progress.
A good microphone can be an expensive investment, and being electrical devices, they can be damaged by moisture. Many audio and video techs use condoms — the unlubricated kind, of course — to cover microphones, and wireless microphone transmitter packs to protect them from moisture at outdoor gigs, or even from sweaty musicians.
They’re much cheaper when you buy them loose and in bulk, which America’s Condom Superstore will gladly sell to you — a mere $15 will get you 50 of these condoms. Perfect if you’re using them to protect sound equipment, or just a cheap fucker.
The wind continues to blow, and the rain keeps coming down, but we still have power and there’s no apparent damage to the house.
With Kevlar sheets covering our windows, our view outside is mediated through our video doorbells and side camera. It’s raining hard right now in Seminole Heights, and it’ll likely rain harder as the day goes on.
Here’s what weather radar looks like as I write this:
Here’s the view from our front doorbell:
Here’s the view from our porch doorbell:
And here’s the view from our side camera:
We’re on a slight incline leading down to the Hillsborough River, so the water in heavy storms tends to roll right past the house. Here’s hoping that it follows tradition this time.
Here’s a photo taken by someone in our neighborhood and posted to one of the (many) Seminole Heights Facebook groups:
