It has begun Claudette is

It has begun

Claudette is making her presence known.
The winds are really wild right now. I've brought in all my plants and things that could become projectile weapons but I have this long spiral thing hanging from the ceiling of my patio...it's about 16 inches long and hangs straight down. I can see it from where I sit and the wind gusts are causing it to go horizontal and slam up against the ceiling.
I heard a little bit of rain coming down earlier so I thought I had better take the dogs out one last time before the weather got really bad. So, I put on a jacket with a hood because umbrellas are about as useful as Michael Moore on a treadmill in this kind of wind and stepped outside my door. Before I could get to my stairs, I heard a loud roar coming closer and as I looked in that direction a HUGE gust of wind and rain slammed into me.
"Sorry kids," I said to the dogs, "we won't be going outside right now."
This is what worries me about the storm....my dogs are very well housetrained and except for Zoe's occassional incontinence, they flat out refuse to go to the bathroom inside and will drive me crazy until I let them go out. Then, if it's raining really bad, they immediately go running back into the house, refusing to go out in the weather. Sheesh!