There are several times throughout the year when family gathers together. It’s a time to catch up on stories, share a meal, and maybe play a game. Usually, this is at Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and other such times of the year. For us in Florida, it’s a hurricane.

By the time you are reading this, Hurricane Irma will probably have passed through Central Florida, but as I am writing this it is Saturday afternoon and we have yet to see any effects from the storm. My daughter came over Thursday night. My aunt arrived today. We are “hunkered down,” so to speak, stocked up on food and water, and watching the weather reports. My feelings are still the same as they were on Friday’s Quick Shots post, that I’m not expecting anything worse than Charlie. In fact, the forecast seems a little better than it did a couple of days ago.

The name of this blog, Half Air, is based on the “glass half full” allegory. If there is an event that can potentially fill that glass it is a hurricane, both literally (due to all the rain) and metaphorically (through our reliance on God). And while we are on the topic of the full glass and a positive outlook, there is one benefit that has come as a result of the Hurrican Irma. For most of the week, politics has been pretty much absent from our local news coverage.