Sunburn... ow!

Yesterday was a beach day. Today...ow. Well, let's just say that even with SPF 45 reapplied liberally, when you live at 18 degrees North latitude, sometimes the sun is a bit intense. Luckily, my Latin gene pool allows me to still look tan and not like a tomato even though it still hurts a bit. In the end it was a productive day, so not too bad for February.

So what causes sunburn anyway? Ah yes, there is always a reference to science! Sunburn is caused by UV light. If your body cannot produce enough melanin (pigment that acts like nature's sunscreen), you burn. A pale person can burn in 15 minutes while a dark person can take hours to burn.

Well, I was out for hours and I'm somewhere in the middle. And it burns. The worst of it is the major effects won't be noticeable till 24 hours after the exposure. Pretty much means I'm still cooking. I have already taken a few cool showers (I have a cistern so please don't gripe about water conservation) and applied liberal amounts of Aloe vera to my poor shoulders. I knew I kept that smelly succulent around for something.

Do you have any sun-damage horror stories?

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A Mid -Week Visit From Omar

Well, since most of my readers don't live in the tropics, I figured I would give you an update on our conditions. Classes for the remainder of the day were canceled and will be until further notice. Why? Well, Omar is supposedly coming to visit and we need time to tidy up the place for our last minute guest. As I sit here eating my delicious puttanesca, I am glad that the hubs and I eat at home often because it means we have a ton of food at the house. Our pantry is well stocked. Part of it is our zombie escape plan. Another part is our healthy fear of starvation. Overall, it's nice that we have so much food in the house. We even have 72 hour kits. For those not in the know, a 72 hour kit is a kit that is updated hopefully twice a year, usually once a year (that's us), and sometimes not at all (shame on those people). It contains enough food and supplies (i.e. rope, flashlight, medications) to last you the first 3 days after an emergency. It is like hurricane preparedness for everything else that could happen. If the zombies come, we are ready!

Now back to our guest. As you can see, the projected path centers him right over us. Not cool. If you didn't notice, I have a little countdown clock on the top left of this page. I anxiously await the end of hurricane season. While hurricanes are awe inspiring (to me) and beautifully vicious, I live on a REALLY small island. So you really think the US is going to help us, a little cruise ship harbor, before it helps Puerto Rico? Nope. Puerto Rico has more pull. They have factories and coffee and chocolate and stuff. We have jewelry stores. They win. I know it is only a Tropical Storm, but those are the ones that fall apart and turn into a bunch of little storms with tornadoes! Yikes!

So now that I am done eating and typing, I am going to attempt to button down the hatches or whatever they say. Good thing... I have a gas stove so we can still cook yummies! WOOT!

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Some Storm!

A very scary set of clouds moved in. This worries me because my husband is out on the water spearfishing right now. I haven't heard from him.

The clouds are very beautiful but ominous. I love the way they turn the light silver.

SOOOO to distract myself from the scary thought of my husband in a scary storm in the middle of the ocean, we are going to talk about weather!

What is a hurricane?

It is an ENORMOUS storm that can reach sizes of 600 miles in diameter with wind speeds between 75 and 200 miles per hour. They move in a counter-clockwise direction around a calm "eye" The spin is caused by Earth's rotation and the Coriolis Effect. They need water temperatures of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or more to intensify.

What was the strongest to hit land in recent history?

The top three are Camille, Andrew and Dean in that order. I lived in Miami for Andrew and I must say, it was intense. Maybe that is why I have no fear of hurricanes anymore. I am just always ready!


That is all I can handle. I am going to watch my video and make myself laugh.

All photos protected under Creative Commons. You can use them, just give me credit ok?

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