Iguanadon

So, with the flooding of my garage due to the hurricane, another of my minor losses was 12 rolls of shelf liner that I had stashed away. I'm now thinking I'd like to try using full sheet "shipping labels". I purchased a pack of 100 and still have them but haven't given them a try yet and wanted to see who else is using this method. I remember when I was first looking at this I'd found somewhere that I could buy them in a pack of 1,000 but I must not have saved the link. Any feedback, experiences, info, etc would be appreciated. Such things as a particular brand... Removable -vs- "Permanent", etc, etc. Here is the link of the pack of 100 that I have on hand and will be trying soon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06WVYGWMD/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Thanks

Update: We heard of successful journey's home along the shortest route form where we were and were able to get home yesterday (Thursday) at noon. Confirmed, the house was fine, no flooding. The garage is pretty much a mess. Been working on it since yesterday. Will have to cut away the bottom 2 feet of drywall (Saturday). Been pulling out boxes and other stuff. My saw survived, only my foot pedal/switch got ruined but I had a spare on hand. I won't be cutting for a while, too much other stuff to do and the day job really needs me back in the groove. I did lose 75 puzzles, I'll have little funerals for them soon. The bottom row of baskets on my racks weren't high enough, the water was 8 1/2 inches deep in the garage. All in all, I will not complain. Several businesses and homes totally destroyed by the winds and water and new flooding is taking place cutting off folks from being able to get back home.

Still stuck in South Carolina as all roads leading to Wilmington have been flooded or destroyed. Started hearing some success stories of folks getting home from the direction we'd be coming from and then today the main highway route opened up, so we're going to pack up and head home tomorrow. Hopefully, if the roads don't re-flood overnight tonight. Amazing the devastation in the area. Our island held up pretty well overall considering the eye came directly over the town shortly after making landfall a few miles to the north. One hotel was destroyed and a coffee shop is pretty much a goner. Plenty of other minor damage, but those 2 seemed to be the worst. Our house and our rental properties all held up, so that's good. Only my garage is the remaining question mark. It took on 6 inches of water, so I have to see what got ruined, if the drywall dried out, etc. I look forward to seeing it for myself tomorrow. Here are a couple of images of our town... and one of our house as the water came just shy of entering...

Might as well keep a daily diary... Monday morning update... Power was restored at our house last night and my home monitoring system was available and I could see inside the house and no water!!! The town of Carolina Beach announced they are going to allow residents back on the island beginning at noon today. The only issue is that the city of Wilmington is now a huge island in that there are no passable roads leading into the city and that's the only way to our home. And to top it all off, the worst of the flooding is expected over the next two days as all the rivers begin to crest. No telling when we'll be able to head back. We're crossing our fingers for Thursday because that's when we have to leave the place we're staying because new guests are scheduled to check in. A friend of ours who rode out the storm (even though there was a mandatory evacuation) just went to our house, walked through and everything is great. The garage did take on 6" of water but has drained back out. I'll assess the damage when I get back home... eventually. P.S. This is the worst vacation EVER!!!

Is it possible I'll be lucky? Above photos were from 8:30am, this photo is 4 hours later, water quickly receded... The neighbor that shot the pictures for me peeked in the window and says there was no water in the sunroom which is 6" lower than the main house. Fingers are crossed. Won't be able to get home for a few more days to see for myself.

Saws were in what is now my indoor swimming pool. They're all on stands and unplugged, so they should be fine.

A very nice neighbor that didn't evacuate sent me these photos. Garage definitely flooded. Zoomed in, appears to be within a couple inches of entering the house. Can't be sure it didn't breach before or after the photo. Won't be able to get home for several days.

Unfortunately the luck didn't hold. As I've been tracking the storm, I knew the heaviest rains were still to come and they did overnight last night. I received a text from my neighbor at 4am that his garage had 10 inches of rain in it which meant my garage had the same and very likely could have risen enough to go into our house. No way to know anything yet, it's still raining. We have a friend with a key to our house but she'll have her own issues to contend with and I won't ask her to go by our house until I hear from her first. Maybe I can get the neighbor to look in the window once it's safe for them to venture out. So close... the final day of the slow moving storm... Oh, and due to the additional flooding in the entire area, it could mean a few more days before we can even get back to our town as all roads leading into the Wilmington area were already flooded yesterday.

Unfortunately the luck didn't hold. As I've been tracking the storm, I knew the heaviest rains were still to come and they did overnight last night. I received a text from my neighbor at 4am that his garage had 10 inches of rain in it which meant my garage had the same and very likely could have risen enough to go into our house. No way to know anything yet, it's still raining. We have a friend with a key to our house but she'll have her own issues to contend with and I won't ask her to go by our house until I hear from her first. Maybe I can get the neighbor to look in the window once it's safe for them to venture out. So close... the final day of the slow moving storm... Oh, and due to the additional flooding in the entire area, it could mean a few more days before we can even get back to our town as all roads leading into the Wilmington area were already flooded yesterday.

Thanks so much everyone for thinking about me and the family. I had posted a couple of updates in the Coffee House forum, sorry I didn't look here as well. Florence hit 10 miles north of my house, then the eye drifted down directly over my town of Carolina Beach. So far, everything seems to be OK, waiting on word about our house. Less rain than expected and a lot less than other areas in the state. We evacuated to South Carolina and the storm followed us here, but we never lost power and have been sitting around waiting til we can go home, likely Monday or Tuesday. We were very lucky and hoping that continues as we await power to be restored and find everything OK upon our return. Iggy

Yep, we may have a new lake or two to add to the map. The storm isn't done yet at home, one more band of very heavy rain to hit this afternoon, but if nothing major comes of that the island will bounce back very quickly. By spring, everything will be right back to normal.

And don't lose sight of how large the storm is...

How wild is this, the eye drifted south and completely surrounded my town.

Landfall as of a few minutes ago. Luckily as a Cat 1 (90mph) instead of the originally forecast Cat 4 (140mph). Plenty of friends that decided to ride it out providing reports and updates via Facebook. Power is just now starting to go out in areas on the island. I still have power at my house according to my monitoring system I have there. But folks are talking about what a long night it was with the constant wind and rain. The storm is going to track towards where we are in SC, but no real danger by the time it reaches us. Just hope to not lose power, that's simply annoying.

It is LITERALLY going to go right over my house, this is a zoomed in version of the track. Mind boggling. Good news is the 11pm that was just released has it weakening just a tad. Every little bit helps, but yes, because of how slow it's moving, 20, 30 or even 40 inches of rain are possible. She's still tracking to come hit us here in SC where we evacuated to but much weaker. Just hoping we don't lose power, that's what really sucks.

You're a heck of a guy Brian, thank you very much for the invite. We should be all set right now, besides, with 3 dogs, many folks aren't too keen on hosting us. We have some very dear friends joining us as well and the Air BnB house we found will house all humans and animals adequately for what we hope is only about 4 days before we can come back "home". I put it in quotes cuz I seriously wonder what we will come back to. This storm is still a mystery as to where it will hit, if it'll stall out just off shore or once it makes landfall. Waiting for the cliffhanger episode to air. LOL

Our son lives in WS but based on the possible path of the storm we didn't want to end up in a flooding area unable to get back to our own flooding area. LOL So we're heading down into South Carolina and hope to watch it just swing by.

Thanks Jim, we're heading out tomorrow, a day earlier than we originally planned on evacuating. Seriously hoping we still have a house when we get to come back onto the island.

A big thanks to the National Hurricane Center for showing exactly where I live. If the track doesn't shift to the north soon, we'll be evacuating Wednesday morning... Category 4 storm with 140mph winds is on the way...

I have one of these to run a small fan and to keep my phone charged for accepting credit cards... but today, the fan was virtually useless just blowing hot air on me. LOL https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EIAADG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am officially FRIED! Whirlwind 8 days... Huge 2 day event last weekend and a new 1 day event today. Fried literally and figuratively... it was HOT today, pure misery, but sales were good so it wasn't a total loss. Here's the breakdown... Last Saturday - 9 hours Last Sunday - 5 hours Today - 7 hours 21 total selling hours. Total of 192 puzzles sold. Average of 9 per hour = one every 7 minutes. Exhausting! Yet fruitful. LOL I have another big event in 3 weeks. I'll skip my weekly farmers market between now and then, I'm truly burnt out right now, besides, I need to restock, my inventory is very low and the holiday season is sneaking up on me with several events already lined up. Pictures of today's event - 135 vendors, nice quality stuff that I saw during a quick walkthru during setup. Iggy

There were a handful of empty spaces. I won't swear to yours being empty. And I got to thinking about it that since the booklets had been printed and booth locations listed on the website, etc, I'm guessing they simply don't want to shift people around after a certain time.

And I was thinking about you as I had a chance to stroll the entire venue and saw your empty space. Glad you weren't there, otherwise I wouldn't have sold a single puzzle!!!

Yep, exactly, we got really lucky with the weather, it was beautiful and Saturday was only about 83 degrees. However I was in full sun and on an asphalt parking lot so it was still a bit toasty. I was discussing with Mrs. Iggy yesterday that I sure wish Lazy Daze was in October... cooler weather and able to push the "Christmas is closer than you think..." sales pitch. But 42 years of the event always being the last Saturday in August means a change is highly unlikely.

Some say to set ambitious goals, which I did, with a goal of selling 200 puzzles at my 2 day mega event. Last year I sold 93 the first day in 9 hours and 60 the second day in 4 1/2 hours for a total of 153. The first day last year I wasn't able to set up the way I like to and so this year I rented a double booth so I could maximize my setup and therefore my sales... or so I thought, but it turned out to not be as much of a factor as I expected. This weekend I sold 88 and 48 for a total of 136. Absolutely no complaints, still my best event of the year and a great event overall which I'll do every single year along with over 300 other vendors. Perfect weather, huge crowds and great folks to chat with and still going home with a pocketful of cash. In future years I'll continue to rent a double booth, I simply hate having to set up in such a way that people have to come "inside", generally speaking, people prefer to come up to the perimeter of my tent and see everything around 3 sides. Still in Raleigh today (Monday) as my wife is leaving her job of 20 years and they insisted on throwing her a luncheon today so we'll attend that and then head back to the coast. At which point I have to start cutting as I have a new 1 day big event coming up Saturday at a nearby beach town. Should be a great show as well. I did plan accordingly and am taking vacation this week from the day job to make lots of sawdust. And squeezing in a couple rounds of golf this week also. Photos showing booth and the 316 duplicate puzzles I had with me wrapped and ready to go. Only ran out of Elephants as I had a run on them that I didn't expect. Iggy