I had planned another adventure for this week, and I had a Whisky event to attend, but as the old saying goes, “man plans, God laughs. So, while my friends in Florida prepared for the devastation of Hurricane Ian, I had no way of knowing that I would have a visit from a nasty old friend too. My doctor calls it IBS, and let’s just say when it decides to challenge a hurricane for my attention, it wins. So, I have been out of commission for most of this week but am starting to feel a bit like myself again, thank goodness. From what I have been able to garner from the news out of Southwest Florida, my little piece of paradise does not seem to have been hit as hard as those right along the coastline. It appears that my house was far enough east and north to avoid the storm surge, which did make its way up Naples’ Fifth Avenue shopping district and apparently took out half of the just renovated fishing pier on the Gulf.

Above are two examples of the damage wrought by the hurricane to this usually idyllic city on Florida’s Gulf Coast. For many years, Naples was a small city that catered mostly to retirees from the Midwest of the US, New England, and Canada. As a Virginian/New Yorker of Pennsylvanian descent, I was a rarity. But since my grandparents were Napolitano from the original Naples and my parents before me had found retirement happiness here, I thought it a good place to relocate. In normal times its warm and friendly. In recent years, we have been found out and the real estate boom has hit us. Over development has followed. I suspect that many more will have been affected, not only by the strength of this storm, but by the density of the population. I pray for the doctors, nurses, and first responders in Naples and Collier County-police, fire fighters, EMS, and all those long-suffering technicians who will be working countless hours getting cables, satellite connections, mobile phone towers, etc. operational again.

I hope to be out and about again next week with something more enjoyable and positive to write about.

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