As Tropical Storm Fay and the first day of school churned toward us, preparing for both of these storms wasn't easy.

In a dizzying frenzy, I attempted Back to School shopping and hurricane shopping simultaneously.

However, in my shopping typhoon, I may have gotten confused.

I packed their backpacks with extra batteries. Lunchboxes were loaded with canned soup and water for three days. It's possible that I may have inadvertently thrown their desks into the pool instead of the patio furniture, and covered their textbooks with plywood.

This challenged all of my skills as Florida Mom. (That, and voting in national elections.) We spent our weekend glued to the TV, watching report after report after erroneous report warning us of this horrendous storm. Government buildings and courthouses shut down in anticipation. People boarded up their businesses and many were preemptively evacuated. The First Day of School was canceled.

But the only thing that Fay brought to these parts was a dry day of blinding sunshine. Not a drop of rain fell, not a rogue breeze blew. The news outlets scrambled and instead of saying that they got it wrong said, "This was a successful dry run."

It was indeed very dry. And while we here on the west coast were spared, the storm inundated the rest of the state. After all of the hype, misinformation and manufactured panic, it was clear that a few meteorologists might benefit from some additional schooling.

The good news is that other than a couple of hundred bucks in unused plywood and bottled water, little else was lost and we did end up learning some valuable lessons on our unexpected day off from school.

1.) Third graders hate ramen noodles and powdered milk for lunch.

2.) The geometric term, "the cone of uncertainty" should really be expanded to "the gigantic shifting sphere."

3.) Sharpen your number 2 pencils, not your double A batteries.

4.) Never put anything other than pencils in a pencil sharpener.

5.) Mother Nature must have home-schooled.

©2008 Tracey Henry

Divamail me! Divamail@Subrubandiva.com.