I am afraid of heights and have been all my life. I once worked in the city of Toronto, and from my workplace I could see the CN Tower. Occasionally I would look up from my work to watch its elevators climb the outside of the spire then disappear into its pod 1500 feet off the ground. One day, in what could only have been a moment of insanity, I agreed to visit the CN Tower with my parents and my wife.
Hurricane Milton is a Category 5 as I write this, and it is heading toward Central Florida where I lived for the first 19 years of my life. I have a lot of good friends there that I have invited to come to Navarre, but they want to “hunker down.” Contrary to advice, I would do the same. It is difficult to get back and I know that firsthand. My husband was in Iraq or Afghanistan in September 2004 when Ivan was headed our way and by order of the Air Force, the families had to evacuate. I evacuated with our children to my parents’ home in Orlando, which had just been hit by Charlie the month before with 104 mph winds. They were still cleaning up and there was a lot less foliage than the last time I was there. After Ivan left, I called our Santa Rosa County Public Information Officer at the time, Don Chinery, and asked him when he thought schools would be back in session. He thought it would be months. I called my in-laws and asked if their grands could stay with them for a week or a few months – and they said sure. They met me near Atlanta, and I handed the children and a dog and a cat off to them. They were saints – and are angels in heaven today. I quickly headed back to Navarre and bought a cooler and started loading it with things to eat on the way back. I got back with little difficulty. The next day I went to the Emergency Operations Center in Milton and was asking where the water and supplies were for Navarre and was told it was too difficult to get there – true story. I promptly let them know I arrived from Atlanta the night before and was able to get to them that day…they could get there. And they did.
I feel as if I need to clarify a post I made on Facebook during Navarre’s win over previously unbeaten Tate two weeks ago.
I posted that the Navarre culture runs deeper than one guy. That guys may transfer out, but the culture returns year after year.
I often write about bears, birds, weeds, and ants, so maybe I should change the name of this column to “Mr. Mike’s Nature Corner.” Turtles have become the celebrity creature in our household. For the past several weeks, almost daily, an assortment of box turtles has crawled under the fence into our backyard. At first, we assumed that they, like the occasional bear, were just passing through, but we soon learned that our yard is a destination.
At one point last week, 64 of Florida’s 67 counties were under a hurricane or tropical storm warning. Santa Rosa County, Okaloosa County and Escambia County were the three not under that type of warning.
I saw a Facebook post a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday morning that caught my attention. It was on one of the Milton pages and featured photos of several players doing yard work just hours after they walked off the field at Bennett C. Russell Stadium in Navarre. They were holding rakes, working and smiling.
In 1985, I went on a short-term mission trip to Haiti with a small team from our church. We were going to help Hosean International Ministries (HIM) build an orphanage in the town of Pignon, 40 miles south of Cap Haitien. There was a lot riding on this trip.
Santa Rosa County has its very first Veterans’ Treatment Court for justice-involved Veterans and Judge Tony Giraud admitted three Veterans to his first court Sept. 11. He will admit 10 more Sept. 25.
