Karen's Hurricane wtf's?

I've been reading a LOT of LIttle Sister books lately. They're fast and easy to get through, and just pretty enjoyable. .. and they're getting spit out on the BSC Ebook community fairly regularly.

Since I've just myself been through Hurricane Ike, I was looking forward to reading this one. I liked it, trust me, I did. But there were just some major wtf moments going on in my brain while reading it.

#1. Hurricane Karen is a Category Three that keeps shifting north. Surely Stoneybrook would've been in the warning zone... It's a good sized storm ..keeps going North... they said between Jersey Coast and Long Island. I don't have a map out in front of me, but this was said a couple of days ahead of landfall. Connecticut's a small state, small coastline, so I'm sure it was well within that "cone of uncertainty" in the longrun. (Don't I just sound up on my hurricane knowledge).

What I don't get is that they called a hurricane warning JUST HOURS BEFORE THE HURRICANE HIT. Everyone was already stocking up on supplies "just in case". Karen's school WAS STILL OPEN THE DAY IT HIT. They call a warning. Everyone goes home, except for Pamela whose parents had the sense to get out if the hurricane should hit. (of course they left after school let out, which really doesn't make any sense. If this were IRL, the roads would be packed, and they'd be stranded in the middle of the road when the hurricane made landfall.)

They started ordering mandatory evacuations on a day and a half before Ike hit... voluntary were going up two and a half days beforehand... What morons let school out when the leading edge of the hurricane is already upon them?? Seriously?
They state that this is a CATEGORY THREE. Sustained winds of at least 111 mph It hadn't hit land yet to slow it down. Stoneybrook officials are morons. Or the ghostwriter.

Another wtf moment for me.

Okay. Storm is in full swing by that evening. Power goes out around 10pm.
Why in tarnation does it take until 3 THE NEXT AFTERNOON FOR THE EYE TO HIT?
Perspective... Ike was 600 miles across. We were getting slammed (45 minutesish from the Gulf...but by GAlveston Bay) by nightfall. Our power went out around 11. When did the eye hit? We got it around 3 in the morning. What hurricane (one that's moving at 17 mph mind you... Ike was moving about 12.) takes over 24 hours from the leading bands for the eye to make landfall? Especially when they were getting whalloped the night before.

Oh yeah... it's not until the next morning that everything is okay and calm again. (Streets flooded).

Okay I haven't been through many hurricanes... Ike was my first major one (we're all okay. My mother lives in a heavily devastated area, but her house was one of the lucky ones). But considering the size and enormity of Ike which might as well have been a Cat 3 (110 mph with huge wind gusts... I'd call that a Cat 3 even though it's not "technically")...the storm surge was so big because the size of the hurricane was huge.

If Hurricane Karen was as big as how long it took for the eye to make landfall suggests... they'd have been long gone ... or should've been long gone.... but I doubt it was.

I'm just making random ramblings becasue right now I'm wating for class to begin... I'm bored... we just got power back last wednesday (12 days after the storm hit)+
but are still without internet at the house. I hope half of what I said made some kind of sense.

On a side note. We have magic fish! Seriously!
Who knew that fishies could go 12 days without a filter running to give them oxygen? and Over a week without food?
Our 25 cent goldfish apparently can.

Bored... Karen's Grandad subplot

Right now I'm sitting in a hotel room in Austin Texas having evacuated from Hurricane Ike. (We're fine. the community where my mom and stepfather live,(san leon) that i lived in for three years is a warzone...but their properties are still fine.... one of the few lucky ones)

Anyway. For some reason I was thinking about Karen's Grandad. I have no idea why I started thinking about this... but ... the subplot timeline in the book about Hootie (Ms. Colman's class's pet guinea pig) is just so ridiculous I have to say it.

note: semi spoilers ahead to explain and verify timeline.




Friday: Grandad's funeral
Monday: Class gets another Guinea Pig for Hootie because he's lonely. They think he's a "boy". Hootie's Happy! Very Happy!

wait for it.....


Ut oh.
New friend's starting to get fat.
Wednesday: Oh noes! They discover "he" is a "she" and "she's" Pregnant!! (Sorry been awhile since I've read the book. I can't remember the name. I told you I started thinking about this for no reason...)
Friday: BABIES!!

How am I sure?
Karen mentions that day it's been A WEEK since Grandad's funeral.

Ms Colman's class had a crash course in where babies came from

I had to look up a post I put on a message board to get the timeline straight. I couldn't even remember the name of the book. I know that before I posted it on the message board I looked up the gestation period of the guinea pig. I don't remember how long it was, but I do know that it was long enough that the guinea pig wouldn't have changed that drastically in four days before they're about to give birth. It's heavily implied that Hootie and friend got it on.


I needed something to post.

Yay!

School started on the 25th, so I've been really busy, and with internet not always up at the house, I haven't been able to get online much...even at school where I'm there five days a week... and when not in class, working fourteen hours. (not much, but max you can work in workstudy is 15). I haven't even finished my dang short_takes story on LJ, and it's a week late. I feel horrible, but the one thing that's making me feel a TAD bit better is that the person I'm writing for didn't get her one in either. I'm not signing up for the next round. I'm determined to get this one in.

But anyway, last night like the moron I was, I stepped on my phone charger...and totally broke it. I decided to try and get one at dollar general which was where I got the one I broke anyway...walked up there, but decided to go to the library first which was right next to it. I was in there an hour and read about half of AMM's The Doll People. (It's really cute. I recommend it, and there's one other book in the series, and one that's supposed to come out in October)

anyway, getting off track. I had looked on the shelves for any BSC book that I didn't have on my computer and didn't find any. As I was coming out, I noticed two boxes with a ton of YA books... including the BSC books and LS and SVT and SVK that i had seen the one and only time I had been in there. Each book for 10 cents.

Unfortunately, I don't carry ANY cash on me at all... hardly ever. But I dug up a dime and went and paid for Claudia Gets Her Guy. I asked how long hte books were going to be there, and the woman behind the desk asked when i could come back... and I said Wednesday (they're not open on Mondays, and I don't get out until 9:30 on Tuesdays). I picked out 17 books... all BSC and SVK... I think. I don't remember putting any SVT or BSLS up there... and I'll get them all for $1.70

I feel like I won the lottery.

Now I just have to figure out a way to carry them home and figure out where in tarnation I'm going to put them all.