In the thick of the hurricane!
Hi all,
Surprised I still have power and internet, but I'm in South Florida, in Port Saint Lucie. We've come into the thick of the hurricane and it's roaring outside! We did dodge a bullet by Irma shifting west, though, or we'd have taken a much worse direct hit. Metal shutters on everything, so all we can do is wait and hope for the best. I'm a native, 32 years old, and I've been in every hurricane we've had since I was born. Going to have to start keeping a record soon!
We had planned to leave last Thursday. We even had the RV fully packed and ready to go, but when we saw the traffic, we decided to stay out of concern that we'd end up stuck on the interstate. Not where you want to be in a hurricane. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as we had a spot reserved for the RV in a park now more in the path since the shift west.
I hope that all pull through well. On the east coast, at least, personal experience and local TV reporting (which is 24/7 right now) is showing lots of wind and debris/light poles down, but not much structural damage to houses and such. I feel for folks who are in the Keys or on the barrier islands, but the authorities begged and begged them to leave, with good reason. In general, I'm hearing first responders are now off the roads everywhere, but my area will be the last to get clear of the storm and should be within a few hours.
At least I have some games on my iPad and pizza bites. If I'm going to go out, I'll do so in a lazy and unhealthy fashion, as I would've hoped for.
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We will put that in your epitaph. 
Stay save 
We only have one thing not covered in metal shutters, which is the door out of the house via our garage. That basically means we can't see what's going on outside, but we can absolutely hear it. You kind of go between these lulls of quiet followed by sudden roars of wind that shake the shutters. It's the worst part every time, hearing those ominous sounds and wondering whether or not your house is coming apart.
I do use headphones when playing games on my iPad.
We'll be glad for tomorrow, to be sure.
I think that's called cheating death 2017 style. 
Nice to hear your direct experience. Sounds like you made a good choice to stay put. I wonder how many got stuck on the highways? Keep us posted.
Grateful for your update and to hear that you're safe!
がんばって ください! do your best 
ファイト! FAITO!!!
わたしは元気です。ありがとう I'm fine, thanks!
and enjoy the pizza bites.. those things are god awful, there's much better junk food out there.. 
It was quite a gale all day long, and now at 2:30am, we're still getting gusts. However, the worst of the storm has finally passed to our north and is headed toward Orlando and beyond. Fortunately (if anything about a hurricane can be fortunate), it will be much weaker for them than it was those of us near the landfall zone.
Extremely relieved. We'll see what the damage outside is tomorrow, but the house seems to have held together fine and even still has power/cable/internet intact. Keeping a paranoid eye on Jose out there in the Atlantic, even though it's eventually supposed to stop chasing its tail and head northeast again.
Thanks for all the well wishes and company during the worst, everybody!