It has now dropped to 40º here in Daytona Beach. We are expecting a low of 25º tonight with a freeze that's supposed to last from 5-8 hours. Poor tropical plants!
I brought my one large Plumeria inside as well as the orchids and a few other plants. The remainder of my plants are on the deck and have blankets around them but it's going to be so cold for so long I'm afraid this will be another winter of many plants lost to freezes.
I can't complain about the loss of plants though ... I saw my next door neighbor this afternoon and noticed repairmen at her house. She told me that her central air conditioning/heating unit exploded and caught fire last night! She's an airline pilot and had just gotten in from a flight from Beijing and was really tired. She said she had just walked in and changed from her uniform and flipped on her heat because it was cold. She heard a loud pop that sounded like it came from out back so she turned her deck lights on and saw smoke coming from the air unit and had to call 911. Luckily it was contained to the AC/Heat unit and didn't spread to her house. This all happened about 12:45 - 1:00 a.m. and I never heard a thing! I've always been a light sleeper but I must have really been out to not hear the sirens and all of the commotion! All of us here in our little cul-de-sac are single family attached homes so she had to wake up her neighbors whose home is attached to hers ... just in case the fire spread. Luckily the fire department was able to put it out quickly with no damage to either of their homes but I think she has to buy a new system. She's probably staying with her mom or her sister tonight.
I've heard that many older homes in some parts of Florida don't have air or heat so people have to use space heaters during freezing temp's. Every winter we get news reports about fires that are caused by space heaters, and those homes usually don't have smoke detectors either.
Many Fire Departments give out free smoke detectors every year which is a good thing.
Stay warm everyone ... and stay safe during these cold winter nights!
