Gather Ye Rosebuds

I am feeling very empowered lately, and it's my little secret. Ha! Ok, so a few people know why. But most people don't know my secret, and I don't know how many people would really care to learn it.

I was confused at where Chas had in mind to take me to dinner tonight. Said it would take 45 minutes to get there. Once we got on the interstate, and headed west, I knew it had to be out somewhere near or in Disney. This is where we went. We ate at the Artist Pointe restaurant. It was a beautiful hotel, and the meal was great. As it is way past my bedtime, I will have to fill you in on the gastronomic details later, which won't be too hard, since they gave us personalized copies of the menu to take.

:)



Totem pole in the lobby.



More of the lobby. You can see the huge fireplace in the corner. It is integrated with the beams and floors of the hotel and is as tall as the hotel. It is composed of several different layers of rock. It is huge.



Geyser that erupts hourly in the back of the hotel property.



View of the waterfall in the back of the hotel. The restaurant is off to the right on what should be the 2nd floor, though I am not sure you can see it in this shot.



Inside shot of the restaurant we ate at...Artist Pointe.

Blah.

Not too terriby long ago, my roommate yelled "SLUT MONKEY!" at the tv. Heh heh!

It is amazing how tragedy can affect a person, and make them feel miserable and awful, only to hear about someone's misfortunes that are worse than yours. But you've only concentrated on you and your own little world. For example, when we lost power for 5 days from Hurricane Charley, I had no tolerance to the people calling me up at work and complaining they have no cable. I felt I had a right to complain and to be upset and irritable. On more than one occasion I felt like saying, "Oh yeah? You have no cable? Aww. Well, I have no power at home due to the hurricane, and it won't be back on for a week so quit your whining and complaining," or something like that. Then I learn learn of people I know who lost their homes and their cars, and that is so much worse than suffering without power in the middle of August in Florida because at least my home and car suffered no damage. Now that the media is drawing away from Hurricane Frances, and we are emerging back into the regular news world, we have been finding out the last few days of the tragedy in Beslan. It is so horrible. It makes me tear up and think hurricane schmurricane. Who cares about that when so many lives were taken so quickly. It is sad that this had to happen to that community, or to anyone really. So sad, so sad. :(

As you now well know, we are in the peak of the hurricane season. Any day now, you're going to turn on the TV and see a weather person pointing to some radar blob out in the Atlantic Ocean and making two basic meteorological points.

(1) There is no need to panic.
(2) We could all be killed.

Yes, hurricane season is an exciting time to be in Florida. If you're new to the area, you're probably wondering what you need to do to prepare for the possibility that we'll get hit by "the big one." Based on our insurance industry experiences, we recommend that you follow this simple three-step hurricane preparedness plan:

STEP 1: Buy enough food and bottled water to last your family for at least three days.

STEP 2: Put these supplies into your car.

STEP 3: Drive to Nebraska and remain there until Halloween. Unfortunately, statistics show that most people will not follow this sensible plan. Most people will foolishly stay here in Florida.

We'll start with one of the most important hurricane preparedness items:

HOMEOWNERS' INSURANCE: If you own a home, you must have hurricane insurance.

Fortunately, this insurance is cheap and easy to get, as long as your home meets two basic requirements:

(1) It is reasonably well-built, and
(2) It is located in Wisconsin

Unfortunately, if your home is located in Florida, or any other area that might actually be hit by a hurricane, most insurance companies would prefer not to sell you hurricane insurance, because then they might be required to pay YOU money, and that is certainly not why they got into the insurance business in the first place. So you'll have to scrounge around for an insurance company, which will charge you an annual premium roughly equal to the replacement value of your house. At any moment, this company can drop you like used dental floss.

SHUTTERS: Your house should have hurricane shutters on all the windows, all the doors, There are several types of shutters, with advantages and disadvantages:

Plywood shutters: The advantage is that, because you make them yourself, they're cheap.

Sheet-metal shutters: The advantage is that these work well, once you get them all up. The disadvantage is that once you get them all up, your hands will be useless bleeding stumps, and it will be December.

Roll-down shutters: The advantages are that they're very easy to use, and will definitely protect your house. The disadvantage is that you will have to sell your house to pay for them.

Hurricane-proof windows: These are the newest wrinkle in hurricane protection: They look like ordinary windows, but they can withstand hurricane winds! You can be sure of this, because the salesman says so. He lives in Nebraska.

Hurricane Proofing your property: As the hurricane approaches, check your yard for movable objects like barbecue grills, planters, patio furniture, visiting relatives, etc... You should, as a precaution, throw these items into your swimming pool (if you don't have a swimming pool, you should have one built immediately). Otherwise, the hurricane winds will turn these objects into deadly missiles.

EVACUATION ROUTE:

If you live in a low-lying area, you should have an evacuation route planned out. (To determine whether you live in a low-lying area, look at your driver's license; if it says "Florida," you live in a low-lying area). The purpose of having an evacuation route is to avoid being trapped in your home when a major storm hits. Instead, you will be trapped in a gigantic traffic jam several miles from your home, along with two hundred thousand other evacuees. So, as a bonus, you will not be lonely.

HURRICANE SUPPLIES:

If you don't evacuate, you will need a mess of supplies. Do not buy them now! Florida tradition requires that you wait until the last possible minute, then go to the supermarket and get into vicious fights with strangers over who gets the last can of SPAM. In addition to food and water, you will need the following supplies.

23 flashlights. At least $167 worth of batteries that turn out, when the power goes off, to be the wrong size for the flashlights.

Bleach. (No, I don't know what the bleach is for. NOBODY knows what the bleach is for, but it's traditional, so GET some!)

A big knife that you can strap to your leg. (This will be useless in a hurricane, but it looks cool.)

A large quantity of raw chicken, to placate the alligators. (Ask anybody who went through Andrew; after the hurricane, there WILL be irate alligators.)

$35,000 in cash or diamonds so that, after the hurricane passes, you can buy a generator from a man with no discernible teeth.

Of course these are just basic precautions. As the hurricane draws near, it is vitally important that you keep abreast of the situation by turning on your television and watching TV reporters in rain slickers stand right next to the ocean and tell you over and over how vitally important it is for everybody to stay away from the ocean.

Good luck, and remember: It's great living in Paradise.

I am feeling very out of it at the moment. Not just from the lovin' from my huggy bear, but just that I have had the last few days off of work, and I have to go back in tomorrow, and that the last few days have just been kinda blurry being stuck in our apartment with seemingly never-ending winds and rain. The skies have been overcast or darker than usual which doesn't help the day take more shape or definition. Driving around today did not help things either. Chas was in search of food, but mainly to get out. We drove around only to find things either closed, or under boil water alert. Still we kept going and found a place to eat. After that, we needed to look for an open grocery store for a few essentials. The Publix supermarket by us had practically no power, but enough to light the store with back up type lamps. The cold and frozen food sections were off limits. It felt very odd shopping in such a dark and dim store. Lucky their credit/debit/atm card machines were working. Oh, and our phone is burping when it rings...it sounds like someone called, realized it was the wrong number and hung up in the middle of the first ring. And one of the phones was buzzing earlier. Hopefully it is just water related and will fix itself as things dry up more. I guess this is a feeling that will pass once I get back to work, and normaicy begins returning more and more here.

Welcome to my journal ourika!


Anyhow, here's the recent update of us vs Frances...it was windy yesterday, with a few "spitting" showers that lasted a few minutes each. By "spitting" I mean it was like being spit upon. It can't really be considered rain, not at least by Florida's rain standards. Skies today are cloudy here, but show patches of blue here and there. The wind is about the same, maybe stronger. I can hear it outside with those whistling and howling noises, and about an hour or so ago it rained heavily for a short bit. It was probably an outer rain band or something, but nothing else yet. The storm is weaker, but it is inconclusive if the eye has reformed or not.

Well, that is it for now. Huggy bear is awake at last, so I must go be wifey for a little while. ;)

Ok. I am starting to get a bit freaked out now. I really have been trying to think positively as best I can, but keep hearing so many bad and negative things that it is affecting me. As Neil would say, "It's bringing me down, man," except that he'd probably go upstairs and try to hang himself and see if the others notice, whereas I am way smarter than that. ;) Am I just starting to face the reality of the situation, or am I conforming to mass hysteria and fear being pumped out with the media? I don't know. Every part of me feels torn in different directions. I just want this to end with as little damage as possible, and I want to let you people out there that will be going through this with us, that I care for you all and am hoping for the best. I will do my best to stay in touch.

Hurricane, hurricane
go away.
Please change course
and stay that way.

Is it fear, or reality? Will Frances really dare to bare herself in Florida after Charley did mere weeks ago, or will this be the 1st in another 40 years of near misses for Orlando? No one really knows. Projections indicate pretty bad stuff, but is it possible she could change path at the last minute, much like Charley did? We'll all be fucked if she does hit us. Over the weekend, Chas and I saw many people working hard to clear debris, and fix rooftops for apartments and houses alike. Their efforts will have been totally wasted if she hits hard again. Some people are just getting back on their feet and plan on moving to their new places this weekend. It will be terrible for those people, to be getting back on their feet just to be knocked down again. It will suck big donkey dick if we have 2 hurricanes hit in less than a month.

( Some projections )