Tuesday, September 7, 2004

We survived Hurricane Frances!!  Yay!!!  =)

I lost power Saturday night at about 2am (so I guess technically Sunday morning) and just got it back last night.  Less than 48 hours without power made me crazy.  :p  Our A/C broke, so even after we had power, it was still kinda hot in here.  And the humidity was horrendous.  We had to change all the sheets & towels cuz they were yucky.

All the days started to run together so I can't give too much of a blow by blow.  Cabin fever set in rapidly.  I was thanking my lucky goat milk that we stayed in our house and didn't have anyone else there with us.  The flip side of us not having shutters is that we were able to get a front row seat to the majestic destruction that was happening around us.  We watched as one of our trees knocked over easily and almost rolled into the pool.  We ran outside and tried moving it to a better spot.  The two of us could barely maneuver it.  I think we both strained some back muscles with that.  Yeah, I know ... lift with the knees.  Try doing that when you're standing in 60 mph gusts and driving rain.  Okay, I have no idea how forceful the winds were.  I'm thinking my next present to Galahad is going to be a wind-speed gadget.  :)

Later on, we decked out in rain-gear and took a walk along our back canal.  We saw so many birds hunkered down for the impending storm.  A great blue heron looked so peaceful in his little copse although I was surprised that he didn't evacuate.  :p 

Big trees were already coming down on Saturday as the feeder bands were hitting.  It scared me to think of what might be coming up.

After we lost power, it started to get scarier cuz I had no idea what was going on, and it was fucking LOUD outside!!  Every crash I heard, I kept thinking, this is the one that is coming through the walls or roof.  No power meant no over sensationalized Channel 7 News.  The house stayed somewhat cool that night but really started to heat up the next day.  We opened all the sliders to let the hurricane winds blow through and cool us off, but it also let 9 million percent humidity in.  The carpet started feeling yucky under my feet.  :(

I got crankier as the temperature rose.  It kept raining a lot so that helped, but the breezes started dying down.  We went for another walk at some point (I lost track of time) and scoped out damages and wildlife.  We saw a truly amazing sight.  Somehow every iguana was out trying to warm up and/or dry off.  There were at least a dozen giant ones that we saw on tree branches across the canal.  They were much easier to spot since most leaves were stripped off.  Gronk was out with his Gronkettes and then we saw Grampa Gronk.  He was huge although not as brilliantly orange as he used to be.

I know this is disjointed, and I apologize, but random thoughts are popping up.  Like I said, I lost track of time & day. 

Galahad got out his little camping stove and made us hot soup (good thing I bought one edible variety) when we came back inside all wet.  The rain was driving so hard that it finally penetrated our rain gear even though he had just coated it again with silicone (or whatever they waterproof gear with).  He was enjoying himself mightily and looked at all of this as a big adventure.  It was nice because neither one of us got cranky at the same time, so the other one could always boost spirits.  I'll give you one guess who needed more boosting.  :p

I had breakfasted on a Snapple Meal Drink at 5 am when I woke up hungry & in the dark.  I was scared to open the fridge and let cold air out so I just felt around on the counter for one of those.  Just because I can eat anything when I'm hungry doesn't make it palatable.  It was fucking god-awful.   Shiver.  Cringe.  I drank it while sitting on the floor next to one of my big windows and watching our mango tree blow violently around.  It did serve its purpose though.  It filled me up in a quick, convenient manner.

During one of the semi-lulls in the storm, we went out and fished half of a tree out of our pool.  This was a different one from the one we rescued before. 

I spent part of the day bored going through an old box.  I found all of my awards from school, including my HappyGram from 1^st grade.  Gah, I'm such a pack-rat, but it was valuable entertainment during extreme boredom and repressive heat & humidity.  I had already finished the book, Digital Fortress, that I was reading. 

Galahad insisted we go out for dinner and I was up for the adventure although I wasn't sure what we'd find.  It was a bit tricky putting on eyeliner by flashlight.  :)  I had him check it afterwards to make sure it was even.  :p  We tried north first but there were curfews in effect and police were closing down restaurants, so we ended up south at a pizza place.  They had ice cold a/c and hot food, so we gladly endured the one hour wait time for food.  They had a very limited menu quickly scrawled on a napkin taped to the front counter, and pizza wasn't on it.  He got spaghetti & and I had ravioli (and a Zone bar from my purse while I waited the hour).

We debated going to his mother's house (since she had power) to sleep or staying home and letting the breezes cool us off.  His mother doesn't keep the a/c very cold so we would have been hot there, too, just without the humidity.  It was about 76°F out with 20-30 mph winds.  Privacy won out, plus the roads were scary to drive on.  There were no traffic lights, and giant trees suddenly appeared fallen in the road.  We milked our time at the pizza place and stayed there until we got sleepy.  :p  The people at a nearby table had driven over 20 miles to eat there.  We drove home, brushed our teeth by candlelight, and tried to fall asleep.  I woke up every few hours as I'd been doing since Tuesday or so.

One of my phone lines worked intermittently, so I checked in with family & friends to let them know how we were and see how they were.  We started to set our house back to normal and were cleaning up outside as well as putting all the orchids back out.  Then, we were on Lizard Duty to catch all the ones who had hunkered down in our house.  :p  I rescued a butterfly from the pool while I was skimming out the 6 million or so leaves that had blown in.  It was nice and cold in there so I kept dipping my feet in as I started to overheat.  I didn't really care how dirty it was at that point.  We had chlorinated it beforehand so no bacteria should be in it, just good clean dirt.  :p

By 11 am, I had hit the end of my rope and called one of my brothers to see if he had power yet.  He didn't and asked if we wanted to go get lunch.  That was an easy answer.   I went inside, took a cold shower (yuck but at least I had running water), shaved my legs, put my hair in a ponytail, and tried to make myself presentable.

There were long lines at all the nearby restaurants and since the car had nice cold a/c, we just kept driving farther south until we found one without a wait.  They again had a limited menu --- quesadillas or quesadillas.  Galahad ordered a margarita which turned out to be huge.  The guy at the next table was on his 3rd or 4th (that we saw) and was so fucking drunk.  Again, they had good a/c and hot food, so we planted ourselves there for a few hours.  My brother was fun company and we amused each other with reminiscing and good conversation.   At 4pm, we left and drove across the street where another restaurant was opening up.

My brother ordered more food, and we sat there for another hour until Galahad decided it was time to leave to go to his martial arts class.  He had persuaded my brother to join him as they were both missing their normal workout routine, and my brother's gym was still closed.

We drove home surveying the damage and the fallen trees.  Overall, I have to say I was very fortunate.

I'm exhausted and will finish my story later.  =)