Andrew… the destroyer, Irene… the wet, Frances… the annoying?
Ok, ok, I know that I haven’t posted in a looong time but things have been just so busy. Classes at Dade aren’t difficult but damn the teachers are giving so much work. Pair that up with work and a hurricane that took millennia to arrive.
So a week after the Charley scare we are threatened with yet another hurricane, Frances. Again the hurricane was headed right for us, and Miami freaked out and prepared. The state has not had gasoline in over 2 weeks, the stores haven’t had decent food since before Charley, and I think that Floridians are at wit’s end. I remember with Charley it was, “South Florida, prepare for a direct hit!” then at the last minute Charley turned around and hit central Florida instead. I feel bad for Punta Gorda; they were caught by surprise and suffered a lot of damage. Now Frances comes by and the whole time it took to get here we never knew where the hell it wanted to go. It was real funny. The closer it got to us the slower it traveled. It went from 14 mph to 10 mph to 6 mph to 4 mph and then finally the news stations marked its speed as “drifting” it was too slow to actually measure. That made Frances take 3 days to hit and then it didn’t hit at all. We had put the house on lock down by Wednesday so for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I pretty much just slept in my room and walked around bored. There was nothing to do because the whole city was closed down. All there was to do was eat and sleep. So I would wake up and eat and then go back to sleep. Then wake up again and eat, even though I wasn’t hungry, then go back to sleep again. That was until Chuck would call me and ask, “What are you up to?” I told him that I wasn’t doing anything and soon after that I was at his house with him, Kate, Jess, and Mom. It was the same thing all the way until Sunday. Eat and sleep at home until I got to Kate and Chuck’s. Then it was loaf around with them and shoot the shit waiting for this damned hurricane to finally pass over us. Then to make things better the hospital went into bravo* phase. So I ended up working Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Friday as well as go to school and find time to turn in my HW. Needless to say, I am under a lot of stress. Oh and to add insult to injury, I unplugged my computer and left it at Chuck’s house so he could help me fix it and install my new 200 GB hard drive into it.
So that’s pretty much it, except now we have Hurricane Ivan on the way. And we thought we couldn’t predict Frances’ path, Ivan is really a mystery. All this week it’s been, “Ivan is coming for Florida!!! RUN AND SAVE YOURSELVES!” Then at the next advisory they say, “Phew! Never mind the previous warning. That was us being paranoid. I van is just going to harass the islands but not us.” But then you go to bed peacefully and wake up to, “OH MY GOD WE WERE WRONG BEFORE!!! Board up your houses then put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye because it’s a category 5 and it’s going to kill us all! OH THE HUMANITY!” all I have to say is, “Fucking hurricanes.”
* The hospital has a hurricane policy called Alpha-Bravo. The employees are split into two teams, Alpha team, and Bravo team. Alpha team works during the storm. They come in just after the warning is called and continue to work until the all clear is called. Alpha team is split up into day and night shifts. One shift works, and the other sleeps in rooms. I am part of Bravo night shift. I come in after the all clear is called to give the Alpha people a break.
So a week after the Charley scare we are threatened with yet another hurricane, Frances. Again the hurricane was headed right for us, and Miami freaked out and prepared. The state has not had gasoline in over 2 weeks, the stores haven’t had decent food since before Charley, and I think that Floridians are at wit’s end. I remember with Charley it was, “South Florida, prepare for a direct hit!” then at the last minute Charley turned around and hit central Florida instead. I feel bad for Punta Gorda; they were caught by surprise and suffered a lot of damage. Now Frances comes by and the whole time it took to get here we never knew where the hell it wanted to go. It was real funny. The closer it got to us the slower it traveled. It went from 14 mph to 10 mph to 6 mph to 4 mph and then finally the news stations marked its speed as “drifting” it was too slow to actually measure. That made Frances take 3 days to hit and then it didn’t hit at all. We had put the house on lock down by Wednesday so for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I pretty much just slept in my room and walked around bored. There was nothing to do because the whole city was closed down. All there was to do was eat and sleep. So I would wake up and eat and then go back to sleep. Then wake up again and eat, even though I wasn’t hungry, then go back to sleep again. That was until Chuck would call me and ask, “What are you up to?” I told him that I wasn’t doing anything and soon after that I was at his house with him, Kate, Jess, and Mom. It was the same thing all the way until Sunday. Eat and sleep at home until I got to Kate and Chuck’s. Then it was loaf around with them and shoot the shit waiting for this damned hurricane to finally pass over us. Then to make things better the hospital went into bravo* phase. So I ended up working Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Friday as well as go to school and find time to turn in my HW. Needless to say, I am under a lot of stress. Oh and to add insult to injury, I unplugged my computer and left it at Chuck’s house so he could help me fix it and install my new 200 GB hard drive into it.
So that’s pretty much it, except now we have Hurricane Ivan on the way. And we thought we couldn’t predict Frances’ path, Ivan is really a mystery. All this week it’s been, “Ivan is coming for Florida!!! RUN AND SAVE YOURSELVES!” Then at the next advisory they say, “Phew! Never mind the previous warning. That was us being paranoid. I van is just going to harass the islands but not us.” But then you go to bed peacefully and wake up to, “OH MY GOD WE WERE WRONG BEFORE!!! Board up your houses then put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye because it’s a category 5 and it’s going to kill us all! OH THE HUMANITY!” all I have to say is, “Fucking hurricanes.”
* The hospital has a hurricane policy called Alpha-Bravo. The employees are split into two teams, Alpha team, and Bravo team. Alpha team works during the storm. They come in just after the warning is called and continue to work until the all clear is called. Alpha team is split up into day and night shifts. One shift works, and the other sleeps in rooms. I am part of Bravo night shift. I come in after the all clear is called to give the Alpha people a break.