My Addled Brain

Once again, the bullet somehow dodged the city of Tampa, as Jeanne managed to make the constantly-predicted northwestern turn. Once again, I got lucky, and merely ended up with a small leak in the roof and brief power flickers. And once again, MCG has no power. And with the predictions by the power companies that it may take 2-3 times as long to get the power back up everywhere, they may be in for a rather sour week. Or two.

One thing that has become abundantly clear to me: God/Mother Nature/Yahweh/Allah/the religious or natural force of your choice - hates Polk county. They’ve taken the brunt of every storm to pass through the middle of the state this year - that’s three, for those of you keeping score at home. I really have no other explanation for it. Before Jeanne, they were looking at $800 million in damages. I would not be surprised to learn that number has doubled by the time all the assessments are done.

And we still have two months of hurricanes left. Lisa’s looming out in the Atlantic, her future still up in the air.

Real quick, because I may not get another chance to do this for a while - Jeanne is about 50 miles east of me now. The eye should pass a bit north of us, but not by much, and MCG is right along the projected path, along with Jefe and others I know. The wind is already screeching, and I’m rather certain that we haven’t seen the worst of it yet.

Stay safe everyone. Teh 1!!1 and I are gonna find us a nice corner to hide in here shortly.

Wow, I must have forgotten what a relaxing and enjoyable experience buying a car can be. Well, either that, or I was on PCP last time. Still, after flirting with buying what I wanted and subsequently being reminded that living in an apartment sucks, I instead opted for a used Honda. It’s in good shape, it drives nice, and best of all, before too long it will become someone else’s car, and I can go back to Plan A.

I stopped by CompUSA earlier today - I was considering buying a new video card. I was eyeballing a nice mid range card, about 250 bucks. After hemming and hawing for a bit, I left, thinking I would pick it up after I was finished with work.

Just over an hour later, my car was totaled in an automobile accident.

Yes, I’m fine. A bit sore, a bit shaken up, but otherwise fine. No, I will not be calling an ambulance chaser - and don’t bother to hand out my number to one either, that’s not my style. The bottom line is, my precious Saturn, which saw me through so very much, and so very many miles, has most likely (unless my claims adjustor is totally insane) driven it’s last mile - so it’s good I didn’t drop the decent amount of cash I was planning on earlier. I have a loaner temporarily until I find a new one…so, thoughts? Keep in mind that I am building a home here, so keep your advice to something that doesn’t resemble my previous post.

Do you have a small penis and too much money? Love the trend toward larger personal vehicles, but you find that the Hummer just not big enough for you? Well, have we got a ride for you: the Navistar CXT. Perfect for that Sunday drive or mowing down police barricades, this bad boy gets 6 MPG in the city, so I’m sure the local gas station owner will love you, and forgive you for buying that Saturn Ion last year. According to Mark Oberle, a spokesman for Navistar and master of the obvious:

“We can see it a as a vehicle for business people who want to make distinct impression. For personal use, it’s for people who want to make a statement.”

And that statement?

I hear it comes with a two month supply of Enzyte.

Alive and well here. Cable’s been out for over 24 hours, so we’ve had to get our news from *gasp* the radio, which mostly consists of channel 8 news, which consist mostly of them bragging how their new weather computer, VIPIR, not only predicted every second of the storm, but is now computing the track of future storms, computing the victor of the presidential election, and making a delicious lobster bisque.

MCG hasn’t quite fared so well - his power was out at last check. So, it’s just him, Emily’s Mom, The Princess, The Madre, The Red Baron, and three dogs, two of which have run out of their Prozac. So, they’re doing well - or they’re dead. But definitely one of the two.

Otherwise, it’s flooded around town, downtown’s under about a foot of water, and it’s finally just stopped raining and…erm…winding? Whatever it is, it’s calmed down. Jefe seems all right, and the Padre’s doing ok in South Tampa, so all is kinda right with the world.

Well…shit.

I was all set to take Friday off to enjoy a lovely extended Labor Day weekend, and now this. I guess since Mother Nature’s curveball, Hurricane Charley, was slightly off, wiffing past the Tampa Bay Area, she’s decided to go with the screaming fastball down the gullet for the strikeout. And the worst thing about THIS storm, aside from the fact that it’s much larger and, potentially, more powerful, is that due to the unpredictable nature of it’s track, I think the only way to escape its wrath is to evacuate a minimum safe distance of, say, Kentucky. Chances are decent we’ll end up back at MCG’s again, but that all depends on what Fran decides to do. Oh, wait, I forgot, hurricane damage and loss of life is directly caused by weathermen and the National Hurricane Center - they can control the weather, you know.

Anyway, try and stay safe should you find yourself in it’s path. I may attempt to blog my way through this one - natural disaster blogging is this year’s Survivor.