Wednesday, Nov. 09, 2005
The Wilma Chronicles
Here are the entries I wrote during the hurricane:
Mon. October 24, 10:15
No electricity, but thank goodness for laptops.
Seems like the worst of the storm is over; it�s finally stopped raining, although the wind is still going at it pretty strongly.
Yesterday everything stayed pretty calm. It was a bit breezier than usual, but nothing to worry about. I watched TV up until about 1:00, which is when the winds started to pick up and the trees where getting blown back and forth. Still not much.
I fell asleep and would wake up every so often. I left my curtains open so that I could look out the window from my bed. Every time I woke up, I could see that the wind was insane, but still no rain.
Around 5:30, the power went off for about 20 minutes. That�s when the rain started. After 6:00, the power went off and stayed off and from then, up until about 10 minutes ago there was lots of wind, rain, and things flying about outside.
My condo is fine. No damages. I had a bit of leaking from one of the windows, but I was able to catch that right when the raining began and put a towel on the ledge to soak it all up. And on that same window, the screen came off, but it couldn�t go anywhere because of the bars on the outside. I�ll fix that later.
I�m not sure yet how my car is doing. I can�t see it from my condo; it�s on the other side of the building. I know that there were a couple of small trees right next to where my parking space is located. Yesterday, I pulled my car right up to the fence, which the trees are leaning against, so that if they did fall over, they�ll fall on the roof of the car and not go through the driver-side windows or windshield. I�ll have to check on that later.
That�s it for now. I�m hoping that the power comes back on relatively soon, like by the end of the day. After Katrina, there were some people in this area who had to wait almost a two weeks. I�m not looking forward to that.
Wed. Oct. 26, 8:40
Still no electricity. They say on the radio that �95% of the area should have power by November 8th." Two, plus, weeks. That�s interesting considering that I can look out of my window and see that the Brickell high-rises, less than a 1.5 miles from my building, all have power. That�s where many rich, famous, or both have residences. Nice to know that the reach of the wealthy continues even in times of crisis. They had power back on last night. Silly me for getting excited that because they had power and they are so close to us, that we were next in line. Ha! And of course, Miami Beach has �Significant power restoration�; must keep all that tourism money flowing.
I�m doing well despite the power situation. I have plenty of food. As things in my freezer defrost, I�ve been cooking them up. Yesterday and today I had Boca burgers, Mac and Cheese, Pizza, and pork chops. Tomorrow I�ll be cooking turkey burgers, chicken and either rice or pasta. It�s nice to have a gas stove. All I need now is ice.
My cell phone died earlier this morning. And since I wasn�t interested in purchasing a landline, all my communications got cut off. My Uncle was kind enough to drive down from Orlando (4 hours) to bring me the charger I asked my mom to buy and send me. Except he didn�t bring me a charger. He expected me to go back to Orlando with him. His house got hit pretty badly by the storm, so he gassed up and packed up his expedition and hightailed it to Mickey Mouse Town Monday night. He told my mom that he was coming back down here to check on me and she asked him to bring me ice and the charger. He brought neither. I was pissed. A four hour trip back down here for nothing, especially since I�d already told my family that I wasn�t leaving my home.
Anyway, he was able to steal a nifty device from one his video-game obsessed children to give to me. It�s an outlet, but it can be plugged into the car cig lighter. This way, anything that I have that can be charged with an ac plug can be charged�.like my phone and laptop (My uncle also told me that I could plug a lamp into it � because I really need a lamp in my car?)! So at least the trip wasn�t a complete waste of time.
I got my phone charged just enough so that I could make a couple calls tonight. I�ll have to continue charging it in the morning. And I got my laptop fully charged so that I could type this and play card games to get my mind off all the silence.
Friday, October 28, 2005, 2:50
Still without power, although I heard a rumor that we may be getting it turned back on tonight. But who knows.
Last night, I spent some quality time with my neighbors. They are an adorable couple: Gabriel, an 85-year old ex-merchant marine, and Ana, his significantly younger wife (probably in her early 60s). Gabriel suffered a stroke some time ago, so now he stays at home and sleeps often. But he loves to talk. They had me in their apartment talking from around 5:45 to nearly ten o�clock, all the while feeding me red wine, which doesn�t do much for keeping me awake.
I guess because of his stroke, Gaby has become on of those old men that repeat things anywhere from 3-9 times within the course of a conversation. The winners of the night were, �so your uncle�s in the car business, ehh? I used to auction cars for Saab, a very large car company,� coming in at 6 times, and the grand winner, �there was a detective show called �On the waterfront�, where the detective solved crimes, and you could hear the sounds of the foghorn �hoooooooonk� and the seagulls and you had to use your imagination (because it was a radio show).� That one was repeated probably 12-13 times.
Other then that, they are a very nice couple. They told me that they�ve lived in this building for the past 45 years and that Gaby actually owned the building when it was apartments, and sold the units for $16k or $17k. I purchased mine for $155 and one just sold last week for $165. How the market has grown.
Mon., October 31, 2005, 6:41
The old people will not leave me alone! They�re very nice, but they want me to hang out with them every night. Yesterday, after a long 9.5 hour day at Job#2, the time change made the time I got home after dark. I desperately needed a shower, and I was in the bathroom lighting candles. The rest of the house was very dark. All of a sudden, there was a dark figure outside my window looking in. It scared the shit out of me. It was Ana. She asked when I�d gotten home because she hadn�t seen me come home and was waiting for me. Then she demanded that I come over. It really creeped me out, especially the part where she was watching out her window and waiting.
After another 9 hour day at Job#2, I pulled up to my building, disappointed, once again, that my power was still not on. At this point, everyone I know has power. And it didn�t help that earlier in the day I looked at the FPL website, which told me that power in my zipcode/area would be returned anytime between now and November 15th. I had already accepted that I would not have power for a while.
As I lighted candles and talked on my cell phone, there was a flare up behind me. I started to freak out because I thought that my kitty had knocked over a candle and something had caught on fire. I turned to look for the fire so that I could throw something on it or stop, drop, and roll, and realized that it was coming from the ceiling. Then I really started freaking out.
I HAD MY FRICKING POWER BACK!!!!!!
Hell yeah!
I�m happy. No cable though; just back to the basics like I was for the entire month of September (which means still no V. Mars, uggh). But I�m happy that my place is fine and that I�m fine and that my power is back.
I�m going out on an excursion tonight to buy food since I have none. I wanted to go out for Halloween, but there is a midnight curfew still in effect in for Miami. I love looking at other people�s costumes. But I think I�ll just have a one-woman Halloween party.
summerroll at 8:00 a.m.