And now, as promised, The Labor Day Weekend From HELL!!!!!

So, let's begin at the beginning.

Saturday didn't really count as far as the Hurricane Frances was concerned as the storm hadn't reached us yet. People were still getting prepared and you could see storefronts boarded up with plywood with "WE ARE OPEN" spray painted on the front. Otherwise, Mrs. Mosley and I treated it as a normal day off.

Come Sunday, people were in the final stages of digging in. In the morning, I went to the nearest grocery store and found it closed. The second was open, but the intercom announcement stated that they would be closing at 10 am sharp. People inside were getting last minute items and were dismayed to find out they couldn't get to the open freezer cases that had been closed off with sheets of plastic. I managed to get some waffles for breakfast and returned home, where we both stayed for the rest of the very rainy day.

It was only that night, when we attempted to do three electrical things at once, when the great God Murphy struck us down with his Rule of Law. Namely we (a) put a load of laundry in, (b) put a batch of brownies in the oven and (c) put "A Beautiful Mind" in the DVD player. The power went off and on a total of five times in the span of 30 minutes before it went out for good just after 9 pm. Still, we still hadn't flooded, we had plenty of candles, and we found that an open bedroom window provided a slight cool breeze to compensate for our lost AC. Oh, and the brownies survived as well.

Monday was nothing but rain and wind. Mrs. Mosley and I passed the time playing Yatzee, snacking on saltines & cheddar, and taking deep naps. By 3pm, we were both in need of a shower (well, OK, me more than her), so we decided to venture to her mother's place on the other side of town, which still had electricity. Of all the downed trees we saw along the way, the biggest was just a block from our house and completely blocked off the main road into the neighborhood. All that was visible was a ten foot wall of leaves, as if a crazed gardener had quickly planted a hedge maze there. In a sign that some people refused to let the storm change their lives, pinheaded pricks with cellphones mindlessly glided through intersections where the lights were not working. Despite road hazards such as these, we reached her mother's house safely. Once there, we availed ourselves to her laundry room and feasted on Chicken a la King for dinner. We also brought with us two pounds of thawing chicken breasts from our nonfunctioning fridge in order to cook them before they went bad. All this went rather well and we headed back to our house at about 7:15...

...and found that our electric was still out. It was an even starker contrast to be in a home bustling with people and functioning appliances and then, just 30 minutes later, to be in a place that is dark and dead. Later on, we found out from the radio that tornados were sprouting up in our area. No sooner had we started looking for an interior bathroom, hallway or room without windows that we realized our house didn't have any of those (future Florida home buyers take note). Our house survived the length of the tornado watch and we eventually got to sleep.

Which brings us to this morning. The electric was still out, but we both had to go back to work. Mrs. Mosley got out quickly to take advantage of her building's cafeteria. The joys of hot food quickly subsided for her as she tangled with the insurance people over the phone about a roof leak that developed during the storm. I, on the other hand, arrived at work to find that several parts of the building had experienced leaks from the rain...including my cubicle.

In the end, Jacksonville only got hit by the outer edges of the storm. However, instead of just passing us and getting it over with, the hurricane curved up around us so that we had a very prolonged period of wind and rain. It was miserable for a lot of people, but it could have been much worse. So blessed be the city workers, the weather forecasters and the police officers for helping us all get through this nightmare of the weekend.

Oh, and brownies helped too.

It's raining and I'm wet

The worst of Frances is over, but there is a LOT of cleanup here in JAX. As of 9:30 this morning when I left my house, we were still without power. A more detailed post on the Labor Day Weekend from Hell to follow soon.

Skippy of the Day: The Cincinnati Post

This entry did not start with a quote but a current news item. I knew there would be a certain kind of response to this news, and it didn't take me long to find one in the Google News Search:

"France may have thought it purchased some sort of immunity from terrorism by opposing the invasion of Iraq, and it might have done so if terrorists were other than incorrigible opportunists." - The Cincinnati Post (Editorial) 9/2/04

First off, let me put my two cents in to the whole head scarf ban in French schools: I disagree with it. The ban, which also covers other religious accessories such as large crosses and Jewish skull caps, is absolute nonsense and France should be ashamed for it. Imagine that: I'm a disagreeing with the policy of a country when I had previously agreed with them on an entirely different policy. Liberals, as well as those people with even basic intelligence, are able to do that. All others should be careful, otherwise they might bruise something.

Now, having said that, what kind of moron do they have writing editorials at the Cincinnati Post. France, and all the other countries that opposed the war, did not do so in order to seek immunity from terrorists. The editor's glib comment that terrorists are "incorrigible opportunists" is absolutely right, and it's for this reason that his assertion on France is absurd. France, Russia, Germany and many other countries opposed the war because they saw that it would create more terrorists than it would eliminate. More to the point, their goodwill with us was for the capture and punishment of those responsible for 9/11, and the Iraq invasion had nothing to do with that worthy cause.

Further on down this editorial is a mention of Spain, which is a country that Conservatives love to point to and yell "appeasement" until the cows come home. What they conveniently forget is that, even before the train bombings and the election, the country was wavering towards an Iraq pullout. The people of Spain saw how badly the occupation was going and realized that the American president was an extremely misguided person. The fact that some of their citizens were being held hostage at the time was an unfortunate coincidence. Just because the terrorists demand something of a country that the country was going to do anyway is no reason not to still do it. Only an immature and petulant leader would think that. After all, Dubya announced earlier this year a plan to pull all US troops out of Saudi Arabia, which happens to be one of Osama Bin Laden's chief demands of the US. Now who's doing the appeasing?

The editorial ends with a quote by Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who can share the Skippy credentials for today, which states, "The French are deluding themselves if they think they can remain outside of this". No one can remain outside this. Terrorism is a problem of the whole world, and we need to all get on board. But just as a slick politician who will insert a controversial last minute rider to a bill that is sure to get passed, Dubya proposed the Iraq war and dared others to oppose him on threat of being alienated. Fortunately, most countries called him on it, and they are the ones that can stand tall for what they believed in and refusing to be bullied by a larger power. It's called "Integrity", and that's something the terrorists cannot touch.

Going to extreme lengths

Last night included trips to various stores to get last minutes supplies for Frances. I stopped by Publix (which is the nicest of the grocery chains down here in the South) to pick up some odds and ends. As I stood in line behind a woman with 243 items, my eye wandered to the sides where they put the impulse items and spotted something called Dog-E-Licious Ice Pudding. Basically, this is ice cream for dogs, but with no harmful dairy ingredients.

My question is this: Why is this in the impulse buy section?

I had never heard of it before, and perhaps that is why it's there: To let more people know about the product. And maybe I would have gone with that explanation if I hadn't just passed by the canned goods aisle and seen the shelves nearly decimated. And so my devious little mind concocted a store manager who saw his canned goods swiftly depleting and decided that the lesser known products might be purchased by some of the more last minute, desperate shoppers.

It's not like it's real dog food with beef gravy and all of that. Hell, it might even taste good to humans. Still, the very connotation is enough to gross me out and I'd imagine this would apply to most people. But, you know, desperate times and desperate measures and all that. Fortunately, I'm happy to report that we are now fully stocked with food and water.

And the kitty food will be strictly regulated to the kitties.

Joel Coen's wife is a Category Four and heading straight for us!

Oh, wait. Wrong Frances.

Didn't we just do this two and a half weeks ago? Well, it's happening again. This time, however, the hurricane in question does not have to go through 200 miles of land mass before it gets to us in Jax. If it does hit us, then it will be at full strength. As we did before, we're currently gathering supplies and making contingency plans for evacuation. But the real panic will not be until Friday and Saturday. In the meantime, we'll still be going to work and I'll be updating my blog as if everything was normal and we weren't out of our gourds with worry.

Have a nice day!

Yaphet Kotto Quote of the Month: September 2004

Yaphet Kotto holds the distinction of being one of the very first humans to die at the hands of that great H.R. Giger creation made famous in "Alien". In this scene, he discusses with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) their options now that the creature is loose on the ship:

Ripley: When we throw the switches, how long before the ship blows?
Parker: Ten minutes.
Ripley: No bulls**t?
Parker: We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space.