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Dark Night

It's dark in my place again. The power cut out about 12:30...1:00 am and never came back on. And it's cold here again. Brrrrr! We've had almost every kind of weather here in the last week - snow, sleet, ice, rain, wind (lots of wind), sunny and 60+warm, thunderstorms, tornado watches. Like my friend Shupe likes to call it, "Weather by Sybil." It's blustery (which is fuzzyspeak for "it's fucking cold and windy as shit!") with a touch of snow at the present moment...and there's no Rachel Dawes or Vicki Vale for this Batman to keep warm with.

Since I had to be up anyway - I have to be to work at 9, I have no working alarm clock and I must have my coffee first thing after crawling out of bed in the morning - I decided to swing down and post a new one from the local coffee joint. A mocha breve from here is a bit pricey, but they get their coffee from my favorite local roaster, Old Crown Coffee Roasters, so I forgive them for raping me to the tune of $4+ for a 20oz cup with 18oz of Half and Half, 2 oz of coffee and some chocolate syrup drizzled in it. I guess someone has to pay for all that wood they used for their ceiling; it just chafes my secret places to pay for atmosphere...

The boys did manage to make it down this past weekend, thanks entirely to my father, so we could spend a little time hanging out. They went out on Saturday and got a crazy roller coaster game called Thrillville for the PS2, and we sat around all Sunday making rides to test the gastrointestinal tract of even the stoutest of the "people" in the game. *snicker* The challenge I threw out to my kids went something like, "Ok, who can design the ride that makes the most people puke?" So we laughed our asses off for hours Sunday; to the point I actually had the hiccups at several points. We ended up completely forgetting about the competition, and joined (evil) forces to torture the residents of fictional Thrillville en masse. Good times.

I got a pretty crazy gift from Michigan on Christmas Eve...an $800 check. Yeah, that's what I said! So the state of Michigan sent me a little cheer for the season. I'm thinking a trip out west sounds good right about now. Hey, I like mountains! ;) More on that developing story later in our program.

That's about it from the Fort for now. I hope you all had a wonderful and joyous holiday with your friends and family, and here's to a wonderful New Year!

I hope I have lights...

Back

Well, my power is back on. That only took 4 1/2 days. I was just starting to consider heading to the emergency shelter when it was magically restored - maybe there's something to the whole fairy thing - it was brutally cold last night, and I had squeezed all the fun I was going to get out of my days as a Mennonite. I'm just lucky the pipes in my kitchen didn't burst. It seems that there's more ice and snow headed this way in the next couple of days, so we'll see how long the electricity, and thus my heat, stays on...I might be blogging to you all from the Memorial Stadium over Christmas.

I have learned a little over the weekend, though. I'm way too dependent on stuff that needs electricity and/or batteries to work; I need a better plan. My cell phone gorked on Saturday, and with no way to charge it back up, I had no way to let anyone know how I was doing...I'm sorry to those of you that were worried. My laptop worked, but with no way to connect to the internet, it lost it's allure. I couldn't get into my garage, either; power openers are great until there's no power, and no other door or window in to the garage...then they suck. Out loud. On a side note, the garage just happens to be where the main circuit breaker is,too. I'm not sure who's bright idea that was, but it was either my imbicile landlord, or some engineer. I don't have the answers to solve all those issues yet, but I'm starting to think there's something to solar and wind power, and a sledgehammer to the outside wall of my garage.

So that happens to be all that's new or improved here in the Fort. I know I sound bitchy, but I'm really not. A tad on the tired and frustrated side, but nothing that won't ease with some ice melt. I'm hoping to see my kiddos this weekend, but with the weather so screwy I'm a little uneasy about having them traveling down to see me. We'll have to see what happens in the next couple days to make a decision on that. I should be around, but in case I'm not I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

We're still here!

Power's out at my place...along with a lot of other places. I was actually happy to skate in to work today; we had power, heat and the ability to make coffee! I still think my boss is crazy, having us open today, but hey...coffee, and an easy day. I'm not complaining. Our roof did cave in here, so I've got a small pond, complete with Koi, in the showroom...but they're working on that as I type this.

So, *points up* here's a quick phone cam shot of one of the saplings outside the front door here. As you can see, we got about 1/2" of ice in these parts. It's done a real number on the bigger trees and power/cable/phone lines. A lot of the roads, both main and secondary, are blocked by fallen limbs and power lines.

It's all good, though. I have a new hat, so that makes up for any amount of ice, snow, slush, sleet, hail, locust, frogs or plague. I shall not be afraid to venture out this weekend, but I probably won't anyway...out of sheer dontgiveashitto.

Have I mentioned lately how tired I am of Christmas music? Fuck me running. For some reason, there's at least 3 stations here in the Fort that insist on playing Christmas music 24/7 from 1 week before Thanksgiving to a day or two after Christmas. What the fuck is that all about? Seriously folks, there is only about 2 dozen songs out there...there's lots of remakes by different artists, but they're the same damned songs, people! Wanna know how I know that? I've been forced to listen to this shit for hours on end, and have involuntarily learned the station's rotation schedule. Don't believe me? "The Little Drummer Boy" is played every hour at the 45 minute-past-the-hour mark, Gloria Estefan's jazzed up version of "Let It Snow" (which sucks big, hairy...I mean really! A horn section? Come onnnn!) is played every 2 hours on the half hour - need I go on? I'm at the homicidal level right about now.

My fun-o-meter is pegged out, so I think I'll head to the mall after work.

Film at 11.

Ice, ice and ice

I don't like ice.

Not even in my drinks. Well...ok, iced tea is different. But that's it.

The National Weather Service has us under an ice storm warning; do I have to tell you how much I don't like the sound of that? Up to a half inch of ice and 6 inches of snow is possible between 10pm tonight and noon tomorrow. That comes out to a potential for 14 hours of fun and crash-'em-up derby here in the Fort. Fuck.

Of course everyone is freaking out about it. The store today has been a madhouse, with people buying up water like they're going to be homebound for weeks. Human beings crack me up, and this only strengthens that response; it feels like the Y2K debacle all over again. Come on, everyone - let's collectively light our hair on fire and run around screaming that the end of the world is coming. If we believe it hard enough, it may just come to pass.

My crud is mostly gone. It's taken up residence in my head, so my ears and sinuses are full...but other than that, there isn't much damage my little beasties can do up there. I spent a lot of time burning up brain cells in advance of this, so I should be pretty safe. One more round of ozone/silver treatments tomorrow and I should be good to go.

Alright, I'm off to shut things down. I guess I better join the crowd and head to the grocery store for 5 weeks worth of food...just in case. *rolls eyes* Ahhh, Fort Wayne...we hardly knew ye!

I let you all know if we make it out of this one alive. Wish us luck!