I'm really rather surprised (and a bit disturbed) that it's been over a year since I've posted anything on this site. Well, not really - I've never been all that good at the whole follow-through thing - hell, I even predicted this happening in my second entry on this thing. My closet (and a good part of my room, for that matter) is a testament to unfinished projects. However, I don't mind that much; I signed up for Blogger so I'd have somewhere to put my writings when I felt like writing and I guess I haven't really felt like writing much in the past year. No particular reason other than a general moribund feel to life. But I want to write now, so here I am. In fact, I'm going to try a new goal: at least fifteen minutes of writing a day. Not that anyone will necessarily read this but it's something I feel like doing.
So a little catching up is in order, I suppose, just in case anyone ever read any of the stuff I wrote last year. My new business never really got off the ground and I cannot blame anyone but myself for that; I'm just really not the self-promoting type. So between hurricanes I took a job with a local alarm company and have been there since. It's a miserable place that seems to find new ways to suck the life and joy out of me every few days but it does help paying the bills. If I had to say something nice about the job, I'd have to mention that the incredible mundanity of the place has encouraged me to start writing again. And that's always something.
As I mentioned before, there were hurricanes last year. When all are counted I believe five actually hit the state of Florida before the season ended, although only three of those really had any affect on my life. The first and most momentous one for me was Charley; the eye passed right over us, tearing off a good portion of our roof (some part were down to the actual wood underneath the shingles and tar-paper stuff), knocking down half the backyard fence and smacking it into our screened-in porch along with a couple of trees. When it rained the next day the ceiling was also damaged by water leaking in through our now faulty roof. Of course, I was stupid enough to stay home the entire time by myself, thinking it'd be a better idea if I were here in case something happened (my roommate works with a local Police Department so she was out doing emergency-type stuff, her daughter was over her grandparents house). Great idea, that; there's nothing quite like sitting in a completely darkened house (the power naturally went out), listening to the wind howl, the roof disintegrate and the porch take a pummelling from the fence, not to mention feeling the pressure within the house rise and fall, expecting the roof to fly off or the windows to shatter inward in a hail of glass. Obviously I made it through alive although I'm fairly certain I took a couple of years off my life. Although we did have to suffer through a few days afterwards without power, it was tempered by knowing that there were many others out there that had a much rougher time than us.
The other two hurricanes that hit my area were completely different experiences, both for different reasons. When Frances came, my family and I decided enough was enough and took off for Mobile, Alabama along with many, many others. It turned out that my panic was premature - the hurricane did no extra damage and, as a matter of fact, my house never even lost power. Of course the costs of travel and lodging on a then unemployed me had their own special kind of damage. Finally when Jeanne came, I compromised and stayed at my mother's house as they weren't going anywhere either. If I remember correctly we definitely didn't get the brunt of this storm either, although the power did finally go out shortly before everything cleared up. Once again, my own house never lost power, although I've found that dealing with these huge "fuck you's" of nature is several degrees of magnitude easier when you're with family and/or friends. And I've come to the conclusion that hurricanes are a lot like swarms of bees: they're really interesting to watch from a distance but really suck when they come too close. By the way, check out the Central Florida Hurricane Center if you want to watch a bunch of really smart people figure out what goes on THIS hurricane season (which officially began today...well, yesterday now). Oy.
Okay, it's late now. Maybe tomorrow I'll write about my trip to New York after Hurricane Charley and the epiphany that resulted.
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