Fay Finally Fades

Thursday night and Fright was by far the worst part of the storm for us. The wind was howling overnight and the lights went out a few times. But we escaped unharmed and dry. The biggest problem was that the cable was out all day on Friday. So I had nothing better to do but clean the house.

Apparently Fay set a few records. I heard it was the first storm to strike the coast in 4 places. The forecasters admitted it was difficult to predict. With the storm moving only a few miles per hour, the directional forecasts seemed accurate within about 45 degrees.

The funny thing about having 2 days off was that I got nothing accomplished. After talking to some coworkers today, I realized I wasn't alone. We all loafed around and watched the winds blow. Then it sounded like cabin fever struck us hard yesterday. I went to the beach for some photos. Even after another baby shower today, I'm still restless.

Fay Continues to Fester

As Tropical Storm Fay moves across Northeast Florida, I took these two snapshots from the front door of the house. As you can see, things really don't look that bad. It's been wet all day and the rain will continue for at least another day. The winds have picked up slightly, although these photos don't really show it.

Two major bridges have been closed (as winds have reached 40 mph in those areas). Bonnie reported the winds were much stronger on her commute home (the beer making never stops). Power outages are scattered. The beaches are a mess and have been officially closed. News stations reported one drowning after a few people went swimming (the victim was from Indiana). There's concern about flooding in the lower lying areas of the city and at the beach. High tide is around midnight. A few areas of southern FL have seen sever flooding.

I was hoping to try out the extra wind support beam in the garage. But it looks like my flood insurance policy will be of more importance at the moment.

Home For Awhile

I returned from Sacramento this evening from a quick work trip. Everything was quick except the flights. And that'll about do it for the traveling for the next few months. The dry heat was an odd change from the sharp humidity here in Florida. It was pushing 100, but it only felt like 80 here.

Back from The Great Northwest

After nearly a week traveling around Portland, eastern Washington, and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, it's nice to be back baking in the humidity of sunny Florida. The weather was rather chilly for June. In fact, the locals are so fed up with the weather, they're referring to this month as Junuary. Of course, the day I headed back to the airport, it was started to warm up.

Portland is quite a contrast from Jacksonville. The Jacksonville city leaders might learn a thing or two about city planning if they were ever to take a visit. New construction projects are carefully integrated into the existing landscape - unlike the razed fields that mark a new housing project in much of the country.

The Coeur d'Alene resort was impressive. It's popular golf course with a famous floating (and moveable) island green was a treat! If only I played golf a little more regularly...

Soaking Up Sun

The beaches opened this weekend. Not that they were closed before, but now the lifeguards are on duty. So we spent the morning on the sand, thumbing through the Times and taking a few cheesy snapshots with the point n shoot camera. Until the humidity rolls in, it's quite comfortable at the beach, with the temperature in the mid 80's and a nice sea breeze.

Done baking, we headed home for lunch and a nap for Bonnie.

The afternoon led us to Target where we picked up Mario Kart for Wii. What a game! Nintendo is going to sell a boat load of this title. It's easy enough for anyone to pick up but has plenty of tricky courses to keep the more experienced players entertained.

And tomorrow it's back to work.

Cloud Covered Fire in the Sky

We set an alarm for 2:15am hoping to catch a glimpse of the shuttle launch. But after stumbling out of bed, all we saw was an overcast sky to the east. With just a couple more years of shuttle launches, I want to try attend one.

Sunny with highs in the 70's

We enjoyed this weekend at Shelby's, around the beach, or shopping at the Town Center (I continue to wonder what will support the high end shopping now that the luxury of cashing out home equity is no more).   The weather has been just perfect, a little cool in the evenings, but so comfortable in the sun during the day.   The searing heat is just around the corner, so we're trying to the make the best of the weather.

Bonnie heads off to St. Louis tomorrow for a class.   So I'll be holding down the fort.   I'll have plenty to keep me busy - a few books to page through, maybe a movie (Sicko should be arriving from Netflix soon), and with a wedding assignment next weekend, I'll be double checking my gear. 

The last few evenings we've been enjoying HBO's The Wire on DVD.  As Bonnie put it, "It's like Law and Order, but a little more raw."

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Funny French Lakes

It's back to the office tomorrow for me. Bonnie gets the day off. Why my line of work doesn't observe MLK day is beyond me. After the new year the holiday drought lasts until Memorial Day.

My trip out west was good but cold. Mid week, we started out at about 4 degrees. My travels took me through 3 states in a week - Washington, Idaho, and a slice of Montana. Here's a few photos. Probably the most interesting sights were the two major lakes along my route. Lake Pand Oreille, which we saw from Sandpoint, Idaho, was beautiful. What amazed me was the fact that this lake is over 1100 feet deep in some places! The great depths make this lake a unique area suitable for military submarine testing. Not much was happening on the lake now, but it looks like a hip place in the summer. Also of interest was Lake Coeur D'Alene, home to an impressive resort with golf (with a floating green), boating, and skiing.

Heading North

Northwest actually. This evening, I'm traveling to Spokane, Washington for work. What better time of the year to connect through Minneapolis than mid January? The weather doesn't look too bad today though, so hopefully the flights will be on time.

I'll also see a bit of northern Idaho - specifically Coeur D'Alene and Lewiston. The sights should be stunning as I'm looking for some good photo ops.

Mom's Visit

Tomorrow Mom heads back to a frigid Cleveland after a quick weekend visit with us. We did a bit of shopping, relaxed at the beach, and then drove down to St. Augustine for lunch. The weather was near perfect! Hopefully she got enough sun to last until spring break.

Happy Black Friday

We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with friends here in Florida. Sadly, Keith, Betsy, and my favorite little model Jack will be relocating to Seattle. Bonnie and I wish them all the best!

The food was filling and there's plenty left of Bonnie's pumpkin pies and cranberries - all the food I really need for a few days. For as much as I complain about the Florida weather, it's been quite nice the last few weeks. The windows are open, humidity has faded, and the sun is comfortably warm. I just wish this little bug that I caught would've spared me for the holiday. Being sick on a holiday weekend (a 4 day holiday weekend) sucks.

Now as I finish my breakfast, I'm pondering the idea of venturing out to the stores. There's nothing I particularly need to buy today, but seeing the holiday sights is always a treat. The only store I make a point of avoiding is Best Buy - it's just not worth it. You'd think they're giving away cash by those crazy lines. And only the sale items are a good deal, the rest of the store is usually overpriced, loud, obnoxious, and the sales associates typically know far less about whatever I'm considering buying.

I was amazed to hear the number of stores opening at 4am this morning. And there were rumors that some outlet malls were opening at midnight? Since that's technically earliest a store could open on Friday, I wonder how long it'll take before stores open Thanksgiving evening.

Fighting Illini

We're recovering from a great getaway weekend in Illinois. I can now say I've experienced the Big 10 (and a whole lot of corn fields en route). It was a great game between Illinois and Wisconsin amid the sea of orange. And the Illini pulled out the win! For an early October afternoon, it was surprisingly warm.

The ride home from Illinois was also an experience. We began our trek home on Jet Blue from Chicago. The leg room was ample (especially for Bonnie and me) and the satellite TV kept me somewhat occupied during the ordeal.

After sitting on the ramp for maybe 15 minutes we were informed of a computer glitch. We would return to the gate for a rebooting of the airplane - even airplanes get those damned blue screens of death. With the restart unsuccessful, we had to change planes. So about 2 hours behind schedule, we were finally on our way back to water logged Jacksonville. Our heads hit the pillow about 3am with $50 JetBlue credits on the way.

A Wet Week

Finally, the rain has let up. It's been raining just about non-stop since Monday. The low lying areas of Jacksonville flooded. Apparently it's rather common. I hate to think what a hurricane might do. Our neighborhood was fine - I guess there's some benefit to living in a newer development.

San Francisco Images

The vacation photos are up (if you're interested). I've been playing with the controversial new iMovie. Whatever you think of its capabilities, it makes some great little slide shows. And the ability to upload them to YouTube is wonderful. All it takes are some half decent images and one Apple application and you'll have a better YouTube video than most of the junk on the site.

The punishing Florida heat is finally starting to subside... Ahhh... Now we've just got to make another month or so through the end of hurricane season.

And if only I could decide what to do about my car purchase.