It’s Sunday, although there is no real way to tell what day it really is. It seems that we’ve been dealing with hurricane Francis since Thursday. The storm actually started to hit late Friday, and it’s now 2:30 on Sunday and the rain is still coming down. We’ve been without power now for about a day and a half. I cooked up everything I could find in the freezer, a bunch of chicken and frozen shrimp, on the barbie this morning, so we’ve got plenty to eat today.

There are some spotty areas around town where there is a restaurant or two open, but the lines to get into them are endless. Maybe tomorrow it will be a bit better. The biggest pain in the ass is the fact that because I live on the beach, if I head across the bridge into “greater Fort Lauderdale,” depending on who the cop is guarding the bridge on the way back, I might not be able to get back into my neighborhood. Pretty silly all and all, considering that there is no real damage, only power outages.

This hurricane, as far as Fort Lauderdale is concerned, is nothing more than a large, albeit endless, summer South Florida thunderstorm. Usually a hurricane blows by in a few hours, but this damn thing is so big that it’s just endless.

Boredom is starting to set in. I can see now that undoubtedly the best thing to do during a hurricane would be to get drunk and screw. I have the booze, but unfortunately no one to be the victim of the second part of the equation. I have a bottle of champagne in the fridge that is getting warmer by the minute, but what good is a bottle of champagne without someone to drink it with. A bottle of scotch or a six-pack of beer is acceptable on your own, but how does one drink a bottle of champagne by oneself? Sounds like a good song idea. And if you really think about it hard, maybe the best way to drink a bottle of champagne is by yourself. Maybe that’s the way it was meant to be drunk. Naked fingers gripping the bottle and drinking it right from the spout.

What I am really dreading is the passing of the storm. Right now I’ve got the doors open and even thought the humidity is making everything wilt in the house, at least it’s cool. Soon, maybe tomorrow, the skies will clear and the sun will start beating down and without air conditioning it’s just going to be farking brutal. This I dread.