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AH, SUNNY FLORIDA!

Well, we're getting pretty good at these damned things. The sun is out and boiling down on Orlando in its usual fashion and you'd never know that yesterday we were looking at the sky as if it were a malevolent beast bent on destroying us all.

No damage here. Not much tree mess. I guess all of the crap that was vulerable has already been stripped from the canopy. The usual aluminum, twisted and piled up by the roadside, makes the Land of Mickey look like the sad ending to Another Roadside Attraction. Of course, the beach has taken another beating, and I undertand that the lakefront up in Sanford is a mess. But that's not too surprising.

We did get some damange at the JAC, but not exactly from the storm. Actually, it's one of those stories that could only happen in the confines of a luckless bureaucracy. We've been whining for a big backup generator for our building and the state bean counters finally relented and gave us one. Naturally, since this was a govrnment job, they waited to ship the thing until the day of the storm. Did that stop them? You kidding? Well, the county shows up with a crew of electricians in the middle of the first bands of Jeanne to hook it up. Well, some drunk careening up Central Blvd. chose that time to plow into the pole out front and ALL of the lights went down... emergency lighting, computers, backup this and that... everything. So we had to do a bugout with 85 juvenile miscreants. A transfer in the middle of the storm to the county jail. There are several of these little rascals that really don't need to see the light of day. Great fun.

So now things are back to normal. The JAC is secured again. Our crack crew of midnight screeners have had time to catch up on the backlog of budding looters and other boneheads who thought the cops wouldn't notice them rummaging through flattened trailers. Duh.

Heck, I never even lost power here at my little hideyhole here in town.

Which brings me to the new boat. Did I tell you that I got a new boat? Well, since the old boat has a hole the size of a Buick in the bottom, I had been shopping for a new home. Otherwise I'd be sleeping in my car. ICK. Anyhow, I fell onto a Irwin 27 up in Connecticut. Much smaller than the old Alden 46 that I've lived on for years but new and pretty and rigged for single handed sailing... in other words, just the ticket for a guy whos daughter is now an elderly woman of 23 and not able to go sailing off around the world with her old man any more. Sigh. But I'd been thinking about downsizing my marine life for some time and Mom Nature just took things out of my hands. Of course the thing is way up near Boston. I was gonna have it hauled down but the marina that I want to leave it in up in Sanford has had 2 hurricanes worth of flogging and put me on a waiting list. They say it will be at least a month, but if I want to I can just tie it off on the seawall. I'm not excited about that.

Anyhow, since I haven't had a day off for months and months Jeff, my boss, said... Baird, why dontcha just go get the damned thing. That would get you out of my hair for a while. Hmmm. That really sounds like the ticket. Of course, I wouldn't be very happy if another hurricane reared its ugly head and got in the same line as the last four. Still. Doesn't 3 weeks of strolling down the ICW have a nice ring to it?

At any rate, the sun is back out. Bye Jeanne.

Bob