...down here.

Home Dept is packed, gas stations are running dry, and food stores are 30 deep in each line.

Here comes Ernestoooooooooo!

I'm not even gonna board up.

Yeh, you might as well wait until they get to the J's.

Isn't this weakening to tropical depression status? I thought it was not supposed to be very powerful. Or maybe I'm just confused after watching a marathon of Jim Varney films over the weekend on Telemundo.

people are straight BUGGIN' down here. seriously, like "Holy fuck, this is the big one!"

wasted energy and wasted time.

i will go pick an extra bottle of vodka up though

now you're talkin'

My parents are in Ft. Myers right now and my parents are just not interested in the hurricane. My mom's exact words, "Hurricane, shmurricane. We'll be fine." Of course, she's also drunk at 6:00 on a Monday, but whatever. I told her if it starts looking like New Orleans, get the hell out of there. She laughed.

I always wondered: why don't people just save the plywood from last year?

your mom is safe red, no worries. the worst that can happen is a cat. 1, and shit, i'll go outside and walk around in that shit

thanks, d. yeah, my parents are pretty fearless when it comes to hurricanes (that's why i worry about them). we stayed on vacation in clearwater during helena in '85, i think. they let me play in the rain until a gust of wind carried me a few feet away from them.

hey - how was your race??

For real, was anything ever more epitaph-worthy than this? Good lukc, D.

thanks for asking. sore subject, though.

I made it through the swim in a record breaking (i never tire of sarcasm) hour and forty minutes. It was probably the most difficult thing I've ever physically done in my life. Then, after about 15 miles of biking, I threw up, got really dizzy, felt faint, etc. Made it to the turnaround at approx. mile 18 and sort of fell off my bike. Was rushed to the medical tent in a cool ambulance and they said that I had decreased lung capacity and was dehydrated/had heat stroke. Makes sense since I did inhale/swallow quite a bit of water in the swim and I didn't drink a lot of electrolytes as I should've. Went to the emergency room, where they gave me four i.v. bags of saline to help with the dehydration. Then, just when I thought the doctor was letting me go, he told me that I had to stay overnight because some muscle enzyme (basically, the muscle was breaking down) was elevated. Whatever this enzyme is, if it's not flushed out of the system, it can mess with your kidneys. So, I stayed in the hospital overnight. But, I cried enough at the medical tent, located conveniently next to the finish line (I cried every time someone finished), that one of the EMTs snagged a "finisher" medal for me.

So, I'm pissed that I didn't finish, feel like a real asshole for not properly hydrating, and as I unpacked my tri bag, felt like maybe this triathlon stuff just isn't for me. Maybe I'll take up tennis. Or curling. I've always wanted to try curling.

now back to hurricanes.

I'm sorry to hear your string of bad luck at the race, but remember, you are one of the very few who were brave enough to even attempt something that huge. Ever think of doing a duathon? Cycling and running, no stupid swimming. Props for attempting this last weekend!

NPR was like subtly trying to scare people today talking about how Floridians have been bitten in the ass before because they thought a storm was gonna be no big deal and then there was severe wind damage and flooding.

Thanks, Dave. And yeah, I'm pretty sure that a duathlon or two could be in my future. Screw swimming. I'm no fish.

So how did you fare last night D?

Any water damage?

none at all. in fact, it only rained a little bit. mostly strong winds, but zero damage.

we still got today off from work though

another storm is brewing i guess. we'll see where it's headed.