Get yer Zodiac out if you need to go for cigarettes. This is water a foot deep on the west road. To the left is the casino parking lot, wisely built up two feet over the rest of the territory. A few idiot drivers try to run this stretch and get about half-way. I cheated a little in that this photo isn’t taken until tomorrow morning. Note the garbage along the swale. Very typical of Florida, where despite the fact these cities were built after others who knew which mistakes not to make, there are still very few back alleys.
While I don’t wish a hurricane upon us, I’m glad Wallace got to see a good Florida rainstorm tonight. It dumped close to seven inches of rain in a steady cloud-to-ground dump, flooding out everything except us. We are the highest property around here and one of the few on a concrete foundation. But we are also an island until morning. Sorry, no photos, it is jet black outside. The sound on the roof drowns out normal conversation.I’ve been messing with my new cell phone, freshly arrived from Wilmie. It has to be reprogrammed and it seems I no longer know anybody who can do that. It is a Samsung so I’m hoping it will outlast the junk Nokia scalped me for. It’s Theresa’s old phone and in pretty nice condition. She called again this morning. She’s made up her mind to return here, and yes, she can rent my room. I’ll tell Wallace the good news, it is sincerely tough to find a trustworthy tenant.
Millie got unzipped today, the tumor was not the bad kind, I think the term is malignant. Did I tell you she was stapled together? It is probably a very practical way to for vets to close up animals and there is little concern for scarring. Now that I think about it, I appreciate the technology.
I biked past a few shopping centers and some of the parking lots are full. As they say in Florida, only 8 shoplifting days till Kwanza. Hey, I didn’t create that one. Christmas is not my favorite anything, an excuse to go visiting. I’m with that comedian who scoffs gift certificates, as he puts it, “Just shoot me the fifty bucks, damn it.”
It is now 9:00 PM exactly and the rainstorm has lasted over two hours. That’s record since I arrive ten years ago less a week. The roadways are shut down and there is a river flowing past our front yard nearly half a foot deep. The casino parking lot is a small lake with waves. Except for Thai monsoons, this is the longest storm I’ve experienced. I suspect it is some kind of Atlantic Ocean squall that has stalled right over South Broward, I think right over Wallace’s car.
Checking the weather channel at 9:30 PM, they have issued flood warning throughout the county and most side roads are sealed off. That asphalt lip at the entrance to our street is a mini-waterfall. Traffic out of the casino, including high-axle trucks, are turning back along the west road, continually setting off our burglar light. Yet, our patio is only wet and nothing in our yard is in any danger. My car is sitting in a pond deep to the bottom edge of my wheel covers. Dang, I’m missing some great photos. It’s a good thing I didn’t stop at the library after work.
By 11:30 PM I went to sleep with the rain still plunging down. There is a low spot in the west road three blocks south of here that floods even in mild rain. This was no sun shower.
Today is also the official twenty-year change for the “Internet Birthday”. Every twenty years, that many years are added to the official fake birth date I invented back in 1994 to protect anonymity. This is the fake birth date used to fill out nosy but unofficial on-line forms. I’ll tell anybody my age, but my birth date is none of their business. You can find the full fake profile information elsewhere, but everybody also lives in Washington, ZIP 98054, everybody is male, and was now born December 17, 1985.
