Rock you like a.. I hate that fucking song.

Good morning, campers! I only say that because there's no socially accepted phrase that means "waking up today was a BIG fucking mistake that I plan to fix soon."

From the bottom step on my porch to the yard across the street is an unbroken sheet of fucking waves, y'all. I haven't gone out into it yet because I didn't feel like getting blown about and rained on more, but trust me, it's there, and once the elements cut this shit out I will be out there with boots on and a camera in hand. It seems (from what I can tell on my porch that has become a pier) that of course this place is the lowest around so we got everyone else's water. Back yard isn't as bad, but it's getting there. Slowly. Slow like the east half of this stupid storm that still isn't done passing overhead yet.

Adding insult to water, the cable is also out. And I had weird dreams last night. Riley's taken to sleeping in my bed - for whose moral support, I'm not sure - and Buster is unfazed. I don't know how we're going to get those dogs to do anything outdoors, the water is almost as deep as Piglet is tall.

Things I won't be going out to get today include soy milk, cereal, hamster food, and pasta. Things I won't be doing: driving anywhere, getting Riley her daily bit of crazy running, and did I mention going anywhere?

Across my moat, I found...

I got out! I got out, I got out!

Here's what I saw while driving:

- A couple of downed trees. Most had broken at the trunk, but one was tilted over with the roots still connected, and two big sheets of concrete sidewalk were lifted by the root ball.
- A broken power line. I know not for what, but the curled and splintered end was lying in a puddle at someone's driveway.
- Palm fronds everywhere. It happens on a good day, it happens a lot on a bad day.
- Broken streetlights. Two intersections were down; one had about five cops manning it, and on the other people were left to their own devices. It goes without saying that all the fuckwads here were just cruising through all "don't worry, dude, they'll move."
- Lots of standing water. Again, people here are dumb: if it's a little neighborhood street, go ahead and play in the water. But not a big fucking road with lots of cars coming by at 40 miles an hour.
- Very bad driving.

The grocery store was surreal. Most of the lights were off, as was the air conditioning and the coolers. No soymilk for me - SOB - although Nikolai Shadwell now has munchies and we've got cereal and tortilla chips. People were just wandering around, peering closely at things in the darkness. My debit card went through on the first try, thankfully. I tried convenience stores, to see if they had normal milk (my mother wanted some) but things in those places were much the same. Not many were taking credit or debit, either. And I had no cash, go figure.

My back yard and front yard are both drying up, somewhat. I can't understand where the water is going to GO - the air is so saturated it made my skin damp. I rolled my jeans up nearly to my knees and pulled on the engineer boots, not knowing what to expect. Driving is okay, if a bit tricky with the flooded bits and the lack of streetlights. Think I'll stay in another day or so. I got rid of my cabin fever - for now, anyway.

Haven't gotten the (non-perishable) groceries from the car yet. All sixty of my insane Puerto Rican neighbors are standing around in a clump in front of their house for reasons I do not understand. I don't feel like providing a klutzy puddled spectacle for them.

Ivan in a week! Fuck living here!