Hurricane Wilma

Well y'all - I put together my little photo journal of the hurricane. It was verrrry interesting and thank goodness my building just got power back! I took the longest hot shower! There is still a lot of debris around, trees in the road, signs lying around on the ground etc., but it's cleaning up pretty quickly. People are going out to dinner at the restuarants that are open, walking around - at least the weather is incredible right now. Cool and sunny, slight breeze, bright blue skies. My window has been open for the last few days and it's a refreshing change from the A/C. But I have to say, I'm in great spirits having my darling electricity back in my life.

The pictures are mostly from a walk I took with a friend not long after the hurricane passed by - in fact there's a good picture from the beach of the edge of it leaving. Either way - I hope you get a sense of it from the pictures. It was quite an experience. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for things to really get back to normal. Businesses with power are at least doing extremely well. I had lunch in a mexican restaurant yesterday with no power but gas stoves, so they were selling a choice of 6 entrees for $10 flat. A lot of places are like that, but many have full power and are swamped anyway by people who don't have anything but granola bars and apples for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Alright - I'm off to work! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

My first peek out the window when I woke up in the morning to crazy winds - 8am - the trees were whipping around and the wind was whistling through the screen. The power just went out.

My first view when I left my room in the morning, this about at the height of the winds - so many trees were already down. There's a newspaper stand-thing in the street, too.

An empty lot across the street during the storm - can you see the light pole in the foreground snapped in half?

My first sense of hurricane damage was the awning out back of the hotel torn to shreds - this was still during the storm.

After the hurricane was definitely on its way out and a strong breeze still blew through - tons of people emerged to survey the damage. I met my friend Clyde on Lincoln Rd to walk around and take a look myself. Right on Washington Ave. there's a store with the windows blown out - this was a touristy surf-type store, those are toppled mannequins inside.

On Lincoln Rd. - just more debris and bare trees.

Looking towards Lincoln Rd. - the awnings suffered here.

Trees all in the streets...

More trees down!

Quite a few metal signs were snapped in two like this one - the metal's all twisted...

This was one of the crazier sights where a huge tree fell on a stop light wire and pulled the cement pole down with it.

This is a close-up picture of the roots of the tree - big tree!

We went to the beach too for a walk. The sand was all hard and kind of strange where you see it now but by the tide it was soooo soft, softer than it was before at least. And that's the hurricane leaving there in the background, can you see it? Kinda cool. Bye bye Wilma!

What was left of many a lifeguard tower.

Found this cool chair just sitting on the beach, so I struck a pose, as my true nature beckoned.

Went for a drive on a beautiful afternoon the next day - windows down, bandana on, etc. Got off at an exit up north and this is a picture, just more tattered trees down all over the place.

There was hardly a single billboard with anything left on it, which was a strange sight. Skeleton billboards, oh my!!

Another man down! Yes, that was a billboard once.

And how I spent my evenings!!

My birthday going-out gear! My new skirt -- $10 marked down from $118. Yay bargain shopping! Shoes - $20! Ahh...satisfaction, and nice clothes, too!

My visit to New York!

Don't know why this rang out "New York!" to me.

A window.

Bubba, that's one TAWL buildin'!

The streets swallow the buildings in perspective...

Empire State Building - it's in the clouds!

The first thing I took an affection to during our visit of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) - a board is holding this person against the wall, it is a photo.

Soothing green, I don'tremember who this was.

This Picasso is incredibly satisfying to me.

Aaaah...Jackson Pollock.

Thought this was interesting, especially because you couldn't really look at it without your feet being a part...

Famous!

Don't remember, but I liked it very much.

And just a nice view out the window from inside MoMA.

The Iridium Club - where Les Paul plays every Monday night.

Hangin' at the club - L to R; Dave, Me, Chris.

Chris and I, and Chris is certainly the coolest one there (a staged picture, we didn't know he kept those crazy sunglasses from the summer) - but that's MY French Martini! Hey!

Chris, Jason, Rob, Mark, Joe.

L to R; Eric, Brandie, Brian.

And a blurry picture of the man himself, 90-year-old Les Paul -- a nasty old man! Made the crudest jokes and held up his knobby old middle finger, it was hilarious!

And finally, Times Square at Night.

Frogging (except they're toads) last night! After a good rain they come out. It was actually still raining, but there were enough for good playing. You just try and catch them and remember the child within yourself in the process. :) They're quite pretty in their own way and aren't slimy at all. They breathe out loudly, sort of puffing themselves up to look big, but they have gorgeous golden circles around their pupils and these huge toad feet. And at the same time you get to take a walk after you eat a big meal and the night is always warm and a little humid. There were six of us, all the New World folk that went to play ultimate frisbee. A friend took these pictures and kindly sent them to me, I'm glad I can share such good silly adventure!

Racing them!!! (Mine's winning!)