Perfectly good holiday weekend ruined :(

Kristin arrived Thursday afternoon, shortly before I found out that school was cancelled on Friday in preparation for Hurricane Frances. Pretty silly, I thought, since it wasn't supposed to get here until Sunday but I think they used some of our schools for shelters for people evacuating from the east coast. Who am I to argue about a beautiful sunny Friday off anyway?

Things pretty much shut down on Saturday as Frances moved towards the east coast of Florida. It was recommended that people in low-lying areas in St. Pete evacuate, so I decided that we (Kristin, me, and Scooter) should go up to Pinellas Park to stay with Kat and Kelly. I did not want my car floating away in a flood down at my apartment. Mike was stranded at work from Saturday at noon until Sunday at midnight.

Things went ok at first despite the cramped quarters. 3 out of the 5 of us had laptops that kept us occupied and we watched some DVDs (they don't have cable). We were hit with some hard rain bands Saturday night but nothing major. When we got up Sunday mornings things were worse, and we had a hard time finding an open restaurant. Traffic lights were swinging pretty hard, and it was very rainy and windy.

Once we got back the power was out. After awhile we decided to go back to my apartment. Bad decision probably, considering the eye was right over us at that point, but I had reached my breaking point.

Things were not bad driving home ~ nothing Sunday was as bad as I expected. At my house the power was on and immediately Kristin's mood perked up. She said that we should have just stayed at my place. Sorry, but when the EOC recommends evacuation, I go. I'm not messing around with a serious storm.

They others all came over shortly and stayed with us since we have air and TV and hot food.

The worst of the storm came Sunday night/Monday morning after Mike was home. There is a lot of flooding and debris everywhere, and a palm tree is snapped in half in our back yard. Apparently the bay is all the way up to the bridge ~ that'll be interesting when I drive Kristin to the airport.

Everyone is staying here again tonight because their power is still off. I'm glad to have the company since Mike is working another long night.

Piss on Frances for ruining my weekend.