8/26/05---The Return of...."the cone of death"

So I'm watching a little television on Tuesday night (Rock Star:INXS) when they temporarily interrupted programming (luckily it was when that broad with the ugly hair--Jordis--was singing) to announce that we could expect tropical storm Katrina to hit us sometime on Friday.  Say what?  Who the hell knew we even had a tropical storm off of the coast?  When did this thing show up?  All valid questions.
So then I went into work, and after a busy morning, the dreaded rumor mongering went into full effect.  Were we going to be off on Friday?  Would they let us go home early on Thursday?  Was this really going to be something more than a really bad storm?  You never know what to believe at the courthouse, because....and this is the gospel truth...we've had two bomb scares in the last month, where they evacuated the FIRST floor of the 10 story building---and DID NOT TELL ANYONE ELSE ABOUT IT.  Really.  So part of the reason that the rumor mongering goes on is because they usually keep us in the dark about other things.
Supposedly there was a "meeting" of some big muckity mucks late in the afternoon that would give us some direction. 
So I get home, and Kim is telling me that she definitely has to go to work the next day (Healthsouth...building that goodwill with the employees).  So we go out for dinner and then Borders.....(Kim's comment:  "If we're going to be sitting home for a couple of days, by God I'm going to have something to read")....and then based on an irrationally intelligent decision by my wife--decided to do the grocery shopping two days early (rather than go shopping in the middle of a hurricane).  But when I get home, I have the message on the answering machine that there is NO work tomorrow.  So I called another confidential source (no names....but you know who you are)....who informs me that there isn't going to be work on Friday either (there is noting quite as enjoyable as getting the info EARLY).  So we spend yesterday, doing....ya know....basically nothing.  We're listening to the talking heads tell us how at the very worst this is a bad tropical storm and BARELY a hurricane.  Then about 7pm-ish, our lights begin to dim and flicker a bit, and we decide that this would probably be a real good time to take our new generator out of the box.  (cough)
So we do that...get it all set up...an no lie....it was just about that time that the storm, for reasons that no one can ever explain, did something that hurricanes almost NEVER do.
It went south.
Let me repeat that this NEVER happens.  The damn thing was proceeding right for the county line at Broward & Palm Beach counties (the one that I live about 3 miles away from)....and then suddenly veered south, where it wreaked havoc on the southern part of Broward and went through Miami-Dade County (who had been told that the storm was not even going to effect them) like wind through a goose.
So, other than one gastro-intestinal incident involving one of the dogs in my son's bedroom (EEEEEEEEEWWWWW).....to quote the great Barry Manilow:

"I made it through the rain....."

Hey, how often do you get to quote Barry???

Later,
Jeff