Precious sits in long pants at a table full of lit candles turning her cell phone on and off, hoping for a signal as the battery drains down, sleeping in 2 hour spurts at best, too hot, it's too hot, she says...

Rasputin forgets to bring home the ice that is all around him at work (as he works for a wholesale sea food distributer) and the food in the freezer rots and is left for me to throw out and clean up after...

I wish I could help, but they work against themselves as simply as the Pepsi's don't really quench body thirst and overdressing undermines body cooling and avoiding a cool shower and the comfort staying wet can bring in the sultry southern heat... ah, my northern friends, you miss the delights of the natural tropics...

and every person I've spoken to in the past week, before and after the hurricane, expressed a confident opinion that nothing much would happen (and why not, the politicians and officials put out much the same word and acted shocked in the first hours after the storm passed through) and even now, days after the eyes of the storm turned off all the lights, people are assuring me that the power will be back on in the morning and there's no need to worry about not having ice or flashlights or emergency supplies...

but boil the water, the news reports say...

and we still do not have an actual ice chest/cooler... I've driven my gas tank down to 1/4 tank driving Rasputin around so far and he still needs a trip to the airport in a couple of days... we hope the power will be on by the time he leaves for his vacation over in the Ukraine (and maybe that's why preparing for the storm was not on his list of things to do... guess it's nice to know he trusts me to look out for Precious)...

and I return home from work to the dark sweaty stench again only to find there are leaks coming through my window and walls, delayed leaks the initial inspectors did not see coming and so they do not have me on their list for repair and restoration... so the mildew and smells increases and I'll have to call to get them to add me to their long list for service...

and as I try to sleep, Rasputin's cell phone has this annoying habit of ringing every thirty seconds when there is a message waiting which is, I suppose, a good thing when he's working but when he just leaves the phone in the living room and it wakes me over and over, it's not my favorite electronic device, to understate the facts...

grump, grump, grump...

well, it's hot and stuffy and smelly and expensive to eat out every day and it really sucks that I let myself slide into such an apathetic state of unpreparedness and blah blah blah, so I've got the right to whine and moan...

I am going to take most of next week off and spend a little time with myself (maybe... more likely I'll look out for Precious and hopefully get my act together more in the process as I won't be waiting for Raspy to take the lead and do something with him away on vacation)... I adopt people as family cuz I've got none of my own and I might not always be pleased with their choices, but heck, what is family for if not to test and challenge and stir up the hairs on the back of the neck now and then, huh?...

if Charley has shown me anything, it's that I am still the person I know myself to be... and so I'll stop depending on others and go out to find a cooler and ice and what is needed today... and I'll share, cuz that is what I do and if I stopped, I would not be happy with myself...

it is good to be happy with oneself...

this is a slice of life as I know it tonight, in the heat, in the dark...

. o O ( NOTES ARE THE NEW HAPPY PILL ) O o .
(just let me know you were here)