Still.

No.

Power.

That is all.

I swear, if I leave anyone out I’m sorry…but shit is a bit crazy, ya know?

Thanks to hel_ana and ross_winn for the offer of shower usage (and checking on us in general). Haven’t had to take them up on it yet, but that may very well happen tomorrow.

Big time thanks and kudos also go out to treetracer. She called today and offered to drive down here from Jacksonville to help us clean up if necessary.

One other bitch, though…I also seem to have seriously pulled the muscle on my leg that I first damaged during Maxwell back in ’01. It’s swelling up a bit and I’m limping. I have an ace bandage on it and am hoping the pressure helps a bit.

Le sigh.

Today I have seen evidence, yet again, about how much my job rocks. This time, however, it isn’t because of the job itself. It’s because of my co-workers. I’ve talked many times about how much my boss rocks, but he isn’t the only one. I had to go into the office today because, as some of you know, we still don’t have any power, and from all indicators it isn’t going to be back on until Saturday. I found this out last night after getting back home from taking Netgoth to the emergency room last night. One of the candles had spilled hot, burning wax on the entertainment center and in order to prevent a fire she grabbed the metal holder and threw it on the floor. The heat from the metal instantly caused her hand to blister and burn. So yeah, when I heard the recording say that our power wouldn’t be on until Saturday I had a bit of a break down.

My house is pretty much the source of my zen. Whenever my life has turned to shit, I have taken comfort in the fact that my house I could control. My house could be neat and orderly, and no matter what else was going on in the world I could look at, say, my clean kitchen, and know that everything would be ok.

Without power, I can’t achieve that zen. I can’t clean properly. I’m not comfortable. I don’t sleep well. I’m sure many of you here in Florida can sympathize. After hearing that our power was going to be back on yesterday and then having that ripped out from under our feet. I just lost it.

This was at 2 AM this morning.

So I got up this morning, took a cold shower, and went to work. Miserable. Tired. Depressed. Worried. You name it.

Well, about an hour after I got there I got a text message from the head of Internet Security.

“Do you want to borrow my generator?”

Yeah, that’s right…Without my even asking (hell, without my even knowing that he had one), he offered to let me borrow his $500 generator. THEN, he offered to let me borrow his relatively new Ford truck to take it home if it wouldn’t fit into my car. He gave me several power cords and a six gallon can of gas as well.

No strings. No conditions. He even wrote me a huge email with instructions on how to operate it.

This is the environment I work in.

So we have a generator now. The fridge is running again, and because of the huge amount of ice that I threw in there our food survived. We have a fan. We have computers and internet access. Tonight while I am at rehearsal they will have television if they want it. While it will be hot overnight, it won’t be as hot. Maybe we can get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep in. Maybe I won’t wake up 5 times wondering if the power was back on, or worse having dreamt that it was only to wake up and find it still off.

Next year we’re going to be prepared. My finances won’t allow it now, but after Christmas I’m going to be making some major hurricane season investments. I’m getting a generator. I’m getting a small wall unit air conditioner. I’m getting plywood for my windows. I’m getting a decent portable stove (or just investing in a really expensive propane grill). In other words, I’m not letting another hurricane season fuck my life over like this one has.

And yeah, I think about the shit that people like holliemonster and the people in Polk County have gone through, and I know I’ve got it lucky, but knowing all of that doesn’t do a damned thing to make me feel any better when the frustration and anger well up.

But I’m thankful we are all ok, and I’m thankful that the food survived (that was $200 worth of food we could not afford to replace). I’m glad my house is ok, even if it is a bit messy now. I’m glad that my roof finally seems to be fixed, and I’m glad that my hot tub is almost there as well. I’m glad I have my family and my friends to help me get though this stuff. And I’m very glad that I have the privelidge of working with such amazing people.

Now if I can just find the energy to get through rehearsal tonight…

Ayup. We’re without power again, just like many of our friends. This sucks. I’m currently plugged in to the UPS with one of the laptops and the cable modem. Fortunately we still have cable. It’s the little things, ya know?

My sister is out this time, as are my son and the family over there (he said it came back on for about a minute but then the transformer blew. Must have been too many people with stuff plugged in. I’m a good doobie. We turned a lot of stuff off).

We’re sticking it out this time. I don’t want to deal with uprooting our lives and going somewhere else unless it becomes clear that it’s going to be weeks before life returns to normal. My server is down right now, so my critus.net email isn’t working. If you need to email me do so at my gmail address (mcmcgreevyATgmailDOTcom). Same goes for Krystalle (netgothATgmailDOTcom). Oh yeah, speaking of K…Those of you who are trying to view the video she took earlier are SOL. It’s on my server. You know, the one sitting on the floor next to me turned off? Yeah, that one…

Wheee.

Going to go check out the phone post options so I can continue to update if necessary. Hang in there, friends. We’re going to get through this season, and when we do? Party time.

In fact…

Saturday, November 27th. Party at our place. Theme? “The Final Hunker Down” Everyone can bring their favorite Hunker Down recipie and booze. There will be hot tub goodness and plenty of floor space as we turn the McGreevy household into the ultimate Hunker Bunker.

Yeah.

And we can celebrate my birthday too.

Boo yah.

Ok, I realize that I’m writing this in the midst of a hurricane, and that many of you who are reading this probably have a lot of serious shit to worry about, but if you get a moment…

For those of you who don’t know her or missed the post, thoemeringue‘s dog Mila disappeared last night – right before the weather picked up. Mila is an incredibly sweet dog, and I know that Thoe loves her very much. So if you get a sec, think good thoughts for her. This is no kind of weather for a little dog to be outside in, and the thought of it has been bugging me all night. Here’s hoping she felt the storm coming and just found a safe place to “Hunker Down.”

Things have been busy recently.

Seriously.

Ok, I know that isn’t really out of the ordinary, but it’s true. Thought I’d take a moment while chowing down for a quick update.

I’ve been doing electrical work! Quake in fear! I’ve been messing around with the hot tub over the course of the last few days. The fact that it isn’t working really started to get to me, but paying someone $60 just to come out and tell me what was wrong with it seemed to be a bit extreme. So, I started putzing around with it myself. First thing I noticed is that two of the electrical cables were in REALLY bad shape. I mean, insulation coming off and everything. Definitely not a safe situation when one puts water into the mix. I replaced those two cables, but when I fired everything back up again the heater still didn’t work. Oh, it worked for a few seconds, but then it went right back off and wouldn’t come on again. Just like it had been doing. By process of elimination I’ve decided that the heater is dead. It makes sense, really. Since I’ve bought the house the heater has seemed to take longer and longer to get the job done, and the damn thing would start to get cold again the minute you got into it. I figured out how to disconnect the heater and unscrew the heating element and did so. Today I stopped by a spa place and bought a new one ($150!!!!). I’m going to go home tonight and hook it up to see what happens. I’m fully anticipating a functional, piping hot spa to be waiting for me when I get home tomorrow night from seeing Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘N Roll. The only thing I have to do now to get it rolling is pick up a new filter and sun blanket for it on my way home tonight.

I talked with the owner of the Spa place about getting a real cover for it. $250! That one is going to have to wait for a while. I might try to sneak it into my budget, but this repair alone was a bit of a squeeze. It will happen eventually, though. We are in the process of giving the back porch a major overhaul. netgoth has already started the painting, and there will be a lot more done before we are through. It’s going to look sweet. We are hoping to have it done by the time my birthday comes around so it’s all spiffy for my party.

Oy. That’s less than two months away!

Speaking of my birthday – it happens on the 7th of November, which is a Sunday. After our performance of Playing With Fire that afternoon I’m going to head over to Crazy Buffet for my free all-you-can-eat sushi. Anyone want to come along?

The last week or so has been very frustrating in City of Heroes. A new update has been released, and many aspects of the game changed. The developers have said it wasn’t supposed to be as extreme as it has been, but all I know is that I’ve died a lot since it came out. I think I’m getting the hang of the changes, though. They have also toned them down quite a bit. We’ll see. In any case, it’s still one of the best damned games I’ve ever played, and the future of my Everquest account is starting to look dim. If it weren’t for the fact that I have several real life friends who still play EQ I probably would have cancelled it already.

For those of you who know him, Barry Steele dropped by for a visit last night. It was great to see him, and I was happy to finally get to introduce him to netgoth. He’s coming back in town in November, and he’s actually going to be here in time to see Playing With Fire.

School is going great. Just took my first big test on Wednesday, and I got a 93. So far I’m carrying a solid “A” in the class.

Another credit card (one of the ones in my Mom’s name) was completely paid off today.

My life is moving forward at a rapid pace, and I have the great fortune of having a woman who I am deeply in love with and two rockin’ kids at my side. Good times.