Thank you Frances,

I want to take a moment to pause and reflect on how fortunate I was during this hurricane. Aside from having to reset my clocks every 20 or so minutes, the two tiles lost over the back porch, and all of the leaves, palm fronds, and various other pieces of crap strewn about my existence, I made it through o.k. Those in the north Palm Beach county and some of the central counties cannot all say the same. Fortunately, while kicking Grand Bahamas ass, Frances lost a good portion of her strength, making landfall as a CAT2 and not a more powerful and damaging CAT3 or 4. Huge difference in the damage done by 100 mph winds and that done by 120+ mph winds. Please remember those less fortunate than us when thinking charitably.

It is still raining and I'm beginning to wonder can locate woodstuffs sufficient to build an ark that is 30 cubits high and 80 cubits long. In SoFla, there is a severe lack of trees (thank you developers) so probably the answer is no, it's not available. Most of the debris from the cleared meleluca thicket stayed put in the NW wind, in that none of it came through windows in the back of the house. You know, developers, if you're not going to be able to put houses on that land, could you at least do something of ecological value? Say, maybe convert it to wet lands or something? Or are you all content to allow it to become an overgrown thicket once again?

Hopefully, the good folks at FP&L and BellSouth will get utilities back on to those without quickly so that our SoFla friends and neighbors don't have to go without AC for too long when the sun finally returns, and so BT can contribute.

As soon as Frances gets far enough out, the business of picking up the broken pieces starts in earnest, just in time for the real job of getting ready for Hurricane Ivan.