A Snail’s Pace

One day, I was swimming, when I heard my dad's landlord, Bob, say something about a hurricane heading straight for us. Now, my dad lives on a little island just off the east coast of Florida. My first question was, "What category is it?" He replied with, "It's a category 4 right now, but it will probably be a category 5 by the time it will be near here." So while Bob and my dad talked, I got out of the pool and got dressed into some dry clothes. Then I went back outside and asked my dad about the hurricane.

"Its almost a category 5 and its been named Frances." So for the next week we prepared for the upcoming storm by: buying more non-perishable food, removing all loose items from outside, putting down the "blast shield" (storm shutter), and freezing water in case the power goes out. The people that owned boats had to move them somewhere else. I got to meet some new people because some of the boat owners didn't come over very often. Since the people around my dad's house are like family, everyone was helping prepare.

It was Friday when the power went out. I was watching TV while my dad did stuff online when suddenly the room became quiet. My dad had a backup battery for his computer, so the room didn't go completely silent, but I NEED power. So I was bored out of my mind when my dad suggested I listen to the radio so I can find out what's going on with Frances. So I took the radio while my dad went out to get his scooter (electric) to bring inside. While listening to the radio, I found out nothing except that Frances was slowly creeping its way towards Florida's east coast. Some people were saying it was moving at a "snail's pace." My dad didn't like that though, because he just wanted it to be over and done with. When it got really late, since we had lit some candles, we had to blow them out. It got almost pitch black. The only light was the moonlight coming in through the window.

The next day, we woke up. Sadly, the power was still out. So it was going to be another day of radio. But since the wind wasn't too bad, yet, we went outside. After a few minutes, a few of my dad's neighbors came outside. One of them, Mark, had a small, battery operated color TV! I was saved! A little later, my friend Rachael and her family came outside with watermelon and pork skewers. The adults had beer, but obviously I did not. We were by the pool. I called this our "pre-storm party." After the party, my dad and I lingered outside a little while longer. We wanted to stay outside as long as we could. By the time we got back inside, it was already starting to get dark. We were tired, so we went to sleep. The next morning, we woke up. It was going to be another radio day. Or so we thought. We were just laying on the bed when suddenly my dad proclaimed, "the power's back." He knew this because the green light on his speaker was on and the ac was running again. The power was back! My immediate reaction was to turn on the TV. I also took this chance to cook some Spaghettio's. Cooked food! For the first time in 2 days I had real food. For the past 2 days I had been eating nothing but chips and pretzels, so this was awesome. I also took this chance to check my e-mails and do a few other things online. So for the rest of the day we watched TV and did other stuff. But at about 10:53 pm, right before my dad's favorite show "Roseanne", the cable went out. Not the power, the cable. So we could only watch the lower news channels. We went to sleep soon after.

I woke up on Monday morning, the day I'm supposed to fly back home, and the airport just re-opened. My dad was outside assessing damage when I got this call from United:

"Due to flight cancellations, Merriam, Ariel, flight #2056 with service from Fort Lauderdale to Wash/Dulles has been cancelled. Now rescheduled to flight #1789 with service from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago/O'Hare."

So when this thing was done I was all like, what's the point of going halfway across the country and then back again? On top of that, it had been rescheduled to Tuesday. So I told my dad and he called United. When he got off the phone he told me it had been re-rescheduled for Wednesday with the original flight plan to go through Wash/Dulles. So that night we ordered Domino's for dinner. The next day we got off the island (my dad lives in an island) and went to South Beach. We got a little more food, looked around, then headed back home. Since this was my last day, I went and said bye to everyone. Afterwards, my dad and I went on a scooter ride around the island. While riding, we encountered a giganstrosonormous tree that had been uprooted. It was giganstrosonormous! My dad took a picture of me in front of it. After that, we went back. The cable was back, so at 11:00 we watched "Roseanne". Then we went to sleep. The next day I made sure all my stuff was packed and left with my dad to hang out at his work for a couple of hours. After that, we left for the airport. When we got there, we did airport stuff. Then we got some food and sat down to wait. I was so sad to leave my dad, even though he lives in a very hurricane prone state, but reluctantly I got on the plane and left anyway.