I begin this blog the morning Hurricane Wilma,the Wonder Whirlwind, has finished with Cozumel and turns it's hungry maw toward Florida, where Ilive in KeyWest on a houseboat, exquisitely vulnerable from the directionwhere Wilma drools.
Wilma is expected to visit my living room this evening,aftersunset, if there is a sunset. Tomorrow this 2500-square-foot, two-story house on a barge may be splinters in dirty water.
This is the fourth serious hurricane threat this year. Each one steals a week from our livesat the best outcome. We secure things, put up shutters, pack up everything and move at least half to a friend's house on higher ground. We gather up the four cats and load their carriers, a litter box and the cockatiel in her cage into the van and drive away.Then we come back, usually after a delay caused by an accident on one of the bridges or a wash-out and move back in, clean up yard debris.
So three weeks of this summer have gone to that and now the unpredictable Wilma. We won't drive away for this one. We will stay at higher-ground's house. We'll know tomorrow morning this time if that was a mistake.

Freaks, Geeks, Goddesses and Wilma

Not only is Wilma breathing down my neck, but Fantasy Fest's fangs are teething on my jugular. I am the parade coordinator for Key West's ten-day costuming festival. The parade is secheduled for the 29th -- next Saturday. wilm comes immediately before and has already cut down the ten days to six, and practically speaking, five.

With the comforting drone of Brian Norcross in the background, I am still preparing for a parade that the city insists must go on. And I believe there will be no stopping some sort of parade next Saturday. We may be wearing personal floation devices (giving new meaning to parade FLOATS) and leading off with a front-end loader to scrape a path through the debris, but there will be a parade. I am thinking of requiring my parade ambassadors, a corps of 100 sober parade route officials to the usually drunken spectacle, to wear life vests just as a symbol of the survival of our sense of humor. i hope we will have our sense of humor. Although I am experiencing lapses in mine just now.