Then I got to spend a really nice time with my best friend, a belated birthday celebration, just the two of us...a lot of talking...a lot of opening up, some bittersweetness and watery eyes, but all in all a wonderful night.
No, it didn't end the way I would have liked it to.
I realize it'll probably never end the way I want it to...
...but I truly can't imagine my life without that friendship...

OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!
Tuesday:
The morning was normal, but with one big difference.
I had to pack up some stuff, enough for two nights…
I live in a townhouse. There are four houses connected, end to end. And at least one house had been confirmed…Termites!
If they had them, we all had them.
Fun.
So that night my pal Jedi Master, and yes, I do feel like a fool for referring to him that way, but what can you do, offered me his bedroom floor, and a place to shower. I was grateful as Hell, but extremely uncomfortable because I felt very much in the way, and because we are very different, and he stays awake late, and I tend to go to sleep early, and because his household sitch is, well, weird.
I was outta his house the next morning before 6 AM…

Wednesday:
Got to work excessively early, and went online…
Looked for the hotel chain that’s a couple of blocks from work, and booked a room.
Fucking bloodsuckers got almost a hundred bucks for basically what amounted to 12 hours usage…that’s gotta be a crime somewhere, and I gotta be a whole new kind of idiot. King size bed though…but I didn’t get any anyway…
Welcome to my world.
Actually I did have some company for a little while that was very nice, but as usual it ended too soon, and not the way I woulda liked…
And all I could do that night while I lay in that huge bed was watch Don Noe from Local Channel 10 tell me that a big ass storm name of Frances was coming on over…

Thursday:
Checked out of my overpriced room, with nothing but a Danish and a bagel to help justify the price. Loaded my car with my bags, and drove the long minute and a half to the office.
As the employees came in, all talk was about the storm, Hurricane Frances.
“We’re all gonna die” was the cheerful battle cry heard repeatedly throughout the morning. Nobody could focus on work. Everybody had to prepare this or that at their homes…there were no bosses anyway. One by one the workforce dwindled.
Me?
Well, I had to take a long lunch to get home and be sure we could breath the recently fumigated air in my house. Moved stuff around here and there, dropped off my bags, went back to work, and unable to work, met my good friend for drinks at about 12:30. Hey, you do what you can. It was a good time (as always, I’m a happy puppy), but that led to an ugly night at home, unprepared for Frances and her sloppy fury.

Friday:
No work, no mail, no really bad weather yet, no boards or shutters up, and with the exception of a too short lunch with friends, not much else to do the whole time, but sit there, and watch Don Noe or usually Roland Steadham on NBC6, assure me that I might not die, but my house just might be blown away.
Fun.

Saturday:
Fickle, slow ass Frances can’t make up her fucking mind, and just sort sits there off the coast, but further north. Here in Miami we just get some consistent squalls with a decent gust here or there. Totally dodged a fucking bullet.
Still I was so fucking crazy by then, that I ventured out and to my surprise found that some places were open (us Cubans, we don’t close for anything!, so breakfast was taken care of) and later was pleasantly surprised to find the near by Chinese restaurant open AND, I even found a gas station, with gas and no line, no waiting!

Sunday:
Frances moves onto land, and while she’s further away from us, the weather was actually a lot worse because there was more rain along with the wind, and it was just nasty out. Still, I was going stir crazy again, so I convinced the afore mentioned Jedi Master to brave the ugliness with me and go get some lunch. I know, it seems like my whole world revolves around me eating.
Shut up.

So basically, three days of sitting around watching the weather guys say the same thing over and over, watching the wind and rain hit your windows, thanking somebody somewhere that the fact that your windows weren’t protected didn’t come into play.
And obviously, I’m making light of an ugly situation, hence the title of Week From Heck, as opposed to Hell.
In less than a month, two big, bad hurricanes caused a lot of heartache and headaches in Florida, as well as other places. I do realize how lucky we got dodging two bullets, and we may not be so lucky next time…
And seemingly impossible but true, there’s another hurricane out there right now.
It’s too early to tell which way he’s headed, but we are well within the danger zone…

And for the record, Monday was much nicer all around, but bittersweet because it was back to work the next day, and today, wasn’t as bad as I expected at work, all things considered, but there’s always tomorrow…

And in completely unrelated and totally insignificant news, I have discovered the wondrous joy that is Mountain Dew: Pitch Black…unadulterated sugar…like Kool-Aid or Hi-C for adults!
Addiction comes easy for me…