RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL

Yesterday I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival with Geoff, Hillary and Ken. We've been going every year since I moved here and it's always a good time. It's fun to see so many people dressed up in their 16th century outfits. Some costumes are more fun than others. We saw a couple that just might have gotten the people arrested had they worn them anywhere else. We also saw King Henry VIII giving a lesson to a bunch of teenagers on how to properly bow to a lady.

My favorite part of the festival is the Mud Show. Three people tell the story of 'Beowulf' with a pit of sloppy mud being their main prop. We also saw a friend of ours from work performing in 'The Taming of the Shrew.' As always, it's great fun. Get there if you can and definitely try the mead.

THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS

The good news is that after five days without electricity, the power in my building was finally restored sometime last night! When I got home from work (after a lovely 16 hour day) I was able to enjoy bright lights, hot water, cool AC, and even mindles television (because the cable was back too). And with the power back, I was finally able to eject "Anger Management" from my DVD player, and return it to the video store. Fortunately they didn't charge me a late fee because there wasn't anything I could do.

The bad news is that at the end of an absolute C.F. of a day at work today, I got a call from Olympus. To refresh everyone's memory, I've been using a borrowed camera or just posting older photos of mine because my camera was damaged in a nasty thunderstorm a while back. I recently sent it in to the Olympus Service Center, hoping that they could repair it, but instead, the person on the other end said that my camera was "Beyond Repair." It's a shame, because that camera has been good to me (snif-snif). Geoff, Hillary, Bill - any of you want to write a proper eulogy?

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ENOUGH IS TOO MUCH

So after a perfectly crappy 14 hour day at work and a long drive home in the rain, I got back to my place to discover that my power is still out. Now, just to refresh everyone's memory, Hurricane Isable hit us last Thursday and it's now early Tuesday morning. We used to have emergency lighting in the stairways, but even that's out now. I feel like I'm camping without a tent! And how strange is it that even though there's no electricity, I can still go online with my laptop and a phone line? It just seems so backwards.

On a much happier note, a really nice article was recently written about my dad in his local newspaper in Erie, PA (yes, that is the same city where the pizza guy robbed a bank with the bomb around his neck). You can check out the article here. Oh, and in case anyone's wondering, my dad and I have the same first name, but different middle names, so technically I'm not "David Jr."

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DARKNESS

It's Sunday and the power is still out. I'm trying to be patient, but this really sucks. I'm getting by all right with candles and flashlights, but I'd really like to get my electricity back. At least I have water though. Some areas in Virginia have to boil their water or have no water at all. Driving is seriously uncool too. There are branches in the roads and a lot of nonfunctioning traffic lights. But hey, at least we have power at work... (sigh).

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AFTERMATH

Hurricane Isabel has come and gone, and the Washington area has taken a serious beating. My neighborhood is a mess with downed trees and power lines, but fortunately there doesn't seem to be any serious damage and it's not nearly as bad as some of the other areas like Old Town Alexandria or Annapolis. The electricity is a big issue now. During the storm last night, the power came on and off all night. It was annoying, but given what was going on outside, I'd say it held up pretty well. This morning was another story. When I got up, the power was up and running, but my cable TV was still out (I lost that at about 8:30 last night). The Federal Government was closed again, which means that my company (or rather the company I work for) is closed too. So I decided to venture out to see what condition the neighborhood was in, and see if I could get an antenna for my TV at the local hardware store.

As I said before, my neighborhood is a mess, but the crews were already out trying to get things back into shape. Using a borrowed camera (don't ask, just remember that mine is still being repaired) I shot a few fallen trees, and the cleanup crew in this photo. I managed to get an antenna, but when I got back to my building, I discovered that the power was out again, and someone was trapped in the elevator. After a while, the power came back... and then it was out... and then it was back... and then it was out again. Finally, it was looking like everything (except my cable) was up and running, but as I was writing this entry, I lost power again. Fortunately, the battery in my Powerbook is charged and I'm able to keep working, but not for long (Apples' claims of a five-hour battery life is complete B.S.). Anyway, tomorrow (Saturday) I'm heading back to work. I've still got a deadline to meet, so this weekend is shot, but I am pretty curious to see what downtown D.C. looks like right now. I sure hope the Watergate has power...

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T-MINUS

Hurricane Isabel will hit tomorrow, and in a surprise move, the Federal Government announced that they're closing down for the day. This means that most businesses (including where I work) will be closed as well. Even the Metro (the D.C. subway) is shutting down at 11:00 a.m., just before the storm is expected to hit. Who knows if the storm will be as bad as the reports are telling us it will be, but it certainly is strange to just sit here and wait for it to hit. Especially since I have a deadline at work that was going to have me in the office for every available hour until Monday morning. I'm not throwing in the (wet) towel yet, but I just don't see how we're going to pull this one off, especially if we're off on Friday too.

So earlier tonight I tried to stop at the grocery store and could barely find a parking spot. Once I finally got in, I looked at the mob hoarding bottled water and toilet paper, and I just turned around and left. I then stopped at the video store which I also expected to be a zoo, but it was dead. The shelves were completely stocked, and I was one of only three people in the store. Now, I fully expect my electricity to be out at some point, but at least until that happens, I'll be able to enjoy "Anger Management" and "Bowling for Columbine."

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THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

You may be asking yourself what a photograph of Buzz Lightyear has to do with the title "The Calm Before the Storm." And the answer is, absolutely nothing. You see, about a month ago, my camera was damaged when I got caught in a severe thunderstorm and until my camera comes back from the Olympus repair service, or I'm forced to buy a new one, I'm pretty much S.O.L. But I've got plenty of old useless photos (such as the one above) that have been archived away and can now find new life... even if they have nothing to do with anything. Let's just say I'm making lemonade out of lemons.

This week the East Coast is going to take a serious ass kicking from Hurricane Isable. The path shows it headed directly for Washington. I tried convincing a few coworkers that we're all going to die, but they weren't buying it. Still, it's going to get ugly here in a couple of days, and I'm really not looking forward to high winds, flooding, power outages and downed trees and branches. The timing certainly couldn't be worse. I've got a big project at work that has to be done at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning, come Hell or high water... which is exactly what's on it's way.

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