Leaving Florida

As many of you know, I've accepted a position that will require us to relocate to Columbus, Ohio. Yes, I am moving from south Florida to Columbus, Ohio in freaking January. I think on Tuesday there was a 50 degree difference in the high temperature.

Its been tough at work. My VP continues to lean on me hard trying to get me to stay--offering that I could create my own title and org chart and stopping me after meetings to thank me for staying engaged and telling me, "Just say the word if you change your mind. One word is all it takes" . My director resigned yesterday and the flak from my resignation and the VPs response to her was the final straw in making her decide to leave. Its been hard to see the staff reaction--I thought one of the guys was going to cry. I felt badly when one of the directors on the business side stopped me after a meeting to ask if it true that I was leaving. When I said that it was, he put his face in his hands and said, "God, we're screwed."

Last night was the annual cookie exchange at my friend's house. It was probably the 8 or 9th time I had gone to it. Its the same house where we've had most of our Thanksgivings for the last 8 years. It was sad to know it was the last time I'd do the cookie exchange with them. I'm still planning on coming down for Thanksgiving with them, though.

I went to volleyball after the cookie exchange and told my partner we were moving. We've been playing sooooo good together. Know each other's reactions, who's going to get what, when we're likely to get a set on the first pass so we can attack on the second hit. It made leaving even more sad when we totally dominated the other team. I have one more match there and then its gone.

I'm going to use this space to record my perspectives over the next few weeks. I start my new job January 9. I'm really excited about the job and the opportunity to be near Alan's family but I'm going to really miss my life down here. I hated it when we moved here but I've built up quite a group of good friends and it will be sad to leave them behind.

WILMA!!

As many of you know, my area, Coral Springs, Florida, was hammered by Hurricane Wilma on the morning of Monday, October 24. She came through as a Category 3 hurricane and we had sustained winds of over 100 MPH at the recording stations near my house. Based on the track I've seen published, the eye passed within 20 miles of my house.

The front side of the storm wasn't too bad, although since the winds were coming from the east (the direction most of my sliding glass doors face) it was a little nerve wracking. When you see six-foot tall panes of glass bowing in toward you, it can be a bit scary. We went out during the eye to check damage and it wasn't too bad--one 50-foot tall Scheffelera tree down in the backyard and one Australian pine from across the canal down on our fence. The front yard was fine.

The backside of the storm was much, much worse. More wind, more rain and lots noisier. I took some video which I'll post up later. We lost power about 8AM Monday morning and haven't had it since. Right now, I'm using an extension cord from my neighbor's generator to power my refrigerator and one other "smaller" appliance--the computer right now.

We lost some roof tiles during the back side of the storm--but just one row of cap tiles at one peak that runs from the front of the garage to the top of the roof. No real damage to the house or, more importantly, any one. Sad thing is that the first death from the storm here occurred in my town when some materialistic numbnuts guy went out during the storm to clear branches off of his BMW.

All in all, things have been good. No one hurt that we know, no real damage to anyone's house. There are a lot of trees down but, amazingly, most missed houses that were only a few feet away. All the neighbors came together to help each other out--from clearing debris to sharing food and electricity to just hanging out. The worst part thus far has been the gas situation. There's lots of gas at the stations, but there's no way to pump it without power. And without gas, the neighbor's generator goes out and I lose my one bit of normalcy--having a refrigerator and freezer. So, I waitied in line for six hours on the Florida Turnpike on Wednesday to get $20 (8 gallons) of gas. But that's 1-1/2 days of generator power. At least my town was never under a boil water order. We were one of the few that were able to drink water out of the tap the entire time.

My office has been closed for a week and next week, its only business critical personnel since the people that used to occupy three multi-story buildings will all be in the one that has power.

As expected, Claire has been treating this as one big adventure. She's been taking the dogs on LOTS of walks--"Mom, Bridget looks bored, I'm going to take her for a walk." She's also been playing with the younger neighbor kids and has a little fan club down the street. They ask their Mom every morning if Claire is going to come over. When trying to tempt her to spend the night at my friend's house who has power when she wanted to stay here, I said, "But they have TV" and she said "I'm not really missing TV at all."

When I asked Claire if she learned anything from the hurricane, she said, "Hurricanes are fun." I think she gave us all a good lesson as she collected the lemons and limes from my neighbor's yard and said she was going to make some lemonade for her and some Margarita mix for me.

The Koontz mantra through this trying time is--"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. When life hands you limes, make Margaritas."

Here's a link to my photo album. All the photos were taken within a five minute walk of my house. Its like this throughout Broward and southern Palm Beach County. Here's a video of the experience--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr7c71jZ6ks

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10/30 8PM update--
Here's the reply from my #1 Aussie buddy. This could only be written by someone who really appreciates a good Margarita.

"On the forenoon of the great tempest, the Lord took pity upon the wretched Floridians, and brought fourth limes, that they might maketh wine of comfort. And the Lord said unto the wretched, blendeth you the limes and the juices of cactus, and salt from the oceans. So the wretched of Floridians did blend, and the voice of the tempest was silenced by the wail of a thousand blenders.

Into the depths of night blendeth they, and dranketh they deeply of the wondrous bounty. There was much rejoicing and praise. Playest they the music of the Lord, and jiggy didst they get, unto it. Their voices did rise, and the bravest amongst them didst bare their unclothed nether regions to the very eye of the tempest, calling upon it to kiss those most private of places.

But one did renounce the bounty, and went instead to clear his chariot of the branches of trees, and the Lord did smite him verily. The others did see, and redoubled was their faith in the Lord's instruction, proclaiming the charioteer a foolish man of questionable fatherhood.

And the wretched of the springing coral did cry out in praise and thanks to the Lord singing "Gators are champions". And smiled did He politedly, for His comprehension of their new-age psalms was clouded by the dust of the Tempest.

The Lord looked upon The Party, and saw that it was good."

Been a While

Sorry, fans, I've been busy riding, shooting and fishing in Wyoming, speaking in Orlando and getting invited to speak in Madrid. COOL!

New favorite quote--
"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
Adam Savage
Mythbusters

More Gadgets

Well, we're having a 4th of July party and were planning on having lots of fireworks and, of course, feeding the raccoons across the canal using the potato cannon. I made the mistake of showing this video to my husband and, now, he wants to build one of these for our guests to use during the party...

Water Bottle Jetpack

Who wants to go first?!?!?

Goodyear Blimp Crashes

Last night, we had one of those crazy bad Florida thunderstorms--driving rain with raindrops the size of grapes and lots of lightning and thunder. We had three lightning strikes that shook the house.

In the midst of this, I heard a noise outside that sounded like a plane but it stayed overhead way too long for a plane. I looked out and saw the lights of the blimp passing overhead. The blimp passes over my house quite often because we are due west of its hanger. I called my husband in disbelief that it would be flying through that storm.

Found out this morning that the blimp crashed about 4 miles from my house. Here's a photo before it crashed--



and here's the after--



Thank God both pilots are OK.

Here's the story--

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cblimp18jun18,0,6957519.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

HAPPY BONNAROOOO, MAN!

What an incredible, amazing, super duper fun time at Bonnaroo. The Koontz family showed once again that we can have a great time in ANY circumstances. Shoe-horned like sardines into our campsite so we couldn't move our car, surrounded by all night smokers (not cigarettes), shroomers, nitrous oxide sucking, acid dropping, crazy but nice people in hot and humid, rainy and muddy conditions, we spent more time laughing than doing anything else. Even though we were dirty (didn't shower between Wednesday afternoon and 3AM Sunday morning), tired from the all night partying by our neighbors and the 12-hour drive, we had sooooo much fun.

Our level of fun was confirmed when we hear from the next campsite, "Sounds like they're having more fun over there" from this gravely, Wolfman Jack sounding voice. Around the corner comes this classic burnout, stoner--bleached bonde hair, four piercings in his lip, faraway look in his eyes--holding a nitrous balloon in his hand. He sits down in the open chair, takes a hit of nitrous and says, "Sounds like you guys are having more fun over here so I came to visit."

He told us that "Acid helped me kick drugs. I would never have been able to get off heroin without acid." His clothes were impounded when the car he was traveling in was impounded because the cops found three nitrous tanks in it. But, "God provides," he said as he pulled a pair of shorts from his pocket. "See, someone gave me a pair of clean shorts. God takes care of me, just like he does the birds and the bees and the flowers."

He told us that he sneaked into Bonnaroo but, "I got a wristband", he said holding up his arm to show his Bonnaroo admittance wristband, "so I'm good now." I asked his name and he says he goes by Hugh and is from St. Louis. We gave Hugh some beer and wine (he wasn't hungry) and he hung out with us for about 30 minutes We really enjoyed meeting Hugh.

Three days, 5 stages, 80,000 people--including Hugh!

Here's some of the news reports--
USA Today Article

MTV.com Article

This one from Billboard is really good--
Billboard story part 1
Billboard story part 2

We saw the guys climbing this big tree during Jack Johnson. The second scampered up like a cat. Amy said the third guy looked like Mowgli from Jungle Book cause his butt was sticking out and he had long, stringy hair.

Here's the link to my photo album.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2125265474&code=16587802&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite

Shows I saw were Kings of Leon, Josh Ritter (love my man Josh!!!), Jack Johnson, Gov't Mule, Old 97s, Allman Brothers, Dave Mathews Band (did a great version of "All Along the Watchtower" with Robert Randolph on steel guitar), Drive-by Truckers, Rilo Kiley, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Yonder Mountain String Band, John Prine and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. I'm sorry I missed Heartless Bastards (listen to this great song--"Onions" by Heartless Bastards), Legendary Shack Shakers and The Word (features Robert Randolph.)

We are DEFINITELY going back next year.

BONNAROOOOOO!

Leaving after work tomorrow for Bonnaroo! Driving 11 hours with Al and Amy to Karen and John's and then we're all caravaning over to Tennessee. Should be there by 7AM Thursday morning.

They posted a map of the stage area today. It looks like so much fun. Add in the camping and hanging out with Karen and John and we're going to have a blast.



See it full-size here--Link to the cool place where I'll be this weekend

Or check out the festival here--BONNAROOOOOOO

Catch you slackers next week!!!

PS Does anyone know if second-hand pot smoke can cause you to fail a drug test?