Pictures! Get your Ivan Pictures heah!

Got an image gallery up at SR with pics of the aftermath of Ivan -

Get it here. My description, which I'm just too damned lazy to retype, or even cut and paste, is here.

And somebody get Bill a pillow.

Hey Ivan..., pal

Stupid Hurricane.

Almost dropped a damned tree on my brother's house. And didn't have the decency to do it while I was there to see it, and get a picture!

Inconsiderate, ungrateful bitch.

Yeah, yeah, get all the major networks talkin about ya, and you're just too stinkin big to think about the little people.

 

Getting something to eat last night was a real frikkin treat, too. My brother's house lost power about 9 am, and with the unfinished furniture in the front yard taking out the line to the house, it was a given it wasn't coming back on any time soon. So we all pile in the car and head for one of the areas downtown where they mentioned on the radio that power was still available.

We headed for Five Points South, the avante guard (gratuitous use of frogish to tweek shank) section of town. Only a couple of the dozen or so restaurants in the area are actually open, and they are getting hammered. People that probably never set foot in these places are lined up, cause they're some of the few places actually open and serving food.

See, the city sorta treated Ivan like a snow day. Birmingham gets anything heavier than two snowflakes in five minutes, and the whole place shuts down. It was like that yesterday. All the schools were out, all the grocery stores closed - and almost nothing re-opened even after things really, really quieted down after about 4pm.

Anyway, we tried one place, and were told it would be an hour wait for a table. We look next door, and the hoity toity Japanese Sushi Bar place is open. It's a 'trendy spot' that usually doesn't have more than 5 or 6 tables occupied at any one time, and everyone puts on airs, but the menu resembles what you can get from the average storefront noodle shop in Tokyo. But this ain't Tokyo, so they can charge $13.50 for the 'traditional Bento Box' (a pre-made lunch on the run favorite in Japan that normally goes for about 5 bucks).

The place was not ready to be a 'mass feeding station', and particularly the airheaded, multi-tasking challenged waitress working the section we got out table in. We sat there for almost 30 minutes trying to get her attention to even bring us some frikkin water. We'd already gotten menus ourselves and were ready to order. Aside from being just absolutely out of the hustle mindset, this chick was seriously math impaired. Watched her sit and monkey with a calculator at the waitress station for almost 10 freakin minutes totalling up two damned tickets.

John Wayne is credited with the line 'Life's tough; Life's tougher when you're stupid' to which I would add 'and fucking annoying as hell when you're forced to deal with those having a really, really tough life'.

I finally ended up getting the owner's attention (a little Japanese guy) and letting him know that his wait staff left a bit to be desired in the 'sentient' department.

Finally Miss 0psi comes over, and I rattled off our order - which shocked her sensibilities and challenged her writing skills, apparently. After repeating it three times, and having her read it back, we sent her off. And she promptly went back to the waitress station to engage in more intimate encounters with the stupid calculator.

Some 20 minutes later (well, she did eventually bring us our drinks), and having watched some of the people that came in after we did finish their meals, pay and leave, I grabbed the busboy and told him that we had some food coming out and could he check on where it was. He sputtered and flummoxed, as he probably wasn't used to having patrons actually, you know, talk to him, and this actually registered with our brain dead waitress. She came over and I repeated the 'could you check on our food?' request. Looking very confused and concerned she actually went towards the kitchen! Hoo Hoooo!

Only to stop and take a phone in 'to go' order! Stupid Cow!

Actually though, it seemed to have worked. I guess I put just enough 'Jack Nicholson right before his character goes absolutely fucking berzerk' intonation into my very polite question.

All the food hit the table at once. She tried to go through the 'excellence in service' routine of carefully placing the orders with the diners, till I mentioned 'just put it on the table and we'll sort it out, thanks'

Hope she wasn't counting on a tip from us to make rent this week - my instructions to my sister before I hopped out to have a smoke, since they insisted on sitting in the non-smoking, brain dead attendant section, was - 'make sure they didn't charge us for the Yakisoba we didn't get, and exact change back, no tip - nada, zippo, zilch' to which my siblings both nodded entusiastically.

So, fuuuuuck you, Ivan.

My Pajamas are in a bunch now

After seeing Michele Malkin say 'blogosphere' on Fox a little while ago.

I'm gonna have a smoke and take a nap now. Where did I put those kleenex again?

So much for my surfing trip

Fox News just announced that the State of Alabama has made all the lanes of I-65 from Mobile to Montgomery northbound travel lanes. One way. Northbound.

Was toying with the idea of hopping on down for some surfing in the tasty waves they've been showing. Having to do the backroads isn't such a great thing.

Then there's that whole 'I have no idea how to surf' thing.

Dammit.