I'll start this off right away by talking about Hurricane Irma and how things were where I live. That was the main thing on my mind the past few days and I was hoping for the best there. Sunday, while it was windy and rainy up to 6 PM, things were fine. I was able to see the Chicago Bears play against the Atlanta Falcons as the game was on locally. Atlanta should have won the Super Bowl in February so I did not expect the Bears to win. I figured it was one of two things based on the last season or two: Chicago would have been blown out or it would be surprisingly close and they would be inept at the end and lose it; the second thing happened and they suddenly were bumbling buffoons and Atlanta were lucky to escape with a win.
As for the storm, I was worried about the people I knew in Tampa as that was where the storm was predicted to go for much of the weekend. When Irma suddenly went north and was going to come much closer to me, that was a cause for concern. Yet, I once again got lucky. I am not bragging, as people I know had it worse than me. But there was minimal damage to where I live and that was a relief; other places weren't so lucky. Streets in Central Florida flooded, transformers blew up, trees were uprooted... there was even a sinkhole. Both in appearances and how it sounded, Irma was more than a little scary. I am glad it's all over with. Amazingly, the only time the power went out was around 8:30 PM, and that was only for like 5 minutes. Again, I am lucky.
Back to speaking chronologically, Monday the 4th was Labor Day and I did nothing of note. Tuesday was more interesting. I went to a location for the first time. I ended up in the giant retirement community known as The Villages. I went to a movie theatre; as more than 50,000 people live in The Villages alone, no surprise there are three different theatres, and all are different as The Villages have 3 different shopping areas that have themes. I was in Brownwood Paddock Square, which has a “early 19th century Florida ranch” motif. I went to the Barnstorm Theater which yes, had a barn theme both with the front facade and the inside itself. Being in a lobby with various farm/ranch equipment was definitely a unique experience. I am glad the auditoriums were fine too.
What I saw was Good Time, an independent film definitely for “the youth”. No shock that I was the only one there. Robert Pattison plays a scumbag in New York City who has to help get his mentally handicapped brother out of jail and has a real long night. The film was well-done so I was glad to see it on the big screen; as there is a retrowave 80's-sounding synthesizer score, it was nice to hear it in a big way too. On the way home, I stopped at the local Walmart, to put money on my Walmart gift card, which I also use for the Murphy USA gas station adjacent to Walmart. Already, the place was swamped with people, and there was a huge line just for two packages of bottled water per cart. I was surprised at how busy it was. In hindsight, I am glad those people took the threat of Irma seriously and got ready for it early and picked up provisions (I had plenty of bottled water already so I did not need any more) and filling my gas tank was a good idea too; I had only a few gallons left anyhow; by Thursday night, many stations in the area completely ran out of gasoline.
The rest of the time, it was me waiting for Irma to get here; I just wanted it to be over with. Wednesday I did nothing but Thursday I went to Winter Garden Village for a bit and Friday I got food from Arby's. That was it for highlights. When I return a week from today... at least things won't be as chaotic.
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