August 20, 2008
DRIVE-BY ENTERTAINMENT
[HOW TROPICAL STORM FAY SPENT HER SUMMER VACATION]
When I was 10, my grandmother Josephine decided to take me on a summer vacation. She was going to pack me in her Buick Skylark so we could spend a week visiting Disney World, Cape Kennedy and Six Gun Territory in Ocala. I brought my Polaroid camera and stocked up on self-developing film.
We got in the car in St. Pete with her friend, John Harris, and drove to Merritt Island on Florida's east coast. We got within sight of NASA's gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building - the one where they put the rockets on the launch vehicle - before she decided she was too tired to go. We went to the hotel in Cocoa Beach and I swam in the pool instead.
Next day, we drove west toward Orlando to go to Disney World. We get to the Magic Kingdom and she takes a seat in front of Cinderella's Castle. "Meet me back here in an hour," she says and hands me a book of E tickets. I ran off to Tomorrowland and rode a couple rides. I met her back at the castle in exactly one hour. She told me she was tired and that we were going back to the hotel. I spent the rest of the day swimming in the pool.
Third day, we got up and drove to Ocala and Six Gun Territory. We spent the day in the wild west-themed cowboy attraction - a remnant of the time when every show on TV was either "Gunsmoke," "Big Valley," or "The Rifleman." The big attraction was the regularly scheduled gunfight in the middle of the fake western town, during which guys in cowboy gear pretended to fall off roofs after getting shot. Guys also pretended to fall off horseback. For variety, guys fell in horse troughs full of water. We spent the whole day there. Saw that show three times. Same guys died three times. Next day we went home after I swam in the hotel pool.
My point here is that Tropical Storm Fay is essentially executing the meteorological version of my summer vacation. Lots of drive-by action of quasi-famous Florida towns with very little in the way of real drama. The only thing she and I differ on is that she isn't swimming in the hotel pools.
This radar inidcates she's currently taking a gander at the Kennedy Space Center after spending the day traveling from Tampa to the east coast.
How much of Fay did we get yesterday?
This much. Which, you know, was fine, but we were expecting more.
Not that the old girl didn't look impressive, but we've seen clouds before.
Posted by Jeff at August 20, 2008 05:51 AM | TrackBack