TGIF

God, what a day. According to the local news, in four hours it rained as much as it normally does in a month. South Beach is flooded, and thousands of homes in Miami-Dade and Broward are without power. The storm hit right at the afternoon rush hour. I was at work and went downstairs a couple of times to check it out. It looked (and sounded) like the end of the world. I don't think I've ever witnessed a storm with so much thunder and lightning (and I'm from here). According to this story, "In the area between Miami and Miami Beach, the weather service recorded about 100 lightning strikes in a five-minute period."

By the time I left work (6:30), the worst of the storm had passed, but I didn't get home till close to 10:00. There'd been an accident on the MacArthur Causeway, which connects downtown (where I work) to South Beach, effectively blocking the causeway. So U.S. 1 from downtown up to 36th Street was clogged with cars traveling north to other causeways. It took my bus over an hour to get to Omni (one mile).

I saw the horrible logjam and got off the bus one stop after the Omni Station and had dinner at Checkers (a chili dog and half a barbecue bacon double cheeseburger and a small Coke). Then I got an apple pie across the street at Burger King so I could use the restroom (which they keep locked) and walked back to the Omni Station. (I'll eat the pie tomorrow.) By then--an hour or so later--the traffic had thinned out, and fortunately I caught my bus right away. (Apparently other people at Omni had been waiting for it a long time.) The bus barrelled up U.S. 1 and I made it home in good time.