September 1994

..For three or four days it has rained. High water and flood conditions extend from Key West to Miami. No tourists, rather, very, very few tourists. Hal has been channel surfing for long enough to make me crazy. I have been taking care of him, and his dogs since his surgery. Barring an hour and a half break, it has rained all day; again.

Although I am now living with ___, I’ve been staying with Hal in my old apartment for the last couple of weeks. ___ and I are having some "problems," and Hal needs me to take care of him and any business of which he is unable to attend.

Miami’s Channel Seven ran "The Key West Flood" as its top story, killing any remaining business we might have had. Today the streets were surprisingly busy, briefly anyway, but it was mostly locals taking advantage of the rain break. The collective mood is grim. This storm doesn’t feel over at all.

Time crawls painfully about the apartment, coupled with the rain, limiting my movements, forcing introspection. Can’t do it. Can’t look. So much wrong now.
There is no activity on the street as there is almost no one here. The sky continues to rain and rain. Hal, having recently lost a kidney to cancer, sleeps now, much the way he has since returning home. I am bored and panicked simultaneously.

Introspection waits patiently, while I continue my distractions, still pacing, scared of what I might find within.