(click
on pics for a larger version)
Did an early morning run and 3-hour surf up in Wilderness this morning after watching the pre-dawn The Weather Channel update on the beastly blizzard hitting the East Coast, in particular my Mid-Atlantic neighborhood. The storm, later coined "The President Day's Storm," dropped a record breaking 28 inches on Baltimore. No doubt that my early evening flight from San Juan to Baltimore will be canceled, but still now word at this early hour. Solution: Go Surfing! After the ritual stop at the local bakery for coffee and fresh french-style bread it was time to bee-line north to the Wilderness area to catch what ever is left of the diminishing northerly swell. Caught some fun waist-to-chest in a quickly crowding line-up. In between waves I chatted it up with a local kneeboarder who was thrilled to be moving back to the Aguadilla area from San Juan. He was so stoked! His quiver includes two or three kneeboards - today he was riding an older local shape made by El Pelicano. After my 3-hour exercise session it was time to ride one in to chill a few minutes before heading back to the Beside the Pointe villa to pack and check-out, catch a plane home or check-in to another villa. The afternoon of hell begins. Well, it wasn't really that bad, but mucho wasted time. Packed and loaded the car but did not trip pack the board - I ain't going anywhere but the flights still have not been canceled at noon. Lunched at The Paradise at the edge of Rincón, ordered up a square meal from El Capitán along with the obligatory pint of fresh OJ with a double shot of Barrilito, read the San Juan Star and chilled. On the drive to the airport I stopped by Villa Cofresí, my usual villa, and reserved a room for a couple of nights -- as an old customer they agreed to hold a room until later in the afternoon. Half way to the airport I received an automated message from the airline that my flight had been canceled, turned the car around and back to the villa, checked-in to a nice 3rd floor room with a view from the porch (old customer perks!), and headed back towards the airport to make flight arrangements.
Spent about an hour or two at the airport - had to park at the outer parking lot since the Terrorism Threat Alert was Orange - all sorts of extra security at this little sleepy airport. Initially the airlines was going to book me on an all day trip routing through at least 3 cities, including Boston -- no way a 5am to 8pm day for me -- ended up booking my usual route which meant virtually two full days for one night's lodging instead of no full days for one night's lodging... work will have to wait (Boston airport ended up being closed any ways). Now what to do? Go shopping! Time to spring for that special present my wife had been eying up during our December visit. After all, she's at home in two feet of snow trying to dig out while el mio is "stranded" in PR. Also decided to catch a movie. El Bobo knew there was a recent film with the name of a city in it (The Gangs of New York), so I bought my ticket to "Chicago," a sack of popcorn, and set myself down for a series of pre-film commercials Island style (in other words about one half hours of commercials preceding about 15 minutes of previews). The movie finally began but something was wrong... there were no gangs -- instead there was all this SINGING. A freakin' musical. I can't stand musicals and opera. Holy mierda!!! I decided to sit it out another 15 minutes and give this one a chance since the early scenes were not your mother's musical style - no My Fair Lady here - instead it featured a racy, burlesque style. Ended up staying to the end and enjoying a very good film. It must have been good as Chicago garnered a slew of Oscars. But, my wife was PISSED. I never go to musicals. LOL. Closed out the day drinking some heinies on my porch, reading, listening to the club music filter upstairs, and watching the nearly full moon rise from the western horizon. |
|||||
|
|
|||||
