terrancew_hod

I was almost another type of pirate, but I guess that doesn't count in this thread, huh? Oh well. Scissor me timbers! Terry

^My eyes hurt trying to read your post. Where's the proper capitalization? Terry

And you know the best part of having a restaurant opening back again? Getting a ice cold beer, especially a draft. I was in heaven. That beer lasted about 30 seconds before I ordered another one. When Wilma struck, much of south florida didn't have power. Gas lines were long, people stood in line for ice and food. It was most of the people's fault because they didn't think the hurricane was going to be that bad and they didn't prepare. We were fine for a few days, but then my roommates and I managed to buy tickets to go to New York. The day before we left, we found a Johnny Rockets open, but they had a limited menu of a hamburger with just catsup and mustard and a warm can of various sodas. Either you had that or you went hungry. I had to enlighten some lady of that fact when she was trying to customize the burger was getting mad and there was a long line of people waiting to eat. "Do you want it or not? People are waiting! I'm hungry! You can go over to Hooters... that's right they had storm damage and this is the only place that is open." She ended up quietly paying for it and leaving the store. Anyway, once we landed in New York we found a restaurant in the airport and we sat down and order drinks. You would have thought they had gold flakes in that Bud Light and it was personally stirred by angels! It was that good... especially after rationing out warm water and soda to drink for the last three days. Terry

^While true, having a place to take your mind off the situation and bring this type a normality to their lives has it's advantages. You won't know the advantages of having a restaurant open and serving a full menu until you've been through a hurricane, had no power, dealing with getting the necessities, getting reduced or "have it our way" fast food menus, then you find a place that's actually serving a good sit down meal. After a few days of hurricane rations and having everyone stressing around you, this made me feel more like life was getting back to normal more than anything else. I wouldn't knock 'em for getting their business back together. Terry

Pretty cool. Even cooler is my birthday is on a Sunday so I can stay in orlando, party on Saturday and get my rides in on Sunday. That is if I don't find something else to get into on my birthday! Terry

^All he needs to do is see a few accidents where there are bodies on the road and a few people walking around. The ones that are walking had their seatbelts on so when a car rolls or crashes, they're secured in place. People that didn't have it went flying through windshields and windows and landing in multiple lanes of traffic to get ran over or thrown against trees. Those are the ones laying on the ground in the covered sheet. I've read so many articles here about if people would have worn their seatbelt they would have lived. It's a shame that I read one person that died and went flying 50 feet didn't have the seatbeat and the ones that did just had scratches. Unfortunately, this is the lesson you'll only learn once. If you make it through, you'll have the same I.Q. as a tomato. Terry

^Not as fun though. Besides most of the people don't pay enough attention on the rode and they'll just see that fool swerving around. Even the newspapers down here have a template that has the words: "high rate of speed", "lost control", etc. Most of the time they do that and no one's around. I wonder how many of those the police would actually follow up on down here. Not much I imagine, unless there is actually a highway patrol officer on the highway, which usually only one or two for a 20 mile stretch of highway between Miami and Ft Lauderdale. Even then, they're too busy trying to keep people from crashing through the new express lane pylons because they weren't paying attention that the lane doesn't exit for 7 miles. They they crash through them, causing undercarriage damage and then into the regular traffic, causing an accident. And that's with signs for the previous 3 miles pointing at the lane saying express lane only... no exit for 7 miles. Saturday night, coming home from the bar, I'm always in the next to far right lane doing the under the speed limit, because drivers are always flying down towards Miami and there's a 50% chance you'll go over a hill on the overpass and there will be a car embedded in the wall. The chance goes up if it was raining and there's a patch of water on the road near 195 exit. Those get real nasty. Terry

^Yeah I was too busy crying in pain to notice any scenery. Terry

Disney will definitely have the best fireworks, but it will be a nightmare in the Magic Kingdom. Knowing that, you will definitely make sure you have a game plan for that day that includes spending most of the day there. I would even try to book the cheapest room you can for either New Years day or the day before, just so you have a resort key that should work most of the day. Also, you could go ahead and make reservations at restaurants or shows during that time. Since I believe the euro is still kicking the dollar's butt, you probably could get a room for 89-100 USD at a value resort and still get all the benefits. As far as Universal is concerned, if you are staying at Hard Rock you pretty much have it made. You can knock out each park in less than a half day and still relax and eat somewhere. Universal is definitely more adult friendly so if you wanna drink for new years, Universal is your place. I believe the only two places to drink at Disney is Epcot and Disney studios. You'll be hard pressed for a beer any place else. You'll probably spend most of your time navigating through Disney and each of their parks. Animal Kingdom gets the least crowds so you could always end your days there. Magic Kingdom... you'd better get there early and learn how to master using those fast passes! You could always try to get there early and gather as many fast passes as possible, then use those for later. So when you're killing time waiting for the fireworks, you have some fast passes to spread out. My goal, however, is to head to L.A. for New Years. There's a good party going on that isn't over until 6am, then another starts until 12pm.. I'll see if I can continue the tradition (which I broke last year staying in Miami at a boring party, but finding... err... other things to do. But it did lead me to having a place to stay for a party in Madrid!) where I drag my butt into the hotel at 12pm the next day! Walk of Shame! Walk of Shame! Then I'll try to hit a few parks, sight see and shop while I'm there! Terry "Gotta eat at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles too!" Weaver

You could very well have a good screen play for a sequel on your hands. But then it should have been a white hole. Terry "Had the storybook for the movie on LP" Weaver EDIT: Don't forget Maximilian either and the minions of Hell! Did that ending make sense to anyone? MO EDIT: The movie on my budget... Starring Kevin Sorbo, Jenna Jameson and Flava Flav as the voice of Old Bob. Shoot! Someone in Orlando beat ya to the sequel!

^I was in the middle lane doing a little over the speed limit with no other cars in the other lanes and a car decides to tailgate me and throw on his brights. My answer: I slam on the brakes and watch him fly into another lane swerving. Don't play. Terry

People really need to put their seat belts on and keep them on when driving. I was on the way to the gym and passed an accident with a dead body out on the highway. You can look at the accident and tell he wasn't wearing his... he looked like he was ejected from his car (a common theme with accidents down in South Florida). One of my friends tells me that he doesn't wear his and I said I'll never ride with him, and I won't start my car unless he puts his on. I'll also stop the car for anyone that takes theirs off. This is serious business and there's a reason to wear seatbelts. Terry

I don't argue with anyone about coaster credits. I just say one to each one then put the noise-reduction earphones in my ears to drown out the subsequent discussion. If you put any more thought into it, I got a few volunteer shifts you can work during to really put things in perspective. Terry "Been on quite a few coasters but don't care to know the count" Weaver

Nice report. I'm heading to St Louis next week to check on my mom, eat and see what's changed since I was there last year. If the weather is nice, I may go ride the new coaster in the morning before I take Mom to lunch. I'm staying in a hotel instead either of my parents so I can quickly slip out the door and go to the park! Terry

Just got an email from the volunteer office. They said I got nothing but rave reviews from the party I sold raffle tickets at and they appreciated it. It's nice to be appreciated. Terry

I'm one of those people that has to fall over someone to know that they're attracted to me. I'm oblivious otherwise, because I'm so not used to it. Oh! Oh! I know! Here ya go! Nothing kills flirtation like funky breath! Ain't I smart?

Last weekend I got a little attention, but ultimately I was still on "me" time. Two guys were trying to talk to me at the same time and I sent them both walking. "Sorry guys, after the last few months I'm still not ready. Good night." One guy was speaking "ghetto" and I told him I don't speak like that and to clean it up. Surprisingly he did. I'm pretty simple so I don't need all that pretending and acting. Just be honest. Still it's been about 12 years since I had people try to fight over me (though it happened only once before), so I was flattered. Terry

The closest I got to an happy ending was a certain person that was supposed to be "straight" was trying to play footsie with me on the Beast on last year's trip during ERT, when the train left the station out in the dark. That wrecked my nerves more than anything. Terry "Don't start anything you know good and well you can't finish" Weaver

Amen. One of my friend's parents house got destroyed in New Orleans and they're still fighting with the insurance company. A trailer is on their lot where their house stood and it's three years later! Of course some houses and businesses won't be rebuilt, not only from people not wanting to live there anymore, but some people my not have the right coverage on their insurance policies. If the way Ike ran through the Midwest last weekend was anything, I'm figuring people need to look at their policies and make sure that wind and flood insurance is included. Those tropical depressions are making it further inland these days! If you got to go hungry for a check, I'd pay extra on those policies before hurricane season starts and make sure that coverage is right. You don't want to be depending on FEMA for anything. Terry

^They're standing... but not well. And that's what I'm saying. The older building aren't. But my comments were more for the general in area. When hurricane Andrew blew through here, whole neighborhoods were destroyed much like in the harder hit areas. As a result the houses and businesses that were rebuilt has to meet certain codes. Even when you put up hurricane shutters, you have to get a permit that meet codes as well. They may even want to see if it's possible when purchasing or rebuilding rides, to ask vendors if they were build to withstand certain wind speeds, or for high risk rides like what happened to the ferris wheel if they can be dismantled and stored away easily so you don't have to totally replace. May not be feasible, but could be something to consider in a disaster recovery plan. I know the little park down here, Boomers , with our coaster was made to withstand high winds and the few rides they had were secured; so when we had the succession of hurricanes a few years back, they sustained minimum damage. Terry

^They also should learn that when you're in an hurricane zone, you have to construct your buildings with wind damage and water damage in mind. So many of those buildings and houses aren't and got blown away or sustained major damage. Another disaster area in the making is the midwest, should that New Madras fault slip. If it goes with a medium to major earthquake and you're inside, get out of there fast because that building is going down! Very few, if any, buildings are built to withstand a earthquake. Terry

I had some pictures of when Katrina and Wilma blew through. Katrina knocked down trees but we had our power on afterwards so we were fine. There wasn't as much damage with Wilma but we didn't have power for a week! After about 2 days, we went the airport and flew to New York for the weekend. I had a LED belt buckle that I programmed to say various hurricane related sayings... some them very naughty. Subsequently I had a very good weekend! Terry

B&Man & astroworldfan1: Hate to spoil your celebration, but you do know you're probably going to make up those days either around Christmas or before your summer break? That is unless your school added a few "snow days" to their schedule that they can reduce from. The schools loses money each day you're not there, so they'll tack on that missed day by reducing a day from your vacation time. With the money that most schools are in crunch for, I wouldn't hope to miss too much school. Terry

I did a volunteer shift at a party last night selling raffle tickets. I ended up outselling everyone, got some donations and some guy slipped me his number behind his boyfriends back (the number went in the trash btw). I didn't even have to take my shirt off, though I was "giving" the people big arms and shoulders! Now I see how my friends take money from these people for tips; I think I got it down now too and I kept my clothes on! Terry

Just read an article on MSN (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26637482/page/2/); they said the Kemah Boardwalk is submerged. Doesn't look too good.