gnoll's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- heaven Getting MSN news feeds on my watch gave me an edge I guess. An hour had passed since mention of the rising tide but there was no urgency � I couldn�t see much activity outside of the swirling plane of hash smoke hanging at eye level. I wasn�t thinking beyond the living room, but knew calamity was on its way and stood up to wave my arms, coaxing it in, I suppose. Updates put the swell at a few feet every half hour, and again, outside there was nothing, but I knew I should make a move as staying on the couch wouldn�t afford me a very good vantage. The cat�s had already split, and I imagined they struggled with the door -- walking upright, trying to get proper grips on their proportionately sized tweed suitcases and matching fedoras. I didn�t take anything except a banana, and I tossed that on someone�s lawn on my way to Bathurst where I figured I�d catch a bus north, uphill, and away from the lake. I had been meaning to check out Billy Graham�s Prayer Pavilion up that way, a stretch of well manicured holy ground disguised as public parkland, and allegedly well manned by landscaping recruiters. Given the circumstances, the idea of a Christian retreat in the middle of the Jewish Quarter seemed to be a well hedged bet for an engaging time. The grounds were beautiful, though in a way you might associate with golf courses, with man-made miniaturized rolling hills and perfectly uniform grass trimmed to resemble moss. And finally, some people. People obviously tuned into the pending tide, either by religious prophecy, or perhaps the radio. Now that I was taking notice, there was the odd person, alone, reclining on the lawns or sitting in small pools of collected, and artificially heated, rain water. Some of these small faux hot-springs were enclosed in glass gazebos, and that�s what I opted for. In the west the sun was beginning to set with cartoon rays of light lifted right out of a Jack Chick tract. And bellow, to the south, the city was filling up like a bathtub. From thereon I just sat, watching objects randomly pop through the shelf of water. Some would bob and drift with the current, others would tire and sink. 3:38 p.m. - Thursday, Mar. 03, 2005 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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