I feel that some action is brewing in the background... I can smell the beer and the other goodies!

I am formally applying to set up ManCamp, the Northernmost Outpost.

I haven't had a chance to slow down during the workday, but I have a webcam on the front yard here in Fort Lauderdale.

http://features.i-magery.com/trench_cam.cfm

Click on "Trench Cam".

I'm not spamming; just a regular reader of Babalu Blog who does't live so far away. :)

Great blog! Babalu is one of my daily reads.

Siempre que llueve escampa - Como dice un viejo refran. La culpa de todo la tiene el toti.

Sorry, CB, but there's already a "Mancamp North" --in Maryland, which I inaugurated a few months ago, a couple of weeks after a pilgrimage to the REAL Mancamp in May 2005.
Ours is about eight miles north of the White House (yep, the ONE where the Real Dubbya lives), in the outskirts of beautiful (but little known) Rockville.
Perhaps, in order to be fair to all, Val should start awarding Mancamp Franchises according to a specific, detailes, logical nomenclature.
For instance, yours could be "Mancamp-New Jersey" or whatever. "North" simply covers too much territory, and as I already stated, the Maryland area (yes, a border state, but usually considered in the "North") is already in operation in the Zangroniz backyard.
My wife and I are contemplating "early" retirement... to South Florida, no less (more than likely, somewhere in the Keys), so we are hereby placing a legal claim on the "Mancamp - Forida Keys" franchise.
Val, have you considered actually charging money for these franchises? Might be a neat source of income for you and the missus!
Who knows... it may be a way for you to break away from the world of architecture...
Something to think about...
On a more serious vein, guys... please batten down the hatches in South Florida over the next few hours/days and *please* do take good care of yourselves!
Julio

Julio, read the tagline for mine: Northermost Outpost. You are still under the Mason Dixon line. I am five hours up north! Ok, since I see bears all the time, mine will be ManCamp, the Wilderness

PS. The location is not New Jersey!

CB,
As Emily Lytella (sp?) used to say during her editorials in the old (old!) Saturday Night Live broadcasts...
Never mind!
:)
OK, the "northernmost" Mancamp title is yours... if Val approves, of course... come to think of it, he's never approved of the concept of Mancamp--Maryland, either.
Well, here's hoping he does... as soon as he's finished hammering at all those plywood sheets in South Florida and sipping enough beer to recover from all that stress...!
Julio

Yours should be name ManCamp, Dubya's watering hole!

Well, I sent Dubya a personal invitation to visit Mancamp-Maryland... but there's been no response so far... even promised him Texas barbecue steak...
Last time I visited him --at his (White) house-- (where I got some great photos of him *crying* as he spoke with a bunch of Latin music stars about the victims of 9-11), I had to go through *quite* a security check (you can't imagine what that experience was like, unless you tried to pass a rifle-barrel-like monopod as well as a suitcase-full of photographic gear through their security apparatus!)
Well, at least I didn't get "fingered" by the Secret Service!
But they did do just about everything else...!
God bless America, all the same!
Julio

Val, I'll be posting some of my conditions (no fancy dandy webcam however) on the other side of Kendall at, ironically enough, 26th Parallel.

Good idea to point the cam to the south, the camera shouldn't get head-on winds until the center passes west of us in a few hours.

Good luck and hope you don't lose power.

val how is the wind ?
becuase im dying to fly my papalote.lol
take care .

Hey!
Any of you Miamians playing out there with your "chiringas"?
Anybody else remember those things --particularly made for windy days?
Inquiring minds... want to know!
Come on, now, don't be afraid to admit it?
Julio

chiringas rule julio
my dad knows how to make them

Ok, now we need a ManCamp shirt to go with the Babalu shirts. Say, the ManCamp lizard with a beer? Or Tommy the Drunk Photographer with a camera and beer? Or you with a beer? All with something appropriate in the background(beer keg, smoker, etc.)

I think I see a theme here.

I hope you have seen the storm pass by now. My prayer is that you and yours are safe, and that all power will be restored quickly. thanks for posting the photos.

Hope all is well at the Prieto compound...

Hope everyone is O.K.. I just went outside and have a lot of work to do! If this was the eye of a CAT1 that went over me, I dont ever want to see anything larger!

Efrain

For your "gringo" readers, what is a "chiringa?"

My apologies, Richard,
A chiringa is a type of kite, or flying toy, made out of a simple piece of folded paper.
It takes a certain amount of skill to fold it, so that it will catch the wind properly, while a handmade tail of varying length and of course, the string attached to the front part of the chiringa give it lift and distance.
Usually, chiringas were made by kids in Cuba who had no more than the few pennies required to buy the ball of string, so when you found a suitable piece of paper and improvised a tail out of a length of the string and usually a number of smaller pieces of paper that would be folded and attached to the tail, you were ready to "fly" and compete against your neighbors, some of whom had the fancier "papalotes" (kites).
So in a nutshell, a chiringa is the poor man's kite. I used to be able to make them, but haven't done so in over 40 years, so I doubt if I could make a decent one that would fly. Oddly, I haven't flown a kite, either, in about the same amount of time, even though the Smithsonian Institution in the Washington DC area, where I live, holds a kite festival in the Mall every year.
Hope that answers the question!
Julio

Folks,
It's mighty spooky to see Babalublog.com so quiet!
Obviously, not all is well down in South Florida where, as you probably know, the news media report that about a million people are without electricity after the passage of Katrina (just like in Cuba where they have to deal with a much longer-lasting hurricane --46 years and counting!).
This morning, I attempted to reach Val Prieto by e-mail and by telephone, both at his cell number and at his office. I left a voice mail message at the former, while the office number just rang and rang helplessly on and on.
So let's say some prayers for everyone in the Florida peninsula, shall we?
Hopefully, we will hear from them as soon as they can communicate with the rest of the world.
Julio

Thank you Julio!

The silence is not a happy making thing. Hope all is okay, and just some power outages Val!

At a time like this I like to read José María Heredia's famous poem "The Hurricane." There is an excellent English translation of this poem by William Cullen Bryant at www.oldpoetry.com Look under Heredia. Be sure also to read his "Exile's Hymn" also in an excellent English version. And while you are it, you might as well check out José Martí, Plácido, Milanés and other Cuban poets -- all in English.

Stay indoors and try not to blow off the roof with your party.