What was supposed to be a carefree Labor Day weekend has felt like one long, dreary day. Let us count the ways:
1. Seven-year-old Jonay Wade's birthday party in Tampa was rained out.
2. St. Petersburg resident Bill Birch loaded his 35-foot sailboat, the Fanny Dunkin, with beer, wine and munchies, but was not able to take his friends out sailing.
3. Chili's in Largo served no sizzling fajitas - or anything else - to what might have been 900 customers on Sunday. "Frances took our sizzle," said manager Simon Crane.
4. Jonay's mother's best friend's pool party was rained out, too.
5. Eric Showalter did not trim trees in the yard of the St. Petersburg home he moved into just one month ago.
6. Mark Drozdowski didn't make it to the first party he planned to go to, at a Clearwater Beach bar, or the second one, at a Tampa hotel pool.
7. Tim Fountain didn't fish for grouper.
8. The cable kept going out.
9. Tourists didn't come to Cherie's Eclectica on St. Petersburg's Beach Drive to buy art and gifts on a big-money weekend. Owner Cherie Doughtie kept the store closed and sandbagged instead.
10. Matthew Hannan, age 6, did not ride his bike.
11. David Brubaker, 51, and Margi Clark, 49, played host to his evacuated parents instead of spending a quiet weekend recovering from the jet lag from their Hawaii vacation.
12. They received almost no sympathy.
13. Jennifer Hawkins, 23, didn't go to work driving a golf cart around Bardmoor Golf & Tennis Club.
14. Aaron Williams and Alvin Ward didn't have specific plans. But the two homeless men say they hadn't thought they'd need to seek shelter overnight in the Tampa Convention Center parking garage.
15. Christipher Kolk, 29, didn't see the Snow Patrol concert Saturday night, because it was canceled.
16. Brad and Anna Ahlgren's Sunday school class didn't come to their Apollo Beach home to cook out and go kayaking.
17. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker didn't go kneeboarding and tubing with his wife and children.
18. Kendra Payton didn't display any of her 24 tattoos - not Pooh and Tigger, not the four elements, not her favorite one of the embracing fairies - at the tattoo convention at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
19. Robert Merkley didn't grill burgers and hot dogs at Fort De Soto Park with friends.
20. The Friendship Trail Bridge got too windy to skate on by Saturday afternoon.
21. The power went out.
22. Thomas Payton didn't get to tell anyone at the tattoo convention that his wife has 18 more tattoos than he does.
23. St. Petersburg resident James Jennings bought a volleyball net just for his big barbecue party, and nobody used it.
24. In New Port Richey, Candice Wood, 19, has been reading Horse Illustrated and Horse & Rider for tips on how to slow down her feisty horse, Mocca, but she didn't get to ride him on Sunday. "He can't really afford to take a day off," she sighed.
25. The line at Blockbuster was 20 minutes long Saturday.
26. Skyler Payton, 6, and sister Kealey, 4, didn't go swimming with their grandma while Mom and Dad were at the tattoo convention.
27. Gulfport resident Noel Schwartz didn't camp out on Shell Island.
28. St. Petersburg resident Shel O'Brocto didn't go to Sunset Beach.
29. Once the power went out, nobody could watch the Blockbuster movies anyway.
30. Anne Carney, of South Tampa, planned to see a Devil Rays game, but it was canceled. She had good seats.
31. University of Tampa sophomores Fernanda Mariano and Ally Mrozewski slept most of the day away, because they couldn't go to the beach.
32. To mark their 7th anniversary of dating, Genea McKnight and Tim Parker had planned to check in to a Tampa hotel. But evacuees had booked all the rooms, so they settled for burgers and fries at Elmer's Sports Cafe in Ybor City.
33. Playing Candyland with the power out was more fun when you were little.
Times staff writers Jay Cridlin, Carrie Johnson, Mike Wilson and Michael VanSickler contributed to this report.
