Skip to main content

Somewhere in the Bahamas



So the first "system" of this hurricane season is out there. It's located generally in the area of the Bahamas and not expected to amount to much (less than a 30% chance that it will turn into anything - which conversely means that there's a greater than 70% chance that it will be nothing...). Doesn't matter, though - this is the first in a series of storms that will last for the next several months. Until November.

I am not ready for this.

I am physically prepared, of course. We have all our batteries ready and I have all the boards for my windows. I have water and food and everything ready for whatever comes. But psychologically, not so much.

I am a little surprised at this. Southeast Texas is an incredibly and intensely beautiful place. Looking out my window right now at the blazing blue sky, seeing herons and cranes wheeling in the gentle breezes, and enjoying the emerald green that seems to permeate everywhere from the trees to the grass to the roadside weeds, it's hard to imagine that anything could be more serene and idyllic. For 364 and 1/2 days a year it's like this - deceptively calm and peaceful. It's only that 12 hour period that happens - and even then on a random basis, such that one year you get nothing, the next you get pounded - that you live in fear, for the gentle breezes get whipped up into gales of incredible and indescribable magnitude. Thus, you get lulled into a false sense of security, imagining that nothing could come and disrupt this verdant and lovely place.

Yet, on the horizon lurks a storm that kills.

Luckily we can track these things for weeks ahead of time. Even if a storm were to form right in the Gulf (which isn't very likely) we'd have days of warning. And reasonable steps taken in advance can help to ameliorate the damage and loss and even much of the inconvenience. But nothing can prepare you for the incredible force associated with these storms.

I consider myself to be pretty tough. I am not afraid of much - OK, spiders freak me out, but I am not really AFRAID of them. But a storm like the one we had last year - yeah, that makes me nervous. So I get to look forward to watching these notices appear on my weather website everyday, watching, wondering, worrying. I know there's not really much to worry about, but there it is.

And just so you know, I was aware that these storms come here before I took this job. I love it here. I don't think I am leaving any time soon. There are storms and natural disasters everywhere (earthquakes, blizzards, wildfires, drought, etc). Like I say - at least here we have weeks of notice.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ephesus

Paul got around. Ephesus is right on the Aegean Sea, on the coast of present-day Turkey. Yesterday he was in Galatia, which was much more towards the middle of Turkey. And when he actually wrote these letters, he was in Rome... So the man could travel. He probably walked. Today's item of interest comes from chapter one in Ephesians. Verses 18 and 19 are particularly interesting: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power This is not the first time Paul talks about an inheritance. In Galatians he talks about the inheritance that comes of being part of the Abrahamic Covenant. He notes that we are joint-heirs through and with Christ. In Ephesians, he uses the word "adoption" - that we are adopted as the Children of Jesus Chris...
7 comments
Read more

Engaged

Three Dog Night got it wrong.  One is not the loneliest number. They were more accurate when they said Two can be as bad as one.  I really wonder how people can survive Without being fully engaged. How they live through each day Without the intimacy I so very much crave... Maybe I am unusual in my desire  To have this intimacy, To want to feel that soul So close to my own Sharing light and warmth, Sharing love and passion, Sharing life. Alas! Alas! Alas! For when I do seek to share It is often only to be rebuffed Denied Or used up, Sucked dry, And left an empty husk.  I want SO MUCH to share And all I have is the cold, digital world Of typing out a blog.
12 comments
Read more

The Other Art

I'm not sure we appreciate photography as much as we do other art forms. Part of this comes from the reality that surrounds and permeates a photograph - it's very, very real, and the photographer strives for clarity and crispness in the representations. Perhaps this is why black and white images continue to be relevant - they strip away extraneous information (color) and leave us with something that is at once familiar and also non-existent - for nothing exists in black and white. Nothing. I also think that pictures are becoming too common-place... Everyone has a camera in their pocket, and while that's a very democratic thing (everyone can express themselves in a picture easily and readily, and can find an audience for these images, which are casually taken and casually viewed, and perhaps just as casually forgotten) I think that we embrace that casual attitude, and it spills over to all aspects of the media, making it impotent. So I read this article this morning: h...
Post a Comment
Read more