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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.

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