Houston Hit By Torrential Rains

Houston - Torrential Rains. Not Tropical but torrential

So the lesson to be learned here today everyone is:

Expect the unexpected and you will never be surprised.

It's not the storm you expect to hit you.. it's the torrent you didn't expect. The one that sneaks up behind you and runs you over.

There you are wondering on the tropics in Houston. Looking in the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe the Bay of Campeche. Even possibly down in the Florida Straits to see what might blow your way around the large high pressure system anchored out them when...

Wham.. from behind this landcane anchored over your area spins so much that your town becomes flooded and people bored on hurricane message boards take to posting radar sites from Houston.

You just never know when you will be surprised.

It is the method of the beast..

Houston is prone to flooding from both tropical sources and not so tropical. My brother lived in Houston back about ten years ago and he was driving home one day along his favorite back road path when the bayou came up to meet him. Before he knew it, there was a wave about to wash over his dashboard. He pulled his car up onto a sort of nearby hill; next to all the other parked flooded cars and the lady who owned the house let him use the phone to call for help. Told him it happens all the time. Old timers know not to drive "through there" when it rains heavy. I imagine... that street is flooded today.

Either way it is a lesson to remember.

Often I think of the irony it would be to have some city like Charleston be hit by a massive earthquake during the peak week of the Hurricane Season. Could happen. Has in the past.

A book tells the story about the past but no crystal ball tells the story about what could, would happen if Charleston was to be hit this hurricane season by not a hurricane but an earthquake.

1886. Relatively recent history when you consider the story of the earth. Happened then. Will happen again.

Something to think on while you sit here wondering about this hurricane season and what it will bring.

http://www.bookdoctor.com/corinthian/cote/heros.html
City of Heroes, By Richard N. Cote. (found it online.. didn't read it.. would like to)

So... instead of flooding from a predictable June storm. Houston gets flooded either way, any way and does it matter if you have to deal with clean up issues while worrying on what the Hurricane Season of 2006 will bring later this year...

It's never the torment you expect.. it's the storm you don't expect.
Remember that.

As for me.........
I watched a beautiful, classical silver lining frame a thunderhead posed dramatically across my eastern sky this morning. I watched out my new windows on the world as this big, dark, gray thunderhead built it's way magically high in the sky and a small sliver of silver framed it like something out of a picture postcard.

It rained. Briefly. Good.. I don't have to go water my new frangipani trees I planted in my yard. Ripped a few branches off the old ones in my old backyard for this yard.

I gave in notice yesterday at my job and start a new chapter in my life later this summer IF no 1926 sort of storm washes away my new place of employment. Hey, I can always move to Sharon in Maine, sit by the lighthouse and write poetry like another poet a long time ago. Worked for him, could work for me. Beautiful, especially when it's cloaked in the snow.

So... still amazed that I was quoted in the Wall Street Journal next to William Gray and Max Mayfield not to mention Whizkid Phil Klotzbach who is the new weather, wonder, wizard on the block in the world of meteorology. There, in the spot usually reserved for Chris Landsea right underneath William Gray was ... Bobbistorm. I STILL have my head turned sideways smiling over that one.

So...

It is Tuesday. I have a wedding to go to. A wedding for Dr. Laz's son and my friend Batya's daughter. They are getting married. Years later they are still together. They fell in love, grew up, stayed together and are getting married tonight in Dr. Laz's backyard before we all go to one of my favorite places to party.. Temple Moses and party hardy we will.

Party today we could be shopping for hurricane supplies tomorrow.

As for me..
Fast round up

Red sox won last night.

I am learning about the soccer finals here in Miami. You can't go in a store without seeing it on a TV somewhere. The sales of TVs must have sky rocketed through the ceiling this week down here. The lady in the Argentinean bakery where I was getting a Cuban Coffee explained to me how it works to the best of her knowledge. Goes on and on in what makes the March Madness look like preseason football. A naked woman in red stiletto heels could have walked in and ordered an egg salad and hearts of palm sandwich (their specialty) and walked out and not one man would have even noticed. All eyes glued to the soccer games. Miami in June. June too soon for Miami but not too soon for soccer.

And, the Heat playoffs... oh wow. The city is crazy about the heat. I should wear red to the wedding tonight and bring my smallest weather radio or sit and peak at my sidekick for the score.

And... waiting for my new cell phone to come and replace the old one. I think the reason I waited so long to replace it is that my old cell phone was the same phone as my old boyfriend (I used to use his charger all the time, you know..) and sort of makes me feel like it's really over using a different phone. Well, it is over. Been almost a year. And, I need a new phone. I'll try this one and if I don't like it I will give it to my kids... and get another one.

Actually.. I need a new boyfriend.

That being said...
My favorite links of the day (and always) are as follows:
http://www.esl.lsu.edu/special_gifs/trop_lant4col.jpg
http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_wv_east_loop-12.html

Despite all the fancier sites out there.. I still love these.

Next favorite site of the day:
http://www.victoriassecret.com/
I need a new bra. Actually, my 14 year old needs a new bra. Maybe I'll take her. Actually, probably all my girls need new bras. We are very into Victoria Secrets in this house.

And, lastly..................
What would life be like without Barnes and Nobles?

I think I will go over... look through Mr. Know It All on Global Warming's book that I won't buy and even my library won't buy because it's too expensive. My boss said any book on hurricanes that cost so much is an "academic journal" more than a book that the regular patron would want to read. Fine with me. I can sip a sugar free caramel macchiado and read through it at Barnes and Noble while checking out this gem recommended to me online.



(did that work? can you see a picture? still learning here)

Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali

I still want to go to there... and the Azores.

Dr. Gray got to see the Azores.. why not me?

Until then...
I'm going to watch the models on the Bahama Blob that my own hurricane specialist says I should watch (he wasn't quoted in the Wall Street Journal but he's been quoted elsewhere I am sure) and I am going to go bra shopping and I may continue to browse through Ayn Rand and try to figure out the answer to a very old question.

Who is John Galt?

And, more so.. why didn't I figure out who was John Galt when I was 16 and that sweet boy used to bug me about him?

Answer to this and none of my secrets but all of my tropical madness will be revealed in the next chapter of my blog..

chow for now
Bobbi
Ps.. if you need me you can find me at www.hurricanecity.com or shopping for bras or books on my morning off