Y’all should know that there’s a storm brewing. My namesake, Chris, is gaining strength down in the Caribbean. The storm’ll probably be a hurricane by the weekend or early next week.
Do you think that might be part of the reason things have been so chaotic around our house lately? … Nah. But it is an interesting coincidence, eh?
August tends to be the worst month for Atlantic hurricanes. Katrina was an August storm.
But it is unusual for them to only be getting around to the C name this late in the season. Last year this time they were watching Harvey. Usually the C storm peters out early on and isn’t much worth paying attention to.
I’m going to keep my eye on Chris this year. I suspect she’ll make landfall somewhere near the Texas/Louisiana border sometime late next week or into that weekend.
Here’s to hoping that she ends up being a small storm and doesn’t harm anyone.
If you want to have a good source for up to date info on her, click on the button to the right for the US Navy’s hurricane tracking center. I keep that button over in my right side bar all the time because it is a useful resource. You can come here anytime and get to quality Hurricane info.
I don’t use the Navy’s site because I’m former Navy, but because they seem to be the best at predicting where the things will go. Being in the maritime industry, hurricanes are a special interest to me. They can significantly affect my job so I pay close attention.
Over the years I have watched hurricanes through several sites. (I have a whole folder in my favorites for weather. How geeky is that?) I’ve seen that the Navy’s site consistently has the most accurate track prediction out there. So I keep going back to there for my info.
You’re welcome to click through anytime. And if you are on the Gulf Coast, I’d be keeping an eye on Chris myself. At least until we get an idea of where she really is going.
One of my favorite weather passages is in the book of Job where God is giving Job a talking to, kinda reminding Job who he is. When I read the sarcasm that God uses, I can’t help but believe that God does have a really good sense of humor. Check it out.
“Do you know where Light comes from and where Darkness lives So you can take them by the hand and lead them home when they get lost? Why, of course you know that. You’ve known them all your life, grown up in the same neighborhood with them!
“Have you ever traveled to where snow is made, seen the vault where hail is stockpiled, The arsenals of hail and snow that I keep in readiness for times of trouble and battle and war? Can you find your way to where lightning is launched, or to the place from which the wind blows?
“Who do you suppose carves canyons for the downpours of rain, and charts the route of thunderstorms that bring water to unvisited fields, deserts no one ever lays eyes on, drenching the useless wastelands so they’re carpeted with wildflowers and grass? And who do you think is the father of rain and dew, the mother of ice and frost?
“You don’t for a minute imagine these marvels of weather just happen, do you?”
Yeah. I can hear the sarcasm pouring from that speech. Sometimes we just have to be reminded of our place.
We can watch the hurricanes until the cows come home (or get blown away). But at the end of the day there is nothing we can do to change where its wind blows or how hard it hits.
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When the stuff finished its 20 minute download / install / reboot process there was no anti-virus protection at all. I knew I didn’t want to leave the computer for a day with no virus protection with Gorgeous having to use it all day. That could have unrecoverable consequences.
But apparently that is McAfee’s new approach to virus protection. If they completely stop email traffic they are sure to get a good handle on virus propagation. Oh, and after a quick check of 
Most folks screw up like Mel did and they end up hurting their families (Mel’s been married for over 25 years to the same woman and has 7 kids, something unusual in Hollywood, eh?) and the other people around them. It is embarrassing at the very least and hard to face people afterwards. And even while it is going on a part of your brain is telling you that what is happening is “very bad” because it knows there are going to be lawyers, and courts and all sorts of complications coming down the pike as a result. But in the case of a celebrity of Mel’s visibility the effect is magnified unimaginably because the whole world is now completely aware of his complete lapse in judgment.
But they didn’t. I was effectively enslaved to the overpowering pull of drinking. AA does a lot of good for a lot of folks. I’m not knocking it. But it didn’t work for me. One of the things they teach is that you can’t overcome your addiction without the help of a “higher power.”
Anyway as I got into cutting the grass (really just leveling the weeds) I noticed not one or two, but several piles of dog poop along the front edge of our lawn. Now for me it was not that big a deal. We don’t have kids that will be playing in it. I have a pair of old sneakers that I wear only for yard work, so it didn’t even bother me when I stepped in it. Those shoes never get past the garage anyway.
The boys pay close attention too. It is not unusual for Low Rider to run from window to window trying to find a bird he was casing after it flew off. And Fat Boy will go into this weird vocalized convulsion sometimes because he so much wants to get at the birds. Sometimes he sounds like he’s demon possessed. I wish I had a recording of it for you. It truly sounds bizarre.
I knew I wanted to fill up the tank before I turned the car back in because I didn’t want to get soaked paying the rental company $5 a gallon for a less than full tank, or some such. Fortunately on the highway I was on had an 
The trick was the booth at the O’Hare exit. There is no operator at that exit. It is cash only, exact change required. But you have to be a bit of a detective to figure out how much the toll is because the only place it tells you is a little sign on the toll collecting machine itself. It happened to be $0.80 too.
Oh, we totally saw that one coming.
It got me thinking about how much control we really don’t have in our lives. I mean we can plan for all sorts of eventualities but in the end we just plain aren’t in charge of how things work out.
When I walked in the place it was really loud and the entry way was filled with a mob of people under 4 feet tall. I quickly weighed out my desire for good pizza against wanting to find a quiet place to enjoy reading some more in my book over dinner and I chose not to wade through all the kiddies to find a table.
Whew! It’s been a busy week so far. Lot’s of stuff to do. But looking at what we’ve got for the rest of the week, it looks like I might actually get a little down time. Gorgeous suggested I make sure I get some authentic Chicago style pizza while I’m up here. We definitely like our food, us Cree’s.
Going up in them to the observation area on a windy day you could feel the building sway in the wind. It was always cool to look down on the helicopters that were scurrying around the city.
