Random Thoughts That Have Nothing to Do With Photography

Waiting out another water event in Houston. They are predicting two to four inches of rain, BUT there may be up to TEN INCHES IN SOME AREAS. They don’t tell you that those areas may be in the forest of West Madagascar sometime during the Monsoon season, but somewhere there is going to be an area that receives ten inches.

I determined long ago that weather people do not get paid on how accurately they can predict the weather but on how many people they can scare the pegebers out of. From the looks of the grocery store last evening they are getting big bonuses this week.

People this is a tropical storm, not a hurricane and they are comparing it to Alisha in ‘83? People, that was thirty-four inches of rain in our watershed—even if their speculated ten inches missed Madagascar and fell in Texas it still comes nowhere close.

I’m so scared that I went to Whataburger this morning for my usual breakfast and watched the water rise in the intersection that I would have to pass through on the way home. It was not up to running board level (does anyone remember running boards anymore?) so I am in good shape. That’s just a normal rainy day in Houston.

Wishing I had a camera. Loved watching the sprayed water play across the lighted head lights of the cars.

Speaking of automobiles, yesterday I was running on fumes so I stopped for gasoline. Only got ten bucks worth because of the price on the freeway. After breakfast I stopped at my favorite station and it was five cents a gallon higher than the freeway—another benefit of rain events. The posted price was ten cents a gallon higher but I got there before they updated the pump.

Alcy always gets concerned when I run on fumes but after having driven a F150 for five years, or more, that did not have a gas gauge and on three of the four occasions that you did actually run out of gas you coasted right up to a gas pump you develop a new and greater respect for the native intelligence of Ford vehicles. The farthest I ever walked with a gas can was one block.

I always try to avoid Krogers but when I bought ‘survival’ food yesterday I forgot onions and bagels and Krogers is close. I am cooking man food—a crockpot full of red beans. I got the salt pork but forgot the onions. Today, all they had was Bermuda and I usually use white but it is going to be good because I was crying like a baby before I got them cut up for the pot. Even though I soaked the beans overnight they won’t be ready to eat before midnight but tomorrow is going to be a feast.

California should be paying more attention to Texas. It seems that we are getting their share of the water so we must be doing something right. And please, this time, don’t anyone make the ridiculous comment about the water being “of Biblical proportions” without at least more than a cursory review of Genesis.

Update At Noon: The National Weather service upped its prediction to four to six inches of rain in the Houston area but just now admitted that at the present time there is NO rain falling in Houston. BUT up to twelve inches may fall in the Austin area--major yuppie complex and more apt to be true believers. Keep in mind that the storm has come ashore west of Houston which means that we are on the wet side. Austin is west of the storm--generally the drier side of a tropical rotation. I hear there is already a critical shortage of tofu and Ben and Jerrys west of Smithville!