Hurricane du Jour

It's beginning to feel like a hurricane is simply one installment of a story published in a series, like in an old-time magazine. This installment's titled: Rita.

So far she's still only Tropical Storm (TS) Rita. And she looks like she belongs to the Lower Keys, not us. She has a fairly tight cone of error, which is good, and the dirty side is north like it should be. (Katrina was so ill-behaved in those ways.) Still and all, no use pretending we actually know where it's going to hit, so prep we do.

Serial or no, they all have their unique personalities. Just like in humans, some of those characteristics are fairly common. You can kind of group them, label them. This one's a Sneak Up On You When You Aren't Looking hurricane. Like Katrina was. Fast Moving, too. Distinctly different from, say, a Frances.

Now: we've all watched in horror as Katrina demolished New Orleans, and the help that poured in there from Florida topped the charts by several methods of measuring aid. We don't want to say one word about how long our electricity and phones were out, or the fuel problems either. There's just no comparison. Survivor guilt maybe plays some part in that feeling too.

But the fact remains, we haven't finished cleaning up from Katrina yet. There really was a huge mess of trees downed, a stunning amount for a Cat 1 storm, and bad flooding in Dade that slowed down the cleanup. So there's all these piles of debris, mostly branches and chainsawed trees, still sitting by the side of the road turning brown. Waiting for either the chippers - working diligently away, they are - or to take on a new career as a Rita Projectile.

And she snuck up so fast I'm not sure I can tidy up the loose stuff in my own yard before it's too late. It was gusting, bad, at noon already. I had just enough health today to keep my pain doctor appointment, do my shopping, catch up on Rx's, and fuel up. I'm tired. Tomorrow is Hurricane Day already. The worst is supposed to be over by tomorrow night.

Huh! If I miss my chance to make some Hurricane Baked Goods it just won't feel right.

I sense an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie binge coming on. Walter may be home to eat some soon and Jeff likes cookies too. And perhaps a little experiment with dinner rolls is in order...