I Really Oughta...

...turn off The Weather Channel.

Part of my semi-obsessive weather watching is legitimate. I'd like to be able to figure out when it will be safe to finish painting the exterior of my house. Doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon. Especially since there's thunder rumbling in the background and some of those thunderstorms might actually make it here from the coast. Even if it does manage to get dry enough to paint, it'll probably be way too hot for most of the day. This task may have to wait until October.

It's also legitimate to keep up with the latest tropical updates (nothing happening at this second, but you've gotta keep your eye on ... )and see if the skies are about to break loose with a gullywasher at any moment, usually just before I walk out of the house. Weather radar is your friend. (Anyone else remember when the Weather Channel was just the local radar circling round and round with someone intermittently announcing temperatures and weather alerts?)

However, today is the 2nd anniversary of Katrina's landfall. Each time one of the segments on how bad things were and what recovery is happening and what the area has to look forward to in the future, I find myself feeling really ambivalent.

There's the angry part of me that says "All right, already! We've Katrina ... Katrina ... Katrina'd until you'd think that was the only catastrophe that happened in 2005." And I wonder if they'll do the 2-year anniversary of Rita and Wilma with the same overkill they're devoting to Katrina. Probably not.

Then I find myself hoping that they don't. The look back reminds me too much of the whole surreal experience of watching the devastation and then seeing a similar destruction head straight for our coast 3 weeks later. It's peak hurricane season, so my hypervigilance becomes even more hyper (if that's possible).

Then I end up feeling guilty because the eastern Gulf Coast took a super-major hit and you see the pictures of the devastation that is still waiting to be dealt with. Finally other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi are getting a bit of their due, yet New Orleans is still the "star".

It is encouraging to see how far things have come, as well as discouraging to see just how far they've yet to go. The mind recognizes that 10 years out may see the area looking almost as though nothing had ever happened. The heart goes out to those who are caught in limbo in the meantime. To some degree, I understand their limbo; although, certainly my limbo is nowhere as deep or long as theirs may be. And the same recovery parameters may be just as true for us as it was for those clobbered by Katrina.

Yeah. I think I oughta just turn off the tv for a while. ACK! More thunder. Maybe not.

Peace

It's absolutely curious as to what brings peace to my soul right now. Checking out the National Hurricane Center and discovering that:

"There are no tropical cyclones at this time"

is one of them.

Having my church members recognize the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Dean and desiring to help as they are able, at this time, through our Presbyterian Disaster Assistance program.

Watching a squirrel climb down the middle framing of the sliding glass patio door (actually, that was more of a chuckle, but there was a sense of peace - except for the dog who wasn't sure if someone/thing was breaking in or just what was happening)

... *humming* "these are a few of my favorite things"!

Would that the peace of this particular moment floods the entire earth and all war and conflict cease. *sigh* (Nope - I'm not headed back to reality and you can't make me!)

Whew ... and a Prayer

*wipes brow* It appears we're going to dodge this particular bullet as Master Dean seems to have decided on a decidedly westward path.

He's still a nasty character and has caused significant damage and taken lives. Looks like he may become an even nastier character before whomping into the Yucatan Penninsula.

So - prayers arising for those in his path. We who have dodged this disaster are with you in spirit. Please do whatever you can to be safe.

Tropical Blues

The first Gulf-aimed hurricane of the season has arisen ... and it's a biggie!

Living along the Gulf Coast, one tends to keep the potential for hurricanes in one's peripheral vision. I find myself checking the 'Tropical Update' on The Weather Channel out of the corner of my eye each morning from June 1st onward. However, once we get to August, I shift from peripheral vision to at least one eye firmly focused on the tropical reports more than once daily. So, I'd had my eye on Dean since he was just a gleam of a possible wave off the coast of Africa.

Since Her Horribleness blew through town about two years ago, I've broadened my hurricane watching resources. In 2005, I was virtually certain that the high pressure hovering over the southeast Texas coast would send Rita skittering past us and further west, if it even turned into a hurricane at all. Wrong-o!

It would have been nice if The Weather Channel and other tv outlets had even mentioned the National Hurricane Center's concern that the high pressure system would be shoved out of the way and a low pressure system just primed to suck Rita home would take its place. I realized none of this until watching CNN News as Rita bore down on the Texas border while stuck in California.

Now I wander through the National Hurricane Center Forecast Discussions regularly. I didn't even know it existed two years ago.

So - back to the original premise of this post:

A hurricane's headed to the Gulf ... and it's a biggie!

The range of emotions has been, well, weird. There's this part of me that's hypersensitive - an almost obsessive desire to know what's going on with Dean, precisely and minute by minute. I generally get to the Forecast Discussions within 15-20 minutes of them being posted. The lag is because I want to give them a chance to have the newest stuff up before I hit the site.

There's this part of me that is a bit ecstatic about having a hurricane to track. (I know - I said this was weird.) Somehow I want to vindicate my improved tracking skills. Please don't laugh. I know hurricanes are capricious and beastly difficult for even the experts. But I've had a pretty good track record over the years and Rita got past me. That just bugs the heck out of me!

There's another part of me that's wavering in distress. I truly wanted to be able to sleep at least one night in my restored home before another monstrosity even glimpsed the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. One moment I'm gleeful over the things that have been accomplished: all that's left for the interior to be complete is trim and touchup painting, cleaning (a bazillion loads of laundry and dishes as well as getting rid of two years worth of dust - did you really imagine that I'd cleaned house in the month before Rita hit?), and reinstalling my furniture. Then I'm plunged into despair when things foul up getting those last things done.

Then there's the flash of anger at the local paper's editoral to "just get over it!" The intelletual part of me recognizes that their reaction is simply a phase of compassion fatigue, something to be expected at this point in recovery. Yeah! I'd love for things to be back to something resembling normal. *sarcastic* Me to editorial writer, "Yep! You've got it back together, so come take over my life for a bit and I'll live yours! You want things put back together quicker? What have YOU done to help someone who's struggling? or those without the funds to make the repairs? or still on the long waiting lists to get volunteer workers to put things back together? HUH?!"

*sigh* And then there're the times when I just feel completely sapped of any energy. *chuckle* Guess you could call it a 'tropical depression'. It passes, but I'd rather do without them.

In the grand scheme of things, it's a good thing I don't chew my nails or I'd have none left (or would be working on my toenails by now).

Well, the thunder from a local storm has the dog giving me a semi-anxious look, so I guess I'll bring this to an end and go reassure her.

Any songwriters out there interested in composing a tropical blues? I'd love to hear it!

Come. On.

As I was signing offline last night, just as everything was shutting down, the AOL screen that flows through with current news announced in bold headlines:

Tropical Storm Erin Heads Ashore

As Major Storm

ARRRRRRRGH! (ummmm...that was me)

You do not describe a measly barely-a-tropical-storm as a MAJOR storm during hurricane season. MAJOR is at least a Category 3, definitely Cat 4 or 5. MAJOR means nasty winds and storm surge and the potential for some exceeding nastiness.

Sure, you watch the darned things while they're in the Gulf, 'cuz hurricanes can be sneaky beasts. Get one of them lolling over the water, stuck in one place gathering water and the like, and you may have a steamroller headed at you. But when it heads onshore? Well, if it gets stuck (like Tropical Storm Alicia did several years ago), it may lead to significant flooding. But MAJOR!?!

I like flooding just as much as the next person - not at all! However, I also am not thrilled with hype when it comes to reporting on storms. Where do you go emotionally when a mere tropical storm rates the level of a Cat 5 hysteria?

Come. On.

Holy Sh-- Report

Reading today's local newspaper, I came across this Associated Press article, "Girl dragged behind van at boot camp". Ok - sometimes I read stuff like this, sometimes I don't. However, I glanced at the first sentence and saw this phrase "Christian boot camp"! Immediate reaction WTF!! So of course, I read the whole thing.

Apparently, a 15-year-old girl was having difficulty keeping up on a morning run. The director assigned one of the staff to run alongside of her to motivate her. When she fell, these so-called Christian bozos tied her to the back of a van and then dragged her! The name of this boot camp? Love Demonstrated Ministries.

Someone somewhere didn't get the memo ... or forgot to read the Book ... or came equipped with no brains ... or certainly wasn't willing to truly listen to and interpret what it means to demonstrate love! I'm hoping the police totally throw the book (the legal code, at least) at them and lock them up with a copy of The Book to read over and over and over, especially spending time to read what Jesus himself did to demonstrate love. It certainly didn't involve harming another human being.

Then second on the H.S. (ummmm.....that's not coming out right 'cuz it certainly wasn't the Holy Spirit) report: FEMA is only now deciding that people living in trailers after the 2005 hurricane season should vacate the premises ASAP! They've had the info in their hot little hands for about a year, but chose to sit on it. The article doesn't once mention that it's probably not a good idea to BUY the stupid trailers from FEMA, which they've been trying to sell to those living in them for about $300-$500.

Here's the kicker - There are about 45,000 trailers still in use in Louisiana alone, and they've only managed to scrounge up about 4,500 rental units for people to move into. Along the Gulf Coast, approximately 65,000 are still living in trailers. Cruise ships, anyone? Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it would get people out of a toxic formaldehyde situation fairly quickly while FEMA/HUD work to get some viable rental property in place.

I do want to say for the record that the local FEMA workers who are still in the area have been quite sympathetic to the situation and have been advocating for a better solution whenever difficulties have been pointed out. It's the muckety-mucks who don't seem to get it.

Got Your Back!

Traveling to the church today, the car in front of me sported this bumpersticker:

God has my back!

My reaction? Oh, really!!

Let's see if I've gotten this straight. To me, that bumpersticker says that God supports me in whatever I've decided to do. It runs somewhat along the line of the old bumperstickers that said "God is my co-pilot." The followup to that one is more to my liking, "If God is your co-pilot, you're in the wrong seat."

The one I saw today smacks of human-centeredness. It says that God supports my biases, my prejudices, my interpretation of scripture, my ordering of how life should be lived. It eliminates the need for discernment of God's will and the possibility that what God wills may be completely antithetical to what I happen to want or believe becomes completely irrelevant.

True, one may spend significant time and effort trying to discern what God wants us to be and do, and in the end, our decisions may be the wrong ones. It's often hard to be certain in this life, especially if what we decide is in that gray area where any response we make could be the correct one. And it can often be difficult to discern when the "tough love" of Jesus with the rich young ruler which, while it may appear and feel like cruel treatment of one in need, is the most loving and caring action one may take. How does one best emulate Jesus in loving one's neighbor as oneself? Unless we're willing to take the difficult step of loving our enemies, rather than treating them according to our personal biases, how can we be certain that God "has our back"? True faith journeys are rarely easy or so straightforward.

Of course, the individual who was driving the car may have had a different interpretation. The sticker may simply have been a statement that the driver trusts that God is present in the difficult times as well as the good, perhaps even a restatement at some level of part of the 23rd Psalm. In which case, I agree wholeheartedly! But I must confess that I fear my first interpretation is the more likely one. I only hope that I'm wrong.

Coming up Roses!

Ahhhhhh! Good things happening. Progress. Positives. WOOHOO!

For once, something planned worked exactly like it was supposed to. The linoleum and carpet are completely installed ... and they look wonderful! The house looks liveable again.

Lotsa dust to be removed, though. Two years' worth! YIPE! But it's beginning to look like this long wandering in exile may be coming to an end.

I even felt comfortable enough with the progress to go out and buy a new washer and dryer. They're going to get quite a workout, as will the new dishwasher. What's coming next is the Spring Cleaning to end all spring cleanings. Well, not really, but you get the picture.

Next weekend comes the final touchup painting and painting and installing the trim, plus a couple of installations or so. Clean curtains, new curtains, new blinds and all sorts of fun stuff.

What bliss! To sleep in my own bed, just a few short weeks ahead. AHHHHHH! Heaven!