Go Away, Alex!

For many reasons, I'm hoping that Tropical Storm Alex disintegrates as it goes over the Yucatan Penninsula. Of course, I wish no harm to those who live on the penninsula. I just want that puppy to fade away into nothingness before it hits anyone.

Doesn't look like that's going to happen, though.

Besides my real concern over the current oil spill recovery operations and what effect a tropical storm or hurricane will have on the environment, hurricane season is a weird time for me. At some level, there's a bit of excitement. Hurricanes are somewhat unpredictable beasties and I like trying to outguess where they're headed and what they are going to be like. Don't want to be anywhere near anything stronger than a mid-range Category 2, but do find myself drawn to watching them.

They also scare me. I find myself being hypersensitive to everything about what might happen, especially since Hurricane Rita sent a tree through my den and kept me out of the house for about 2 years. I'm not panicked. I'm certainly not really ready for staying in the house if a hurricane hits, although I do have some things to help me through. And it won't take too long to toss together an evacuation box and some clothes and things for the dog to head out of town, if needed. Nice thing about hurricanes is that you can see them coming and have time to prepare.

What's making this a more anxious time for me is that I'm supposed to head out of town while my mom watches The Penster. Last time that happened while a tropical storm was barely forming many miles away, it turned into Her Horribleness and I was stuck 1500 miles away from home, while Mom and the dog were caught up in evacuate or stay or what mode.

As one might expect, the dog really doesn't like major storms, which upsets Mom. Before I left the last time, Mom said, "You aren't really going to leave, are you? There's a hurricane coming." It was an itty, bitty tropical storm, just barely named at that point, so I left. Mom was right.

Don't know what Mom will say about this one, and I really, really need to be at the meeting I'm headed to.

So ...



GO AWAY, ALEX!