Life, Interrupted

It is 30 degrees F outside -- the wind chill is 22. There's a quarter inch of solid ice on everything, and the icicles are a foot long already. Small potatoes from my Midwest days -- in fact, 22 and sunny was walking around in an open coat courting pneumonia weather.
( Of weather, sloth, reading and research )
Gotta heat the rice bricks for bed tonight. Both atmosphere for the Allie books, and a comfort for me! Sometimes the Burmese join me, sometimes they curl up in my Laz-E-Boy in the living-room. Tonight I will probably wake at 4 am with Burmese burrowed down to about my knees. If they'd only sit on me without the bricks, it would be perfect. But cats are not trainable. Open to suggestions in their best interest, yes. But not trainable.

Update: W opened the front door for a quick peek. Says the icicles are at least 18" English, and tree branches are now coated with a thin layer of ice. Tomorrow will be lovely -- dangerous, but lovely. Too bad we're entering the dark of the moon, Wednesday night would be spectacular.

There is a #$^%# big storm heading southeast, other storms popping up SE and heading NW, and Austin is a sitting duck. We've got rain in NW already, and they're talking two inches per hour. So -- no driving through low water crossings, right?

Right.

An inch of water in the garage, and I saw that neighbor with a pot-bellied pig loading a large boat....

W's path/channel to divert rain from the office door is working, even though it's not finished!

The good news is, the skylights seem to be holding, and all repairs to the roof. Of course, we just added 15 minutes of hail into the mix.

My car is 11 years old, and shrugged. My cats are a bit more concerned. I have unlocked the front door and readied a BIG umbrella....

I thought we were traveling this weekend -- things may change, now.

Well--

We stayed in bed until 10:30, and extra sleep is always appreciated. It's in the low to mid thirties out there (30 at Camp Mabry, 37 at the new airport, for those of you who know the Hill Country) and the wind chill is 27, oh joy. I am gently nagging W to bundle up--he's going to make a deposit at the bank, and maybe Costco if the place isn't packed--strawberry run. We did Irish oatmeal for breakfast, with blueberries and the rest of the strawberries on top. Quite lovely.

A friend just called about brunch or dinner--I voted dinner. She also wanted to go a movie, but I don't think she has enough strength to do both--her wiley spouse suggested maybe people might like just a leisurely meal together? So that's what it looks like will happen.

I'd thought about going to Natural Gardener to see what they had in already, and to shop for a couple of pots, but 27 degrees F. wind chill does not thrill. And--I started a new short story last night, and want to see if I know how to finish it! (No bar graphics yet--don't want to scare the story off!) About 1000 words so far....

We were joking about it--balmy days in January, not as much rain as usual, no bitter cold days to remind us of the Blue Northers to come (I've talked about Blue Northers before, but don't remember when...) We usually hover in the upper forties now, dropping to low thirties at night--at least in memory. My office was cold at night last year (old windows.) It's better now, with mostly new windows, but still ten degrees cooler than the rest of the house.

Now, a small magnolia next door is in full bloom.
( Mad Plants! simply mad! )

Update:
Now the smaller lantana in the window box is putting out leaves. Lantana doesn't start growing until it hits the 80s!

I just cut the big one back to stalks, so at least one of them won't look silly when it finally re-leafs...

Yes this is a big deal, we're having a drought here!

RAIN!!!

Doing the happy rain dance with cats (who think I'm silly but like being held!)

It was in the low 70s Thursday! We return to seasonal upper 80s tomorrow, but for one day, we had Autumn!

We will never pray, even jokingly, for a hurricane again.

I remember this story from months back, and wondered if the government was working on it. It was a lot more terrifying than terrorists. The Louisiana Wetlands are dying, and each year New Orleans is more threatened. This prescient 20 minute audio (or article) from American RadioWorks’ was pointing out that if a Category Five hurricane hit New Orleans, between 20,000 and 100,000 people would die. The buildings you've seen walking along Royale and the others--under 20 feet of water. And the city would be literally wiped away, because The Levee System, the great system that dwarfs all other levees, is only capable of handling a 12 foot storm surge. Water will go over the levee--and it has no way to go out. The turbines that pump water from the streets will be under water. They can't start up until they are no longer under water.

I have to wonder if somewhere at this very moment, a group of somber men are in a concrete fortress with their finger on the button, ready to blow one of the levees in a fragile chance the water will rush back out to sea.

It they do, the surge may take the city, of course. It will take all the poor, who could not evacuate. I have friends there, and I pray they left town days ago.

Theresa Nielsen Hayden has links to the hot spots. This is not a drill. Here's what the NWS* has to say about the storm, and I've never seen them this blunt.

Hurricane Katrina is now twice the size of Camille. I don't think it can diminish enough to save New Orleans. And this is only the smallest hurricane people are predicting that global warming may cause--we may have category 6, 7 and 8 storms someday. And no coastal cities, of course.

Read the American Radio Works link fast--before it's under water.

Update: Here's the first check-in site I found. No trolls, please--this is for people to let loved ones know they got out of NO and are safe.

http://webnews.sff.net/read?cmd=xover&group=sff.discuss.hurricane-katrina-check-in


*This information was verified by a half-dozen readers of MAKING LIGHT, Theresa's blog. It was not one of the critical bulletins, oddly enough. Check in the 50-70 comment range for info on it.