Friday, September 23, 2005

The Calm Before the Storm


....is an apt phrase indeed. Rita is still churning in the Gulf of Mexico. It has been eerily still for the past 2 days, hot, humid, sticky, not a hint of a breeze. The kind of weather where you break out in a damp sweat just going out the door. It's been overcast and hazy, no clouds and grayish colored sky. Even the birds have been still. Not one drop rain and the plants are parched.

One of the worst parts of the hurricane is the........

Anticipation,
Anticipation
Is making me late
Is keeping me waiting....
lyrics by Carly Simon

It's out there, you know it's out there and you can't do anything about it. You can't make it go away, all you can do is leave, and given the gridlock of the past 3 days that wasn't even an option for many. The TV switches to 24/7 coverage and you are drawn to it like a moth to a flame. There really isn't a great deal of news and the anchor people keep repeating the same thing over and over again. But you just can't turn away - for some reason pictures of reporters in rain slickers being blown about are so compelling. You feel like you are suspended in time, enveloped in jello, stuck in the muck. All you can do is wait for the oncoming train to come barreling down the tracks and hit you upside the head.

You can wait, watch and wait some more. It it truly an exercise in patience and a lesson that no matter what, Mother Nature always holds the trump card.

3 comments:

KarbonKountyMoos said...

I'm no prophet
and I don't know nature's ways
so I'll try
and see into your eyes right now
and stay right here
'cause these are the good old days...
(a little more Anticipation by CS)

Thinking of you here in cool, relatively calm Montana. Hoping that you're safe & sound. (Another song by Carly Simon!)
"If through all the madness
we can stick together
we're safe and sound
the world's just
inside out
and upside down"

Anonymous said...

Thinking about you today...hope all is okay and that you and yours come out relatively unscathed from the storm...

Melinda said...

Glad you got out of town! Hope all your friends and family in the area stay safe as well. Sending you warm, dry thoughts.