Yeah, exactly. I've been hearing that WE are going to get fucked, but then I hear this. Remember, folks, ALL THE PREDICTIONS said that Hannah was going to miss the Valley. Look where I am now.
Were you just listening to the meteorologists who lived there and hoped they could speak into existence it going away? Because I saw that shit coming a few days out, and I do believe I told you heads up. I just look at atmospheric conditions that might steer it and make a best guess based off that. Models are only as good as the data that goes into them, and with global warming and 2020 being fucking crazy, I don't think the models can predict any of that. From what I'm seeing, looks like it'll impact somewhere between Corpus and Houston, but the impact doesn't really matter -- it's the rain it'll bring, which looks primed to fall on the Houston, Lake Charles, NOLA area. This is gonna be a really long event. The Gulf is warm, there's already a lot of water in those areas, and it's a recipe for flooding.
There's one not 3 minutes from me. The sites, sounds, and yes, sometimes the smells will make you wonder if you've wondered into some weird alien/redneck alternate reality. I was done with Walmart 8-10 years ago when I went in looking for shotgun shells for duck hunting and was advised by an employee they would no longer stock items related to the duck hunting... in Louisiana... WTF???
Our son just started working at the local Walmart. First day in the job he found a used tampon someone decided to throw on the floor. I won’t set foot in the fucking place unless absolutely necessary. How anyone willingly goes there regularly is beyond me.
I dedicate my last unclogged artery to whomever invented the honey butter fried chicken biscuit at Whataburger. The only thing open at 8 am other than Waffle House, and I am in an obese heaven. Line of cars around the building and a dozen folks inside. No one in sight looked like they could run more than 30 yards without clutching their chest and turning a color normally reserved for angry beets. They literally found a way to combine salt, sugar and fat in pure, concentrated form and slathered it all over carbs. Genius. If I drank, I would change the name of this place in my phone to "last call" as it is superb drunk food.
What a glorious weekend. Frost at night, nice and warm in the sun during the day... Spent the day starting to winterize the back yard... shutting off water, wiping out the shit in the vegetable gardens, sitting in the sun drinking some nice Shelter Point whisky A friend of mine in BC has run across this local distillery and is sending me bottle after bottle of the stuff... it is insanely good. Just pulled a pork shoulder out of the smoker after 12 hours and it's resting in a cooler right now... an early taste shows it's OHMYFUCKINGGOD delicious... made up a fresh apple juice/cider/vinegar spritz for it and I could not be happier. I think I'm going to do fuck all for the rest of the day/night, except maybe have a beverage or 6. Hope all y'all are having a nice, relaxing weekend... and if you're in the path of a pissed off Mother Nature, be safe, and reach out if you need anything that we can provide.
Because builders are cheap and don't run sump discharge lines any further than immediately outside the house, I spent Saturday digging an additional 20ft out from the house. The big ass rock I had to sledgehammer and chisel a channel through was an added bonus. Saturday evening consisted of half a dozen Advil and an early bedtime.
Teddy is due to pass about 100 miles east of here with hurricane force winds extending 80 miles out from the center, so the storm won’t be too bad. We took part in the traditional hurricane preparation custom here of going along the beaches and checking out the waves.
I have one week of work to get through. And then a vacation consisting of finding things to do within driving distance. I’m fucking pumped. However, I have realized that my hair is thinning. I researched Rogaine, but I’m pretty sure my laziness will outweigh my vanity. I got a few years left to enjoy my hair, hopefully.
Was in a wedding this weekend for one of my best friends. They had invited 300 but could only have 50 due to COVID regulations. It was still a very nice evening. Next weekend going on an annual backpacking trip with my dad and brother. We’re going up and doing some of the Presidential Range in New Hampshire.
Any idea how the told 250 people they didn't make the cut, wildling the party down to 50? You know what I think is more enjoyable than a 50 person wedding and way more enjoyable than 300? Eloping, telling people afterwards, like we did.
It probably wasn’t all that difficult. The groom has 6 siblings with spouses and his parents and the bride has 1 and her parents. Those plus the rest of the bridal party, their spouses and a few relatives was basically it.
Best wedding I ever went to was billed as a house warming BBQ. Everyone showed up with booze and pot luck for the BBQ, small band, outside in the sun in the back yard. Halfway through the couple whose house it was called out and asked for everyone to group around, split down the middle, as "this here is Jim, our preacher, and he's going to marry us". 10 minutes later the band piped up again and we went back to drinking and bbq-ing. Everyone in bare feet, sandals, shorts, and t-shirts. Best. Wedding. Ever.
Woo! Hub's covid test was negative. Now I can hug him and he can hold the baby. Life is back to "new normal."
I told my sister my "brain scrub" (COVID test) came back negative. She was like...."Yeah, we all suspected there was nothing up there." Mom's recovering from surgery, and I can't relax til she gets the fuck out of the hospital. That facility was the epicenter of the COVID outbreak in their county, and she has one functioning lung, so I am terrified of her getting exposed. Not to mention the inevitable outbreak at my niece's school.... I'm listening to a book about Stevie Ray Vaughn on audible, and I can only make it a chapter or two at a time before having to switch to the man's music. Best blues guitarist of all time is sure to start a fight, but absolutely an overlooked gem and he's certainly up there. In a down moment at work, I peeked at him on YouTube, and seeing his hands work a guitar was simply astounding. Tunes like "Crossfire" and "Tightrope" are great "I work in a meat grinder" songs for a commute. For the uninitiated (shame on you), start with "Texas Flood" and his take on "Voodoo Chile".
"Chitlins con carne" is a master class in how to control volume while still playing very complex, jazzy/blues licks quickly. I put SRV up there with the very best.