Wordless Wednesday: Scoot Booty... Nephew Justin!!

What's with the Weather?!? Part II

So a couple of weeks ago, I was perplexed over this complicated hurricane map.

Two hurricanes doing something crazy like crossing up paths or something. It was just odd, as I don't remember anything like that jumping off before

Now this week, look what's happening.

FIVE hurricanes coming our way. FIVE.

Sally, Paulette, Rene, Teddy and Vicky.

It's like a whole family of hurricanes just decided to get together and roll out. All at once.

Oh my. I don't even know what to say or how to feel about this.

This weather.

It's too much.
Sally makes landfall tomorrow. Hopefully some of these hurricanes will fizzle out in the Atlantic Ocean, because we just can't handle all of this.

What's with this Weather!?!

One of the best things I do for myself on the weekend is to not watch much news. None of the weekend news shows that come on Sunday mornings, none of that if I can help it.

But I watch the evening news shows, like World News Tonight.

My big thing right now besides the pandemic is... what in the world is going on with the weather!!??

So I snapped this picture off my TV screen last week...

That is San Francisco. Just RED. And that is in the morning. They were told to turn on their high beams and go slow. Yo, how about I don't even go out that day. Cancel doctor appointments, tennis appointments. All that. What in the hell is that? Literally!

Then this graphic just really messed me up.

Nearly 15,000 firefighters? Oh my.

But what really help me understand the scope of it all was the map of fire locations on the west coast:

Now, I thought there was just one fire, like, over in California. I didn't know that there were too many to count, all up and down the west coast. That is almost too much to take in. No wonder there are so many firefighters involved. My goodness. Whole communities are burnt out carcasses of themselves.

Now, one of my favorite authors took a photo of her car in the morning. I think she lives in Los Angeles, which is nowhere near the fires. And even with that said, there is plenty ash on her car.

That is CRAZY. And just imagine the respiratory issues that are being aggravated and that will produce issues. Ugh.

Over thirty people have died in the fires, and a lot of people are missing. That makes it even more exasperating.

This has been on my mind heavy, and I sure included them on my prayer list. I wish that they could get some of this rain we've been getting. That would at least help.

Sigh.

Friday Freestyle: 9-11 Editon

Friday is here.

This week went by super fast. Which is really a good thing, since I am sitting at home. I am attending a conference right now, which is holding about 50% of my interest, if that. I am picking up little nuggets of information here and there. Nothing mind blowing. Right now it is just something to do, I suppose.

Today is 9-11, the anniversary of perhaps one of the most tragic events in the history of our country. (And I am speaking modern history within the last 50 years or thereabout). I tell you right now, I am SHOCKED that such an occurrence has not happened on that scale multiple times in our country since then. Just shocked. So at the same time, I am so thankful that we have been relatively safe from such large scale tragedy of that type.

I remember where I was. I have been on my job for 19 years now, and I had only been on this job for about three weeks when the Towers fell. I was at a conference. I cannot remember the name of the conference. It was in Denver, Colorado, and it was work-related.

I remember for a few days prior, this overwhelming sense of foreboding. (I have been trying to think of a word to describe what I was feeling... "foreboding" is the word for it). Something was wrong. And I automatically thought that I shouldn't fly to Denver, but that wasn't it. I flew there, made it there safely, and attended my first day of meetings. And a day later, on a Tuesday morning, when those jets hit those towers, I heard loud and clear on the inside... that was what's wrong.

I have not felt that way about anything sense then. It may be that my mind and heart are so cluttered, that I don't get quiet enough to hear much of anything. I don't know. I just know, if I don't have to feel that way ever again, fine by me. FINE.

What I do understand now is one thing, and it has been the subject of many a food-for-thought on this blog over the past 15 years:

Not only is the tragedy immediately devastating, but the long term residual effects of it are devastating, even much so.

Residual effects.

The residue of what is left behind after the clean up is over.

The mental residual effects. The mental residue.

That is what we are living in now... the residual effects of 9-11. 

And we will soon be hopefully living with the residual effects, the residue, of the coronavirus...

And we will survive it all.

Believe that.

Amen.