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.

Two at a Time?

So I have been barely paying much attention to the news. I think I am just tired of all the vitriol, and I want some peace.

But it has been raining every single day in Atlanta. I don't understand it. EVERY day, usually in the afternoon.

So I thought it was about time to watch the news. Maybe one of the meteorologists could explain what the world was going on!

Why is it that I turned on the TV and saw this?

TWO HURRICANES?

Luckily I have YouTubeTV, so I could just rewind it back.

YES! TWO at a TIME.

What the world?

2020 is something else...

First corona... then racism... then TWO HURRICANES.

Ugh.

I haven't seent such a thing. Have you?

One at a time is bad. Everybody have to brace themselves, evacuate, or whatever else needs to be done. Thank goodness for innovative weather technology, Doppler radars, and all that so we can see everything and get advanced warning.

But what do you do with TWO hurricanes spinning up at the same time??

I mean, look at this craziness!!



Hurricane Marco and Hurricane Laura.

Wow.

These don't seem like they will be TOO bad, i.e. they are not of Hurricane Katrina proportions.

But imagine if there were two category 5 hurricanes about to hit at the same time.

OH MY!!

And such a thing would not surprise me if it happened during the Great Pandemic of 2020.

Not at all.

But of course, memes run roughshod all through the Facebook and Twitter streets.

This is the best and funniest I have found:

There is no satisfying explanation for all the rain falling in Atlanta, save for them resulting right now from the outer bands of Marco or Laura. It has been raining everyday for what feels like months, so that is only a partial explanation.

But this is a high class problem for me, i.e., I can just open an umbrella and go on about my business.

It is a harsh reality for those in the path of the hurricanes.

I pray everyone is safe from harm and that all will be well.

Me complaining about a little rain is a small thing in the midst of it all.

Snow Days 2018, Part II

So this is our second round of snow and ice in the ATL.

And as usual, we all panic down here. I myself left work 3 hours early on Tuesday. It is usually dark when I get off from work, and there was NO WAY I was going to be driving home in the dark, in some sleet and ice. NOPE. So I took some leave and left early.

I didn't run to the store for milk and bread, like most Atlantans tend to do.  I did go to a grocery store, but it was a pleasure field trip/visit to a new gentrified grocer near my house. I bought some items, and I got home around 4:30 pm.

I woke up to lots of sunshine. I leaned over and lifted the blinds next to my bed and saw this:

My driveway was covered in snow. No, it's not a lot.  But this is the ATL, which means it might as well be 10 feet of snow. So that meant the workplace was shut down. Luckily I had my work laptop and lab notebooks, so I could work from home. I did that  (not a great efficient job of it, but oh well).. 

And here's how it looked outside my bedroom window late this afternoon.

The snow is melting. And it looks like my neighbor has ventured out in his big truck. But with temperatures in the teens tonight, the wet streets will freeze over, leaving dangerous sheets of black ice. And I got an email saying the job is closed again tomorrow. And that is fine by me.

It would be finer if I wasn't teleworking.

And as long as this power and internet stays on, I'm good.  Real good. 

We should all relax.

Spring is right around the corner! 

How Cold is It?

My oh my, it is COLD outside?

How cold is it?

If you are a Game of Thrones Fan, you will understand that it is this cold:

That's how cold it is... It's White-Walker-King-showing-up-in-your-'hood type of cold.

And if you are not a Game of Thrones fan, that picture is enough. That picture just looks, well, cold.

This is catching me off guard. Thank goodness we don't have snow, but I slid on a little black ice here in the ATL. It's not raining, but we have leaky pipes around. So there is water in some of the streets. That is scary. It makes me want to get to work early enough to leave before the darkness that falls around 5:30 pm. But I will just go slow and pay closer attention, especially since it will be some 20 degrees in the evenings and early mornings. Sigh.

I think this is an east coast phenomenon right now. I keep seeing headlines concerning a "Bomb Cyclone". That sounds like some craziness, and I'm not even going to read the entire article.

All I can hope is that those affected stay warm, and stay safe.

Spring will be here before we know it!

That Doggone Irma!

Man...

That doggone Irma got me all jacked up.

First of all, the workplace was shut down for Monday and Tuesday. So you know, I was all good with that... some free time off! Yes!

I should've known there would be a slight problem when I was watching the news and the WHOLE state of Georgia was covered with one giant swirl...



And yes, I'm still on that bootleg, with the flat screen TV on top of the tube TV. My sister bought that tube television for me at the thrift store for $35. I will not get rid of it. It is a sentimental thing, you see.



As you can tell, I was relaxing HARD, laid out on the couch wrapped in my favorite micro suede blanket, my feet clad in a new pair of black socks. I had on a pair of leggings and a tank top. I was feeling GREAT!

Then BOOM!

I knew that sound. It was an explosion. It was the transformer blowing.

It was around 3:30 pm.

Lights out.

No lights.

I found the three lone candles I had. They were conveniently up on the mantle. Let's just say my house smelled STRONGLY of peaches, flower, and cinnamon. My scent cells in my nose are OVERLOADED. But I had some light.

I tell you that after this, I'm finding a survival or camping store and I'm buying a kit... some lanterns and ish like that.

I feel like I'm in an episode of The Color Purple.

I'm expecting Celie to walk in at any moment and holler "Ya'll want somethin' to eat??"

LOL

Georgia Power put up some crazy message talking about it could be days or weeks before power is restored. Georgia Power, I live in a gentrified area, and if you don't stop talking that foolishness, you know these white folks gonna crash the lobby of your downtown building with torches and pitchforks. That power better be on TONIGHT.

If not, oh well. We need to think about people who lost everything due to the storm. Or have a house full of water and got to figure it out. A power outage is temporary at best, and it reminds me how much I rely on it. And that will be the lesson learned. 

But these are high class problems, you know.  I left the Lucy the Lexus in the garage (since it is stuck in there due to the power outage) and cranked up Pam the Protege and went on down to the hospital and spent the day with Scoot Booty. That little dude has gained a whole pound since he was born 3 weeks ago! Go Scoot Booty!

Irma is gone, spinning out in Tennessee somewhere.

I don't think we can take anymore hurricanes. So let's just hope and pray for a long long break from them! 

Rain, Rain, RAIN

It is RAINING in my beloved ATL. And these aren't lovely spring showers. This is some CRAZINESS.

I know it some bad rain when a crack of thunder sends Callie and Mitch running for cover.

I decided to turn on the news.

"Oh my, look at all that red!" I said as I was getting dressed. "That means I'm going to be fighting with a lot of water!"

It was raining so hard that I came to work an hour late.

You know it's bad when the weatherman says, "If you live or work in the Atlanta or Midtown area, don't leave the house!"

And when the weatherman says that with a look of FRIGHT in his eyes, I think I need to just listen and pay attention.

It was SO dark this morning that it looked like sunset outside.

And all that WATER.

LAWD.

Nope. I would just have to go in an hour late.

I left and there was only a little sprinkling and drizzle. I didn't even have to let up my umbrella.

But I work in an area where there are no windows, and I can hear the thunder. And the rain is hitting the roof pretty hard.

I know the UberEats delivery people are making a killing right now.... all the while navigating all this rain!

Hate it for them. Love it for them.

I am leaving at my normal quitting time.

And I hope I don't have to float all the way home! 

And this rainy day needs a rainy day song...  by Oran Juice Jones

It is COLD!!

I walked outside last Friday, eager and ready for the weekend, and I saw a bit of sleet on my car.

My best friend LadyTee had called me an hour earlier and said "Lee, it's snowing out here by me [on the Southside], so you need to be thinking about getting out of there a little earlier."

I didn't want to leave, for I was in the middle of something. I even went downstairs to look out the windows (there are no windows in my area). I was expecting a wild blustery blizzard, but alas, it was bleak and dry out. So I decided to just leave before dark.

And I saw that sleet. Ugh.

It was early enough. And it had stopped. The ground was wet, but not slick.

But I thought that I better get on home before the temperature went lower, before wet ground turned to icy ground. I wanted to stop by the store, but it would be dark by that time.

But I felt more like this:

Not sure I would want to hitch it all the way to Haiti. But any nice Carribean island would do right about now. Sometimes it gets so cold that I'm not sure that we will see the 90 degree temperatures of summer we tend to complain about so much again.

I am wishing for that now.

Because it is COLD.

And it's in the thirties and forties here in the ATL. But it will be in the teens where I'm traveling to...

All I can say is.... GLORY

*forcing a smile*