The Hurricane Humberto Refugee

"Grandbaby"

In my office this afternoon...

Hurricane Humberto.... SURPRISE !

Okie-dokie.... I want to thank all you folks who, indeed, followed directions from last evening's blog entry and crossed your fingers.... I asked for your digit intervention so that here in Liberty County... and, what the heck, big, bad old Houston nearby... wouldn't see a repeat of Tropical Storm Allison's 2001 devistation in the form of rainfall from Tropical Storm Humberto. Great news! It worked!

But, I woke up this morning thinking it odd that I hadn't been awakened in the night by the sound of horrendous rainfall.... promptly turned on the tv to catch the 6:00 am news.... and saw that TS Humberto had upgraded to a cat 1 hurricane, taken a hard easterly track and slammed into Beaumont, Texas, about 50 miles east of here.

Holy SH**, Sherlock !!!

MY GRANDBABY IS IN COLLEGE IN BEAUMONT!!!!!

Fortunately, before I could get worked up into a serious case of Granny fit-throwin', my daughter called to tell me she'd just talked to aforementioned grandbaby and he was doing fine... none too happy his mom had awakened him, but fine all the same.

Yesterday, the college had cancelled classes for today, told the students to move all automobiles to the south end of the large dorm complex (higher ground) and to stay inside. The college has a very proactive severe weather plan, having suffered heavy damage in the landfall of Hurricane Rita two years ago. Grandbaby felt his truck was high enough that it would be okay parked in the higher center of his dorm parking lot. His dorm building and others around his suffered minor damage... loss of rain gutters, shingles here and there, downed trees and the like. The worst problem being no electricity, and none expected through the weekend, classes were also cancelled for Friday. Grandbaby is at home early this weekend.

Here on the upper Texas Gulf Coast, we have again dodged the bullet. Whew............

Humberto, the Rainmaker

Okay, folks.... here he is..... Tropical Storm Humberto.... it's about 9:25pm, Wednesday night. Here in Liberty County (see "Liberty" on the radar map) we are warned we will get 5-10 inches of rain in about a 8 hour period tonight starting at midnight. We could get as much as 15 inches. It's a slow moving storm and will do its worst damage to the Liberty County, Texas area with the rainfall.

Through my employment with the county, I have access to early emergency management planning AND I have to go to work, even if the county shuts down. Ahem.... Of course, If I can't get there, I can't get there.... a day off to sit on the sofa and write would be lovely.

Cross your fingers that we don't get a repeat of Tropical Storm Allison which, in 2001 brought the greater Houston area to its knees. If you're not familiar with Allison and the flooding she caused in Houston.... Google her..... the photos were awesome.

*TS Storm Humberto radar photo from KPRC-TV (Houston) weather radar

At Goal Weight Watchers Member

At my weekly Weight Watchers meeting yesterday morning, I realized that, since I became an at goal lifetime member, six months have gone by. I only realized this because I'd just gotten the last weigh in sticker on my WW book. There are 24 such spots for weigh in stickers so.... 24 divided by 4 is 6..... therefore, I've been lifetime for six months.

Six months is significant to me because it's the six month mark where, in the past when I'd managed to lose a significant amount of weight (but not all I needed to lose), that I began to slip away from the method, diet or otherwise, that had been responsible for me losing the weight. I've said all along... I'm pleased beyond words to have lost 83 pounds, but I'll be MORE impressed when, at six months or a year out, I've managed to KEEP it off. And here I am... six months out and I'm still at goal weight! Woooooooo-hoooooooooo!