Complex Numbers

Revisited: "Rock you like a..."

Today's retrospective takes us back to September of 2018, a brief entry about the weather: "Rock you like a..." 

So now, six years less a season later, how have things changed?

It's hard to avoid people talking about the impending doom of Hurricane Florence, so I might as well add my voice to the babble.

I remember that one. While it hit the coast as a Cat 1, it was so slow-moving that what it lacked in wind damage it made up for in massive flooding.

No, I'm nowhere near the coast. Looks like the worst we'll get is a bunch of rain. Nothing new there; it's been raining more often than not all summer. I'm at a high spot and I have a sump pump and a backup generator.

I swear my sense of time is horribly distorted. If you asked me yesterday when I got my generator, I'd have probably answered, "I don't know. 2020, maybe?" Our power sometimes goes out in a light breeze, so it's not just for hurricanes. I justify the presence of the (very loud) generator by claiming I have a medical device that requires electricity, which is true, but the main reason is I don't want to be without internet for more than five minutes.

I also have a house surrounded by trees, though, so I might be boned anyway.

Since then, I've had at least one of the trees taken down, one that was leaning noticeably toward the house. Still boned when the next 'cane blows through.

Some good friends of mine live in Raleigh, NC. They're boned.

They got through it just fine. Couldn't go anywhere for a day or so, if I recall correctly, but safe and dry. They just bought a house in southwest Virginia this year, which means the next hurricane will head for them. And yes, hurricanes can still do significant damage that far inland. Not as often, but it happens.

I have a fondness for Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks. I'll miss them.

My fondness for Virginia Beach ended when I heard that my favorite watering hole there was closing. And miraculously, most of the OBX is still there. I just spent a night there last year.

It seems like a lot of the places I've been to have been hit by something.

Some sort of familiarity bias. Also, I travel more than a little, and every time I do, the chance of a place I've been getting smacked by some disaster goes up a little.

Well, as long as Las Vegas is still- wait, what? The Colorado River is at historic low flows, and Lake Mead is dangerously dry?

Since then, the water level there has fluctuated,   but it's still pretty low. I also haven't been to Vegas since the pandemic started.

I'd ship 'em some of our rain if I could. Let me tell you, if I ever hear another breath about "drought" around here, I'mma lose it at someone.

We've had a bit of a dry spell this year (I write this during a drizzle, however, and we're supposed to get thunderstorms this afternoon and evening). My grass is partly brown. Good thing I don't live in an HOA; I refuse to waste water on lawn irrigation.

They've been predicting a very active hurricane season this year, but those long-range predictions are questionable at best, so I don't pay much attention to them. Weather is notoriously hard to predict with any accuracy more than a week out, so I'll do what I do every year: wait and see.

And try to remember to get my generator serviced.