howling winds

Things are rainy, which is a better sight than hot and humid. The still, dank air makes me kind of nervous. Ten years ago on my seventeenth birthday, the giant F5 tornado from hell wiped out Jarrell and destroyed large sections of the Cedar Park area just north of me. I remember the way the air felt in the afternoon, the greenish tint to the thick sunlight, the way everything was so heavy and still. I also remember the black wall staring down at us up north on 183, and how the clouds were sucked up into the three tornados that combined into one. For this year, I would like to not see anything like that.

I had the moment of those Volkswagen commericals yesterday. We were talking about nothing important while sitting at a stop light, when a sedan slid into the turn and came right at the side of my car. I was looking at the driver, a doofy looking you guy with a baseball cap on sideways and three friends in the car. While I was bracing myself for the impact, and hoping my airbag wouldn't break my wrist, I found myself thinking Those guys look just like the jerk off kids in the movie Kids, which I watched the night before. Thankfully, the car missed me by a few inches. It rattled me though.

Dinner at Mesa Ranch was delicious. Steve Ray runs a fine, fine restaurant. He's even thinking about opening a second location. I had the grilled rainbow trout, made even more fabulous with the lemon and capers that made a fine foil to the grilled asparagus spears. The duck is incredibly meaty and tender, and is so rich you find it hard to imagine it is a bird. My father had them sing to me and give me a piece of the delicious chocolate dessert. (I cracked up when the old cowboy singer in the bar told everyone it was my nineteenth birthday. I can't possibly look *that* young.)

Kimberly gave me my first birthday present of the year. It is a shiny piece of howlite, all white and grey, wrapped in silver wire with silvered glass beads. I really dig the stone, and the way it gleams. Yay birthday shiny.

Despite my concerns, the post office handed over my package without any troubles. One never knows what type of postal employee one will encounter, so I had my drivers license, my government ID badge, my check book and my utility bill just in case they wanted to give me grief. The customs form is in both Russian and French. I am relieved it made its way safely from Saint Petersburg and now I just need to find wrapping paper.

Now for a poll, because the question came up in a comment made and I am sincerely curious.

[Poll #991362]

UNDOING BUSH: How to repair eight years of sabotage, bungling and neglect

George W Bush has done more to transform the nation than any American president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Indeed, he may well be the perfect anti-Roosevelt. He has taken a propserous nation and mired it in war, replaced our national composure with terror and left behind him a legacy of damage so profound that repairing it will likely be the work of generations. Before the next administration can return to solving the already considerable problems the nation faced in 2000, it must begin to correct the misdeeds and missteps of the current one. And as Roosevelt demonstrated, the road back from perdition cannot be found without a good map. To that end, Harper's Magazine has assembled a group of journalists and thinkers to survey the damage, to determine what may (or may not) be remedied and to find our way forward.

The Constitution by David Cole

The Courts by Dahlia Lithwick

Civil Service by Ken Silverstein

The Environment by Bill McKibben

Science by Chris C. Mooney

The Economy by Dean Baker

The Marketplace of Ideas by Jack Hitt

Intelligence by James Bamford

The Military by Edward Luttwak

Diplomacy by Anne-Marie Slaughter

The National Character by Earl Shorris