Windy Saturday...

Woah... last Saturday we had the windstorm from hell here in North Texas. The winds were so strong that the sky was red from all the sand that was picked up in West Texas. There were power outages, trees uprooted and many roofs were damaged. We had the privilege of driving to my daughter's soccer match, in Plano, TX. just to have them cancel the game as we got there. True, it was much worse at 3:00 p.m., game time was 4:00 p.m., but by 5:00 p.m. the skies were clear. It was still windy, but not as bad. It was surreal.

Really reminded me of my youth... pt0ooie, excuse me as I spit sand out of my mouth... I remember having to ride my bike to basketball (yes, we played Little Dribbler's basketball... seriously) practice one Saturday morning. By the time we were done with practice, the wind had kicked up and the sand was everywhere. Now, remember we had just finished practice, so I was sorta sweaty... The bike ride home was almost directly south, except for a couple of turns, so by the time I got home, my whole RIGHT SIDE was caked in sand... Another time, my friend Larry had to go to Lubbock for some reason, and by the return trip, one of these sandstorms had kicked up and literally SANDBLASTED his car. Seriously, the whole right side of his car was flecked with small indentations in the finish that had been blasted away by the sand. He had to have the car re-painted.

I don't have any pictures from this past weekend... not sure why, as that was really dumb now that I think about it, but here's a picture my sister sent me from a storm rolling in near Brownfield, TX.













And here's one I DID take in Lubbock, TX last summer as a sandstorm preceded a thunderstorm as it rolled in from the west. This was the weekend of the Great Class of '81 Pre-Reunion... well that's what I call it, as we ended up having another reunion during the Homecoming football game later last fall. I missed that one...

Weather bulletin...

This was forwarded to me... Don't know if it's legit, but it has some interesting points to make...

Interesting...kk This text is from a county emergency manager out in the Western part of Colorado after the recent snow storm. WEATHER BULLETIN Up here in mountainous Colorado we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands. FYI: George Bush did not come. FEMA did nothing. No one howled for the government. No one blamed the government. No one even uttered an expletive on TV. Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit. Our Mayor's did not blame Bush or anyone else. Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else either CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snow storm Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards. No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House. No one looted. Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something. Nobody expected the government to do anything either. No Larry King, No Katie Couric, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera No Sean Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found. Nope, we just melted the snow for water. Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars. The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny. Local restaurants made food, and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families. Families took in the stranded people - total strangers. We Fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns. We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die." We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sitting at home' checks. Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves. "In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate." It does seem that way, at least to me. I hope this gets passed on. Maybe SOME people will get the message The world does Not owe you a living.