Tag: why so crazy?

  • it’s happening again. groundhog day.  we can’t really do much about it. stupid weather.

    it’s happening again. groundhog day. we can’t really do much about it. stupid weather.

    Look at this weather forecast:

    IMG_7892Not pretty.  Again?  Really?

    The mosquitoes are going to eat us alive.  We are going to have a big wet mess again if this really happens.  Here lately, it seems that we’ve ended up in an endless do-loop cycle of “unprecedented” weather events.

    Not happy about this.  I was going to get to see my grand-baby this weekend, but now the likelihood of the roads being “underwater” between here and there is growing in a predictable way – but you know, they will never say positively one way or the other – they will interpret the data and make their predictions.

    But just look at the facts, yourself.  Presently, the Brazos River continues to rise, as it still has not reached flood stage.  Evacuations are ongoing.  Today.  We are waiting on another report but in the meantime, the map here on the USGS WaterWatch (#WaterWatch) site has the latest info for you to visualize the WHERE of all of this wacked-out weather.

    Here is what the forecasters from our NWS are saying as of the latest forecast before this writing:

    Area forecast discussion
    National Weather Service Houston/Galveston Texas
    1042 am CDT Wednesday Jun 1 2016

    Update…
    atmosphere is very moist with precipitable water of 1.7 to 1.8″
    this morning but this will be increasing throughout the afternoon
    and Thursday. Troughing along the coast to just off of crp will
    slowly lift north and help with storm development. Today expecting
    scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms and have raised
    probability of precipitation accordingly mainly over the central and eastern areas.
    Rainfall rates of 2″ per hour already going over Polk/Trinity
    counties this morning. Will raise a Flash Flood Watch across the
    area through Friday afternoon but may need extending.

    45

    &&

    Previous discussion… /issued /

    Discussion…
    southeastern Texas is readying itself for another few days of
    precipitation brought on by periods of locally moderate to heavy
    rainfall that will likely induce or aggravate regional flash and
    river flooding. All of the synoptic ingredients are in place, from
    the gradual spreading of the upper levels as jet level winds become
    more diffulent just ahead of the southwestern-settling mid to upper
    low to the Stout lower to mid level southeasterly 20-35 knot inflow
    feeding inland convection with near 2 inch precipitable waters.
    The devil is in the details as they say and this couldn’t be more
    true of a idiom than for US over the next several days. Yes,
    confidence is mounting that many across the region will experience
    a round or three of impressive rainfall (rates) that will again
    produce flooding and quite possibly various communities will be
    dealing with wind damage from either localized wet downbursts or
    weak tornadoes from passing strong thunderstorm clusters. As is
    the case with all of these anticipated potential severe weather
    events…the question of the exact timing and location of the most
    intense weather will go unanswered until either right before its
    passage or during the heat of battle itself. Although the vicinity
    (unfortunately southwestern-positioned) upper low and subsequent
    shortwave disturbances rotating around this main feature will
    ultimately be the impetus to inclement weather, it will be the
    mesoscale that determines the when and the where of the most
    severe rainfall and wind. Or, in other words, it will be that
    prior convection that drives future convective behavior and, if we
    can better pinpoint this on a 6 hour time line, then we may be
    able to more accurately convey a relatively higher confidence with
    a 12,or even 24, hour forecast.

    The target days for the highest rainfall will be from as early as
    today through as late as Saturday afternoon. This is the period in
    which the upper low currently digging down over the lower U.S.
    Southwest and the northern Mexico providences of Sonora and
    Chihuahua will nestle itself over Texas, particularly over eastern
    or south central state. With the highly moist ‘condition’ally
    unstable air mass already in place over the region, this scenario
    is the worse possible for US as it places eastern Texas under the
    best upper exhaust pattern for series of disturbances (the ‘conditional’)
    to generate lift and maintain an environment conducive to the
    formation of continual clusters of thunderstorms to slowly travel
    (train) over the area. Not expecting overall storm motion to be
    all that fast within a forecast weakly steered lower layer. As of
    now, the forecast calls for likely rain/storm chances commencing
    today and persisting through the weekend. There will be periods of
    either very light or no precipitation, especially if an mesoscale convective system travels
    across the County Warning Area and creates subsidence in its wake. A model and
    National center blend equates to an areawide 5 day quantitative precipitation forecast of between
    4 to 5 inches, locally higher with amounts of greater than 10
    inches certainly not out of the question. Of course, it will be
    those 1 inch amounts over 15 minutes across more urbanized landscapes
    that will be of the highest threat versus double digit rainfall
    over a span of several days.

    On a major side note…the city (iah) has not yet recorded a 90f
    degree day this year. If this forecast pans out and overcast with
    rainfall plagues the region through the weekend, then the city
    would likely not meet 90f for the remainder of the week. This
    would place 2016 in the top 5 if 90f was not met by Sunday (the
    latest day was on June 15th, 1897). 31

  • the problems with conversing during physical therapy

    the problems with conversing during physical therapy



     

    Oh my gosh.  Well, as people who know me understand, I like to chat and I like humor.  I figure that the only way through a painful physical therapy session is to try to take my mind off of it by laughing and having conversations.  Anyone would.  This is NOT your puffy relaxing Swedish massage.  It hurts.  Sometimes, it hurts BAD.  I am a person who has a lot of knots, old injuries and very tight places that need to be ironed out.

    This therapist at my Chiro’s office has been a fairly reasonable conversationalist and tells funny stories, to get your mind off of the pain, until recently.  Well.  You know the “gun thing”, and then there is the “health insurance thing”, and then there is the “conspiracy theory thing” consisting of the belief system that we have a dictator for a president who was sent to us by evil people yada, yada yada… As luck would have it, it turns out that he is one of “those people” who have the conspiracy theory all worked out.

    Yep.  And this guy is as serious as a heart attack.  Which is all the more scary.  The more passionate he got about his rant, the harder he worked on pushing on those knotty places and almost bending me until I was breaking in two!  Oh goodness me.

    IMG_5223As I did not agree with him by responding “Hell yeah!”, and instead tried to take the middle-of-the-road approach, and be as neutral as possible, he seemed to take offense and got a bit angry sounding… Yeah, this tact does not work with some people.  He really got revved up.  It was on the scary side by that point and thank God the clock wound down for the session.  Who knows if I would have been able to walk out of there had it gone on much longer!

    The next day, I visited with my Chiro about this situation.  He said that he and the other clinic owners would deal with this – kind of encourage the guy to not converse about politics, religion, etc., with the patients.  In my mind, it was “Good luck with that.  He will begin to harp on his constitutional rights of free speech!”  Oh well.  There will not be any more visits from ME to this guy.  Nope.

    It was also suggested that I view this video from Saturday Night Live whereby such situations could be handled in the future!  Talk about hilarious.  He said that I should bring Adele to my next visit!  Hey, put this in your CD player!

  • something to look forward to doing, no matter what. seek happy.

    something to look forward to doing, no matter what. seek happy.

    don’t you feel better when you have something that you can look forward to doing?  not dread.  but something that is cheery and fun?  there is a lot of discussion around, about happiness.  is happiness some state that once you’re there, you’re there?  is it episodic and fleeting?  is it a feeling or a state?

    it is my belief that happiness is not a state, but is a feeling and is a very complex one, at that.  if you focus on the positive and decline the negative (as much as possible) – you may likely have more “happiness” than others who do not use this technique.  this is my belief.

    this can be a challenge if the stress-monsters are active, or you are surrounded by negativity or people who might constantly chatter about some event or other – bitching, moaning, wailing, sniveling… ahhh – there it goes so easily it can happen!

    i recently went through a “dodged a bullet” or “cheated death, once again!” situations.  when the surgeon gave me the report, i squealed and did a “high five” with her – as it had been weeks of uncertainty and anxiety that began with a routine doctor’s visit, then tests, then a referral to another doctor (this one), and surgery, and more tests, and finally the report.  my mind went through so many gyrations that i know others go through – in fact, i said to one of my doctors, after she concluded a test to send off to the lab, “now we enter the “anxiety phase” of the process”.  she laughed.

    more data needed to make a decision was the line of reasoning.  but this does not prevent those conversations with God and the dredging up of thoughts of all types that take you in places you should likely not go.  right.  but you do.  “get your hands off that keyboard!”  “do NOT search the internet!!”  “bad!  bad!”

    it takes working with yourself to not slip into negativity with the constant battering of media that pumps it out to make us a more anxious society – in fact, a more anxious civilization…

    but being anxious makes you unhappy.  it makes everyone unhappy around you.  remember that movie,  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?  well, that didn’t work, now, did it?  what’s the answer?  hide.   yes, that’s right.  shut off all input from negative sources!  don’t read newspapers.  turn off the television!  listen to calm music.  it makes sense.  you can tell them NO by doing this!  try it for twenty-four hours – i  guarantee you will be a calmer person!

    in the meantime, feel free to gaze upon these images – to help yourself calm down.  imagine yourself there… now… enjoy!

    surf_n_turf

    DCF 1.0

    DCF 1.0