Dennis

About 5:30 this afternoon, rumbling thunder announced the first encroachment of Hurricane Dennis on the Atlanta area. This was followed by the downpouring of a truly amazing amount of water - I was out in my car, and was surprised to see how quickly the streets flooded and the intensity of the first thunderstorm. Things have calmed down a little bit right now, but I feel that the downpour was just a harbinger of things to come.

They predicted a bumper-crop season of hurricanes and tropical storms this year, and so far, the weather is living up to their predictions - two tropical storms have rolled through Georgia, and the first hurricane is about to hit, and it's still early July.

T.S. Arlene was a bit of a disappointment, but it did cause me to postpone June's Zen hike and slowed air traffic as I was flying back from Chicago. T.S. Cindy created tornadoes south of Atlanta earlier this week (while I was in deposition), and tore up the Atlanta Motor Speedway to the tune of several million dollars, much to the consternation of NASCAR fans. And now here comes Dennis.

I was supposed to fly to Pascagoula on Monday, but I've postponed the trip because the hurricane is predicted to make landfall on the Gulf Coast on Monday morning - I probably couldn't even get a flight out of Atlanta then if I tried.

I'm stocked up for the hurricane - lots of bread, milk and other food essentials, tomorrow's Sunday Times, and lots of other reading material, and a long list of house chores to be done. So here's hoping that the roof stays watertight, the trees stay upright and the electricity stays on as I ride out Dennis for the next day or two.

Postscript - Blogger's spell check suggests the word "vacuously" for "Pascagoula" - go figure. It also doesn't recognize "Blogger," the name of its own creator.