Raindrops on roses

It’s been raining all day.  It woke me for the first time at six.  It comes in waves: a light, steady rain, punctuated by spells of rain coming down in buckets and sheets.  Our nearest weather station suggests that we have accumulated rain at .36 inches or 9 mm per hour.  I’ve instituted my own rudimentary weather station on the back patio.  It’s a one liter beaker, connected by my brain to a kitchen timer set for one hour.  I’ll let you know.  

The wind is fairly mild now, anywhere from 5 mph (9km/h) up to 27 mph (43 km/h), but is expected to rise as the storm makes landfall down the coast.  This tricky monster has given everyone a bit of a scare.  At first, Dolly was zooming through the Caribbean, hopping the Yucatan peninsula without a backward glance, and zooming through the Gulf of Mexico.  As it got a little closer to landfall (which was forecast anywhere from Tampico, Mexico to Corpus Christ, Texas) it’s speed dropped by more than half, allowing it to grow and develop over the warm, ripe-for-hurricane Gulf waters.  Forecasts varied widely yesterday about landfall time, strength and location, but late yesterday, the meteorological types figured they had it pegged to go ashore at Brownsville, Texas in that city’s first direct-hit in over a decade.  

But whoops.  Fooled you, serious, meteorological types.  Dolly slowed even further, got even stronger, becoming a Category 2 storm (meaning lower pressure, stronger winds) and started hugging the coast, the eyewall gliding along the barrier island, winking at Brownsville as it went by.  

Its eye is more like a gaping maw, opening and closing as it slides up the coast to cross over the barrier island where?  Harlingen?  Raymondville?  Falfurrias?!!

That would be getting a little close for our comfort.  But we should remember that this is Mother Nature we’re dealing with.  The elements of pressure and temperature stirring up the moisture in not-entirely-predictable ways.  We’re still not worried.  We have chocolate and good things to drink and some spicy food to look forward to and best of all, good company.