Cape Karen
The daffodils are up and smiling, the grass is green and the trees are budding. Seems that spring has arrived early this year in TN. (Heard that balmy MN just had 6"-10" of snow this week, finally. ) It's a little chilly here today, in the 50's again after a couple of weeks in the 70's and 80's. This 'cold snap' today follows some strong thunderstorms that skirted our area last night, spawning deadly tornadoes in the middle of the country, when some cold air met some warm air. Kansas, Missouri and Illinois got hit hard. I'm glad we don't live in "Tornado Alley."
Luckily, we seem to live in an area that 'just misses' most of the worst weather that occurs in the U.S. (cross my fingers ~ zip my lips~) The Smoky Mountains seem to stop a lot of the bad weather from reaching down into this valley, and we've yet to have a tornado come through here. Nashville got hit a few years ago, but, so far, not East TN.
That is one storm I never want to see up close and personal. Even the hardiest brick-built structures are no match for those whirlwinds of destruction, and our double-wide, manufactured home would be a death-trap for sure. With no basement, and no windowless interior rooms to 'hunker-down' into, we'd have to go lie down in a ditch somewhere if a tornado were to reach this valley.
So, we don't get big snowstorms, we don't get hurricanes or floods, and we don't get tornadoes. We do get scary, loud thunderstorms, with big lightening and lots of rain, on occasion; but that's about the worst of it.
I always enjoyed those good 'ol Nor'easters off the Atlantic ocean, and even the few hurricanes that erupted on the Cape, in my lifetime. But, these days ~ nah ~ I'll skip the new, big hurricanes. (They're already forming off the coast of Africa. It seems they're coming earlier each year, and getting stronger and stronger with the increasingly warm ocean waters beneath them.)
And, well, well ~ finally, seven months later, they are starting to re-build in the Gulf states. President Bush says the new levees will be. . . "all done by June." (I-don't-think-so. . .) And, even if they are completed by June, I'll bet you they won't hold up. The 'big rush' to get them built is forcing them to be built much too quickly, and without the structural soundness they'll need to withstand category 5 storms. (The engineers are saying they won't even hold up to a category 3 hurricane.) It's kinda like putting a bandaid on a broken leg; and, they're being done so quickly to help boost poll ratings for ~ 'you-know-who.'
I guess we'll just have to hope the hurricanes don't make it into the Gulf this coming season.
As for me, I'll stay right here, for now - it doesn't look like there are many places left in the U.S. that can still escape huge snowstorms, raging wildfires, deadly hurricanes, massive floods or devastating tornados. (Who knew The Weather Channel would ever be up for an Emmy Award? )
And, besides, if the bird flu arrives on U.S. soil ~ and mutates to humans ~ we won't have to worry about storms anymore, anyway. . . .
Now, after all those cheery thoughts, I think I'll go prepare my New England boiled dinner . . .and have some green beer.
Happy St. Patrick's Day ~ Happy Spring!
Posted by Karen at March 14, 2006 11:32 AM