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TD Bill. Time for you to mosey.

The loud beeps from my work Blackberry and my personal iPhone have unnerved me this afternoon as they do.  Normally, when that happens it is at night, But this, Tropical Depression Bill I believe it is now called, has been pouring down the rain this afternoon.

The flash flood warning for the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Area has been extended several hours until 7:45 p.m. CDT for all counties except for the northern part of Newton County. The National Weather Service office in Lake Charles, La., says one to three inches of rain has fallen over the area. I would have to guess that “locally” heavier amounts have fallen.

It's always raining something around Beaumont, Texas
It’s always raining something around Beaumont, Texas

Like all tropical systems, Bill has had its quirks. When it landed on the south-central Texas coast my area on the utmost Texas coast got a serving of on-and-off showers. This started happening more than 24 hours ago. I didn’t go out much yesterday, I had no need to do so. But I walked out a couple of times to the lightest of rain and a nice “breeze” of about 12 mph. As the storm degraded to a tropical depression, the rain has picked up in eastern Texas. Thus, the flash flood warnings.

Those of us here about 30 miles from the Gulf have slight elevation. Beaumont, where I live, is about 16 feet above sea level. I don’t know, if I ever knew, where that “mountain” of elevation is. Perhaps it is at Spindletop, the salt dome where the Lucas Gusher blew in on Jan. 10, 1901. That is the famous gusher that is known as the “birthplace of the modern petroleum industry.” Names such as Texaco and Gulf Oil became familiar after those companies started up after the gusher.

This is all to say that the area around Beaumont is mostly flat as an oil-topped pancake. I have seen a lot of water here in the nearly 10 years I have lived here. Or 12-something if you count two other times I was a resident here. Most of that water came in large amounts, such as with Hurricane Ike which was a flood-surging machine. Many of the other localized floods were just high enough to miss most automobiles. There is a trick in driving through street flooding, at least to get out of it. That involves not creating a wake. Just pretend you are driving a small fishing boat.

It’s still raining. I am no longer working for the week so I can kick back and stay out of the water unless someone wants to pay me to do so.

Bill will be problems for Oklahoma and then off to maybe the Tennessee Valley and beyond once it clears out. Hopefully, we won’t worry about ol’ Bill for much longer. I hope those beyond don’t have to fret about it either.

 

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Waiting on Bill that isn’t Bill as this is written

Update: The National Weather Service forecast station in Lake Charles, La., the forecast office for my area, will have an update on the storm at 7 p.m. CDT and can be watched on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j6DFDSH4Zo

BEAUMONT, Texas

6:15 p.m. CDT

Whoopee!!! It’s hurricane season again. And it looks as if the first tropical disruption might be official this evening. The “whoopee” is facetiousness.

I made a bit of money reporting and writing during the whole Katrina/Rita/Humberto/Ike set of tropical cyclones over the 2005-2008 time frame. Seems like I am leaving one off. I am certain there was another one. It didn’t hit here but there were some evacuations. I can’t remember. So many storms, so few memory cells. Nevertheless, I am here to tell you that tropical storms, hurricanes, pretty much suck. Thought I was going to say “blow” didn’t you? Well, that too.

Hurricanes, even tropical depressions can kill. That doesn’t happen much in the United States with exceptions, such as Katrina the most recent deadly storm. But dangerous tropical cyclones run up huge death tolls in some of the less-developed locales on the planet.

A couple of reasons for the lower body count in the U.S. is not because of the storms itself but because of improved warning systems and folks adhering to those admonitions. Although, some people still aren’t easily warned.

Even today, Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 remains a source of investigation from seemingly every type of social and physical science. A total of about 1,800 people in the U.S. — from Florida and Georgia to Louisiana — died from the storm. The toll in Louisiana alone was almost 1,600 and around 240 in Mississippi. Several reasons were found in studies why Katrina’s casualty count was that on par of a disaster-torn “third-world country.” Flooding and its death toll in New Orleans were directly tied to the collapse of the city’s levee system. Of course, the population of those victims were largely elderly and poor. Many couldn’t evacuate for one reason or the other are were too tied to their property to do so.

This picture taken after Hurricane Katrina in Long Beach, Miss., shows the destruction. The street, Jeff Davis Ave., is at the bottom of the picture is about two football fields away from the Gulf of Mexico. About 25 years before I would go to see my friend Christine who worked about 3/10 of a mile on US 90 at the Waffle House. Time flies like a hurricane. FEMA picture
This picture taken after Hurricane Katrina in Long Beach, Miss., shows the destruction. The street, Jeff Davis Ave., at the bottom of the picture is about two football fields away in distance from the Gulf of Mexico. About 25 years before I would stop for a cup of coffee and to see my friend Christine who worked about 3/10 of a mile on US 90 at the Waffle House. Time flies like a hurricane. FEMA picture

The Mississippi death toll came mostly from storm surge. Some of the victims had rode out the previous killer hurricane Camille and believed if they made it through Camille, they’d make it through this storm. Some did but others didn’t.

I learned a little about hurricanes having gone through those storms. For Rita I evacuated about 60 miles northeast of Beaumont, where I lived, and experienced probably the same amount of wind and rain as had I stayed home. I learned a little more about humanity from those storms as well. Each storm and having written about them gave me a little increased knowledge about hurricanes.

These days I don’t profess to be a hurricane expert. While those storms can be kind of a rush, I still would prefer to read about them than to go through them. As for this little storm off our coast, it will do what it does. It will probably rain an inch or two, which is added to what feels like a ton of rain we have already had this year.

The weather people on TV said the National Weather Service has yet to declare tropical depression or tropical storm warnings for what would be the named storm “Bill” is that the storm is basically not wrapped tight enough. That’s what I get at least. The National Hurricane Center says the storm has a 90 percent chance that it will be a named storm before it comes ashore within the next 12-24 hours. That is despite the storm has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. That is already the speed for a Tropical Storm.

We all learn as we go, right?

 

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Locked inside your car on a hot day isn’t so funny

Something strange happened yesterday that had it not ended in the death of a man the episode might have landed in the “funny” column. Let us expound upon this: It was “funny odd” and not funny “LOL.”

I was downtown on business thus I drove the 2014 Chevrolet Cruze that is my work-mobile. I had just finished having the first oil change for that auto. Perhaps I should point out that it was hot yesterday. How hot was it? Well, the official temp at the Jack Brooks Regional Airport in Nederland was 92 around that same time with a heat index of 102 degrees F. I was near the Port of Beaumont, some 15 miles northwest of the airport. I believe that I read somewhere that the highest point in the county in elevation is 24 feet. Occasionally a sea breeze rolls in some 30 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico. Still, I suppose we can settle upon “hot” as our answer to the question “how hot was it?”

Once I had settled inside the hot Cruze I strapped in and attempted to turn the key. It didn’t turn.

Using my large mechanically-inclined though mostly facetious brain I figured if the key didn’t work nothing else should work. So I combed through the owner’s manual eying the key section. That  selection had a lot of information, I was shown how my key was supposed to work. It even taught me how to start my car remotely. It didn’t tell me what to do if my key did not work.

While sweating profusely inside the sweltering car I began wondering what might happen if I were locked inside. My cell was working so I could call for help. But just to test out conditions I opened my car door. I also was able to use my window buttons. Apparently the key was turned just enough for that.

But I couldn’t figure out why the key didn’t turn all the way over. I finally looked at that GSA help book that was with my car when I first picked it up in Houston some 4,600 miles back. I eventually found a number for a technician. Fortunately, I got a laid back guy on the line who asked a couple of questions. Among those questions, did you try moving the steering wheel back and forth? No, I hadn’t tried that. So I tried that a couple of times and the car ignition fired up like it always did.

The technician teased me saying: “You can send me the check.” I said: “Huh.” It turned out he was joking. It’s easy to get your brain fried in that heat. That’s where I get to the part where the story is not funny (Ha-ha.)

On the local news last night I heard about Port Arthur police finding a man dead in his car outside the Waffle House on Jimmy Johnson Boulevard. Yes, it’s that Jimmy Johnson, the coach. He is a native of Port Arthur. So is Janis Joplin. So is rapper Bun B and so was his late rapping partner Pimp C. I’ve been to that same Waffle House before. Some nice people work there. The Waffle House is also only a mile or so from the airport, the official weather station,

The victim, who was known to frequent the restaurant for coffee and to charge his cell phone, died along with his dog inside a 2007 Corvette. Police said he had apparently attempted to get out of his car but was unable to do so. One TV report indicated he might have become stuck while trying to exit through the back window.

Police officers said a battery cable apparently became loose which caused the electronic doors to lock inside. According to this You Tube video produced by a man who sells the Corvettes, the G6 generation of the cars have alternate ways to both enter and exit when ea battery loses power. If outside, there is an actual key inside the fob that allows the driver to open a rear lock hidden from sight. Once inside, a mechanical device inside the rear of the car can be pulled to open the door. If locked on the inside, a lever with a red marking is located on the outside of the seat.

This linked article indicated the victim’s relatives said the “proximity key” worked sometimes but not at others. I am not really sure what that has to do with getting locked inside. The car is supposedly a G6. I’m not sure how long the man had the car or how familiar with his means of entrance and egress. On the other hand, there could have been a malfunction in the front lever and perhaps he indeed became stuck trying to use the rear exit handle.

I really don’t know what happened to the deceased. The incident certainly left a great deal of questions.

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Finally, a Pharoah (sp) wins it all

It beats me if I ever saw a Triple Crown winner before American Pharoah’s lightning win on Saturday at the Belmont. Oh, I was around in 1977 and 1978 when Seattle Slew and Affirmed won in the last two of the three stations each of American Thoroughbred Racing. Likewise, I have seen Steve Cauthen many times, mostly on television appearances. Cauthen had, while riding Affirmed at 18, been the youngest jockey to win the Triple Crown. Victor Espinoza in Saturday’s race was the oldest jockey to win the Triple Crown at age 43.

Even though I usually watch the Kentucky Derby each year I hardly watch the Preakness or Belmont unless a Triple Crown winner is possible. I did gain a great appreciation for racing when I worked as a beer and food vendor at a training track one year in the 80s.

The horses I watched might enter some of the lower-money races across the track but none that I knew of ever went on to greater heights.  See more below …

American Pharoah in the Winners Circle upon his victory in the Preakness. Photo: MarylandGov pictures.
American Pharoah in the Winners Circle upon his victory in the Preakness. Photo: MarylandGov.

I have only “played” the horses once. That was at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, which straddles Dallas and Tarrant counties of Dallas-For Worth fame. That foray to the track was, oddly enough, a friend’s very young — less than 6 years old — niece. While she was too young to bet, most of the adults did some betting and listened to a band play. It’s a pretty good way to spend an afternoon. I have wanted to take a trip to Delta Downs which is only, for me, a quick 35 minutes away in Vinton, La.

Many times in my teens did I go to Vinton for nightclubs that easily let in those 18 and most often those who were several years longer. The race track had been around then. It’s still there even though the location has become known probably more for its slot machines and off track betting than for its racing.

Horse racing is a sport unlike most others and not just because the horses are ridden by tiny men and women. Horses, those of more noble breeding, are wily and beautiful. My throat felt as if it would go through my head as I saw American Pharoah make its way ahead of the pack and finally ran until one wondered if the horses behind could even see the winner as it crossed the finish.

What a beauty. What a beautiful race. What a beautiful being. I doubt many will care if its name is misspelled.

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Shining like the sun, a coincidence?

A few weeks ago I went through what has become a semi annual ritual of psychology. That is, I had an appointment with my mental health counselor at the VA clinic. The routine is that I go in the office, the counselor asks me how I’m doing — on occasion she’ll ask I feel like harming myself or others — I say I’m okay. She renews the prescriptions for anti-depressives. That’s it.

Sometime I feel as if I should ask her if the several-hour mental lapses I have is just something someone almost 60 years old normally experiences has whether it foretell dementia. I suppose if I am able to eventually determine a suitable answer on my own then perhaps I am good, at least this time.

What I forgot and then remembered an hour or so later, as it turns out, is one of those strange coincidences in which we often find ourselves.

Pink Floyd 2005 reunion in London. Photo by Dave Bush. Creative Commons,
Pink Floyd 2005 reunion in London. Photo by Dave Bush. Creative Commons

I was tying to remember what has become my favorite song by the psychedelic rock group Pink Floyd, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” The coincidence is that on this date in 1975, the inspiration for that song took place.

The site UltimateClassicRock.com relays the oft-told story of how former front man and Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett crashed the studio in which his past band mates were recording their ninth album “Wish You Were Here.” It is on that album that “Diamond” was included.

That Barrett has showed up uninvited in the Abbey Road Studios of London was not so shocking. Rather it did unnerve his former band members that Barrett, whose mental state from whatever sources had faltered before, during and afterwards, had shaved his head and eyebrows, as well as had bloated up to some 300 pounds. Founding bassist and songwriter Roger Waters — who bitterly left the band some 30 years ago — broke down and cried when told by vocalist and multi-instrumental artist David Gilmour that the stranger was Barrett.

Now one might ask why all of this matters? Probably not a lot unless you are a big Pink Floyd fan. I wouldn’t call myself a fan-atic. But I have enjoyed many a Pink Floyd works. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” was meant for an entire album side but was broken into several pieces. It is one of those songs that you just kind of slide along listening to.

The coincidence is kind of uncanny, as coincidental occurrences are wont to happen. As well, it is rather nice to regain your memory before you have to attempt finding it on the Internet. Memory can be many things to many people, not the least is catapulting you back, back in time.

“Remember when you were young/You shone like the sun/Shine on you crazy diamond … “