Tropical Storm Alberto is 'churning in the Atlantic' off the South Carolina coast. Early for a named tropical storm, early for the cliches to be hauled out and thrown around the news feeds.
I can say these things having lived through several of the worst hurricanes to hit the US starting with Hurricane Frederick in '79. My first hurricane, my first hurricane party, and I never wanted to see another of either again. Although the party made sense in a gallows humour sort of way.
Meanwhile here in Scotland we are hoping that Spring and Summer are arriving together this week. It's Sunday afternoon (just) and Paul is hoping the back lawn will have dried enough in the next hour or so that we will be able to get out and putter for a few hours.
It's been cold, wet, and windy for months. I joke to friends back in the States that it's been 50F and raining since I got home from the States last June. It's not much of a joke when it's true. We didn't really have much of a winter until after the New Year, and the first real snowfall of 2012 happened the first week of of April. Really:
As you can see from the photo, this was a rather significant snowfall.
Wednesday I went up to Kirriemuir to see the dentist. On the way home it began to snow. In the middle of May.
I keep hearing 'global weirding' being used instead of global warming. Makes sense to me. I'm not sold on AGW (aggravated global warming, as in those nasty humans did it!) but I have absolutely no trouble with Climate Change. For whatever reason (and more scientists are beginning to agree that it's not so much the CO2 as it is solar activity) climate IS changing.
Plus, come on, you don't think Hurricane Season 2012 beginning at the middle of May instead of the first week of June isn't just a little weird? Really?
We're 'Doomers', as we used to say jokingly (but not really joking, and our concerns that led us to laughingly call ourselves Doomers have been proved to have been spot-on in the 'Oh hey, there's a not good pattern of disasters developing here...') so we're prepared for most contingencies. OK, we don't have a room sized faraday cage, ROFLOL-but we would if we owned the servers that support our forum. (Google using the search term 'peak oil hubbert's arms forum' if you're interested. I quit the forum because I was completely burned out on the airheads and the uber-doomers calling for mass die off. Puhleeze, I just got married...)
So I've researched climate change, and Climate Change (trust me, two distinctly different topics apparently).
I have called myself a climate-refugee and I was one for a while. After Hurricane Katrina I couldn't take it anymore, and I left the Gulf Coast. I begged my son to get his family off too. But ah well, they're still there, and seven years later I'm in Scotland thinking 'Oh hey I hope The Day After Tomorrow doesn't come true for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that the people in Scotland died first in the movie. Remember?
On a completely different note, last night as I stood at the back door smoking a cigarette around 9:30pm, a field mouse scurried past, and then darted into a wee hidey hole about a foot from me. He/she poked the cute little 'awwwww' head around the corner of the hidey hole and took a good long look at me. I got the distinct impressions that 1-Wee Mousie wasn't terribly afraid of me, and 2-that Wee Mousie was terribly curious about me.
When I made it clear by not:
Screaming
Chasing
Trying to otherwise alert my husband to the presence of Wee Mousie or cause it harm
Wee Mousie took a few cautious steps out from the hidey hole to get a better look at me. He/she sat there for several seconds and then finally darted across the garden path to the back of the log store.
Oh boy.
We still have Roo (oh wow, getting harder and harder to think about the day we have to send him home!) and this morning Paul and I found Roo hanging in the bathroom at the crawl space access point. I suspect Wee Mousie is in the crawl space and thinking our home might do for his/her family as well as we all try to get through this 'global weirding'.
And I haven't even begun to talk about the EuroZone crisis we are all watching here with held breath! Paul has our money and investments in British only banks and companies, but we know so many who have retired to Greece and Spain, and/or have their monies in Santander Bank.
It is mind boggling to me that there is a bank run in Greece, and one beginning in Spain, and the mainstream media are not really mentioning it at all. Talk about your 'maintain the status quo' silliness, do they really think if they don't talk about it that it isn't happening.
When I was still posting on the forum I had the tag-line "We are so screwed". I sure have been thinking it lately. I try not to let this stuff bother me over much beyond maybe buying another bag of sugar or another bolt of warm fabric, but you know, really, things are very bad 'out there'!
I wish I could gather up my son and grandson and keep them with me as all this 'interesting' stuff grinds on. I love Paul, but I love them too, and right now all I can think of is I sure wish we were all together within walking distance of each other!
Grandson would love Wee Mousie!
