Burnerblog

It didn’t rain yesterday, but it’s raining right now. Nice clean car is now wet car. When I drive it, it will become dirty as shit car.

Oh well.

I have a car club meet to go to Friday night, which means I’ll have to clean up the car (wash, etc) Friday afternoon before I go. At least I’ll have Brendon to help me. I’ll be taking pictures of around 30-50 cars, so it should be interesting.

On an unrelated note, I found out I can type in the 90’s (wpm). I haven’t taken a typing speed test since high school, so it was kind of neat to know where I am. That was my casual speed; the speed at which I type normally. One of these days I’ll see how fast I can type if I really push myself.

For us Houstonians, it’s cold outside. 43 degrees is pretty chilly around these parts, and it’s nice to finally have winter arrive in the middle of January. We could have used some cold starting in November, but I guess this year, the cold was on hold. Apparently, it’s supposed to rain for the next week or so, so I’m thinking that the temperature will be fluctuating between warm and cold. Or… I could be wrong. Let me take a look at the weather guesser forecasts.

Turns out the forecast is for it to remain pretty cool over the coming days. No warmer than 64 according to the weather guessers, and tomorrow is supposed to be windy with a chance of rain every day next week. Of course, it’s not a 100% chance, but the way percentages work in forecasts is that it’s not that there’s that little of a chance of rain. They use the term “percent” wrong. What it really means is that you will be rained on for that percent of the time during the course of the day. At least that’s how it works here in Houston, ’cause I’ve never NOT been rained on when there was a CHANCE of rain.

For the record, I love rain, so it’s no big deal to me. Cool and rainy is… well, for lack of a better word, pretty cool. I’m going to enjoy it while I can.

A photo I took yesterday afternoon of a storm that rolled through here with lots of thunder and lightning will be on TV tomorrow morning here in Houston. The funniest thing about this picture is that I didn’t sit out waiting for it; I opened the front door intending to take a photo of the storm and just as I snapped the shutter, lightning struck! It scared me and I thought that it would have turned out a bit blurry, but upon opening it on the computer, I found it to be quite clear.

I didn’t do any post-processing on the photo other than some minor cropping. I could have done some other stuff to it, but I felt it was best to leave it alone. Apparently, the TV folks agreed.

This weekend was pretty nice and laid back. We had a really nice BBQ on Saturday with my mom, my mother-in-law, Stevie and his family, and Lawrence. My mom made her “BBQ ala Nena” and two salads and Anita brought her famous pasta salad (which I love!). Mom’s food, as always, was great, and it was a good time followed by a viewing of the movie “Love Stinks.” What a funny flick! Every time I see it, I crack up.

Saturday evening was spent watching the Bush Series NASCAR race for a while, and then playing some online games.

Sunday was the typical “Lazy Sunday” with one variation: we went shopping for clothes for the kids. We found Steve and Barry’s, a new store here in Houston, and went wild buying the kids just about anything they wanted. Why? ‘Cause it was CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. The quality is decent, but the price makes the value amazing. I even got a few t-shirts (my favorite being my Speed Racer shirt)! Then, I watched the Cup Series NASCAR race with Sherry.

Monday was pretty much the least eventful of the three days off spent watching the amazing storms that passed through the area followed by a nice meal at Le Madeleine. I love Napoleons!!!

I may have said it once or twice before on this blog, but people who know me will know this for sure: I love the rain. Blame it on my “black heart” (haha) or my love for Morrissey’s music, but I really am very happy when it rains. No… not happy ONLY if it rains, because I think we need sunny days too (obviously), but we need a fair share of the rainy ones to balance things out.

When I see rain, I think of all the life that is being replenished, the trees and grass getting their “drink,” the rivers and lakes getting refilled so that the fishies and froggies and turtles can have more of their habitat, etc. Then of course, there’s us humans, the cancer of the planet, who use up water at a prodigious rate. The water tables incessantly need refilling, and it’s the rain that helps with that.

There’s also the emotional soothing and comfort I get from rain. I know that some people despise cloudy days, and truth be told, so do I. I love ACTIVE weather, and mere cloudy days just don’t cut it for me. I prefer sunny or rainy. However, when it’s rainy, I feel comfortable, calm, and relaxed. I don’t know if it’s the sound of the rain or if it’s the knowledge that things are being taken care of (you know… nature watering it’s plants and cleaning the dust off things). Either way, I just love it.

So, today in Houston, we’re receiving near torrential downpours as part of Tropical Storm Erin. While looking at the weather news, I see that we have another storm brewing that may head our way: Hurricane Dean. Fortunately, we live quite a few miles up the coast, but winds can still be pretty strong even here if a hurricane hits. We’ll keep watching it… and in case you’re wondering: yeah, I do like storms, too… as long as they don’t rip the roof off my home or bust windows out. That’s TOO active.