Le Bon Temps

So I know that I am a grown-up now because I like to watch the news in the morning. After I drop Jack off at school, I make coffee and breakfast and watch the local channel. Now, "news" in North Carolina consists mostly of weather, agriculture, weather, drought conditions (even if there is no drought) and weather. Occasionally there will be a car accident or grisly murder, but for the most part my fellow Carolinians apparently only care about the possibility of no more blue skies. So with Hurricane Hanna supposedly approaching, there is a LOT of news about all of this weather, despite the cloudless skies and 90 degree gorgeousness we are currently experiencing.

I have tried to figure out the obsession--I know that there is a greater amount of agriculture down here than there was in DC, and many more domestic and wild animals (who depend on the weather for grazing obviously--although they have no inhibitions about barging into my house), and lots and lots of lakes, but I do suspect that this obsession with the weather is really based on a pleasant lack of horror and politics (also unlike DC). So with this in mind I can patiently weather (ha ha) the long news reports on rain, lack of rain, sun, lack of sun, etc. Although I remain (for now!) ambivalent about the weather--after all, we don't even get snow-- I won't poo poo my State's fixation. It's better to have fake drama than real drama (Dan's mantra).

Well, the News is encouraging us to stock up on food and water (although this is something else I cannot noodle--water--since we'll be getting torrential rains...?) for the upcoming "storm event." I suppose that everyone just needs some drama in their lives. The Harris Teeter is 1.2 miles from our house. I think that we can swim there if necessary. Actually a disconnect from the local market will actually be good for us--it will force me to cook up some of the unidentifiable frozen lumps in my freezer. I've also been encouraged by this petite urgence to locate my umbrella and raincoat and Jack's, which he calls his "fireman coat" since it is yellow with reflective stripes and up until now has been primarily used as a costume for dress up play.

So I will sit and wait for the rain, which will undoubtedly make my grass grow 2 feet overnight, and pretend that I am in the Amazon (which won't be a stretch given the number of bizarre and rather obnoxiously friendly creatures we have living in our yard). Perhaps the frog who layed her eggs on my back door had a premontion...Hanna is coming!