storm
so, hurricane season begins tomorrow. NOAA is predicting that it will be an overactive season. everyone keeps telling me, "they always say that." but today, a local with deep roots quoted his grandmother, and informed me that when the June Bugs and the Love Bugs come out early, that means we're going to have bad hurricanes. the June Bugs are here, bumping into everything the way they do. the Love Bugs, he says, will probably come out in a couple of weeks - early. i remember those from last year. you know that they are Love Bugs because they fly around in pairs, mating for hours, and in such great quantities that you are liable to end up with Love Bugs in your hair, underfoot, landing on everything, mating on your skin.
an overactive hurricane season - the same type of season that produced Katrina and Rita - okay, that's one thing. add the oil slick, and we're likely to have oil coming down in the rain, maybe an oil storm surge. we could have oil on the streets, on the houses. no one really wants to talk about this distinct possibility, but the awareness, the dread, is palpable. could NOLA survive something like that? what if you have to wear a HAZMAT suit to leave your house?
today i talked with a friend about the need for HAZWOPER training, which is what OSHA requires for being authorized to deal with hazardous waste. she's a local. she said, "that will be the knowledge of the present times and future."
a few nights ago, i had a dream that i was a part of a team of scientists, conducting research, trying to understand and save NOLA. it was dark, and the shapes of things were shifty. it was a city of ghosts, but not just local ghosts. as i looked into the fog, i saw wolves running. they ran, and their gray fur blended into the gray shiftiness of things. in the dream, i was shocked, and i knew that they were the wolves that have recently been killed as part of the Sarah Palin-inspired wolf slaughters up north. i knew, then, that this is where all the dead go.
in the dream, we didn't have much time to collect the information we needed or to do anything with it. we had only a few hours. there was a storm coming.
an overactive hurricane season - the same type of season that produced Katrina and Rita - okay, that's one thing. add the oil slick, and we're likely to have oil coming down in the rain, maybe an oil storm surge. we could have oil on the streets, on the houses. no one really wants to talk about this distinct possibility, but the awareness, the dread, is palpable. could NOLA survive something like that? what if you have to wear a HAZMAT suit to leave your house?
today i talked with a friend about the need for HAZWOPER training, which is what OSHA requires for being authorized to deal with hazardous waste. she's a local. she said, "that will be the knowledge of the present times and future."
a few nights ago, i had a dream that i was a part of a team of scientists, conducting research, trying to understand and save NOLA. it was dark, and the shapes of things were shifty. it was a city of ghosts, but not just local ghosts. as i looked into the fog, i saw wolves running. they ran, and their gray fur blended into the gray shiftiness of things. in the dream, i was shocked, and i knew that they were the wolves that have recently been killed as part of the Sarah Palin-inspired wolf slaughters up north. i knew, then, that this is where all the dead go.
in the dream, we didn't have much time to collect the information we needed or to do anything with it. we had only a few hours. there was a storm coming.