It's raining here.  People who are not from this part of Texas might not understand the implications of this, but let me assure that too much rain in too short of a time is NOT a happy thing.

Shortly after I moved here in 1998, there was a huge, major flood.  Not fun.  I was out of town, but my house was okay, although I had to show ID to get into my own neighborhood because the National Guard was keeping people out of my subdivision because the homes on the river had flooded.  All and all, it was quite a "welcome to town" that Mother Nature gave me.

That's why, in 2002, I didn't scoff when people started to freak on the second day of rain.  When I saw people in my subdivision moving out of their homes, I understood why, and didn't chalk it up to an overreaction.  Their moving out proved to be wise... that flood was significant, too.  I posted some pictures of it at the time.  Amazing.

So today, I got up and went to work.  It was raining, and apparently had rained all night.  It continued to rain all morning, and my coworkers started to get antsy.  Nobody was working, and our Internet connection slowed to a crawl as everyone began streaming radar loops.  "I heard they closed Purgatory Road!"  "The Loop is closed!"  "There's water over the Common Street bridge!"

See, before our homes begin flooding, our rivers overflow onto the roads.  I live on the other side of the river from where I work, so I started to get nervous.  We closed the office at noon and I headed home, but was thwarted, because I couldn't get across the river.  There are five river crossings between my home and my office.  The highest one was closed, so I went to my mother's office and killed some time there.

I finally made it home at about 3 o'clock, and plan to use this extra, unexpected time off constructively: I am going to take one heck of a nap.

Despite all this rain, I wouldn't wnat to live anywhere else!

My feelings are sort of hurt, because I think that you don't care about my life... you only want me to:

So personal websites are all about timeliness, right?  Everyone posts what happens in their life RIGHT AWAY so they can share their joys and sorrows with the world, right?

Not me.  A lot can happen in six months of not posting.  I suppose we'll be playing "catch-up" for a bit.  Is that okay?

So in June, I bought a brand new car.  I went in to buy a Ford Escape, but I talked myself into buying a 2004 Focus.

I didn't understand it, either (the huge, huge rebate might have been a factor,) but I really, really like it:

It's everything I want in a car, without all the bells and whistles.  And it's cute.  I mean, heck... my endowment is large enough... I don't need a big muscle car to show my machismo, right?  Honestly?  I bought it because of the taillights.  They are very cute:

The thing (which I've yet to name) has an alarm, keyless entry, six-disk remote changer and power mirrors, windows, locks, etc.  And of course, air conditioning.  That's a GIVEN in Texas.  My handy-dandy XM satellite radio went right in, and it's got everything I need, and better gas mileage than the Volvo.

Because Bush's economy has REALLY screwed up gas prices!  That's a topic for another time, though, right?

How is it mid-November?  Why are the Old Navy commercials so annoying this holiday season?  Why haven't I been writing?  Why can't I stop asking banal questions?

So here's the deal.  I miss this.  By "this," I mean writing here.  I needed some time off, and I've had some false re-starts, but with the holidays coming up, I decided I'd write again and share my life with the world.  Er... the five people in the world who care, anyway.

Tune in tomorrow...<