THE MESSIAH GOES TO EUROPE

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece

GRANDPA AND THE PILL HEAD

OWNING TWO SUBURBANS

I am now the proud owner of 2 old Suburbans, one a 1990 vintage and the other a newer 1993 model. the 1990 has a piston ring problem and is smoking so bad that I took it off the road in hopes of selling it, but just about that time gas went to $4.00 per gallon so there's not a lot of demand for old, smoking, gas hogging Suburbans - even among the Latino population. I got stopped and told the cop that the car was 18 years old and therefore old enough to smoke, but he wasn't impressed. I then told him I was doing my share to melt that Artic ice to help get at all that oil up there and asked what he was doing to help - My date with the Judge is next week.

BAITCAMP DEFIES ODDS, EXPERTS; SURVIVES INTACT

Despite the dire predictions of death, mayhem, flooding, high winds, storm surge, high tides, looting, vandalism, shootings, etc. resulting from the arrival on dry land of Hurricane Shelia Jackson Lee (nicknamed Dotty), the Baitcamp remains in tact, dry, and undamaged. Power stayed on throughout the ordeal despite reports of over 1/2 inch of rain, thunder and lightening, winds approaching 20 miles per hour, and tides almost 1 foot above normal. I never did see any reporterettes out in puddles telling us it was raining, but I don't know if that was because there were none or because I don't have a television. Either way, it probably doesn't matter. An interview with the owner of Big Gene's Bait Camp shortly after the storm arrived didn't shed much light on the situation. While he was outside when the initial storm started, all he would say after coming inside was "Meow." Many, including this writer, considered that comment more intelligent than anything the press had been reporting all week. Can't wait for the next one to get started - hopefully next week. More later.

DOLLY ROARS ASHORE

Vicious killer Cat 1 Hurricane Dolly roared ashore in Seabrook about 5AM today, sporting almost 1/2" of rain and sustained winds of 15 mph with gusts over 17 miles per hour. In a somewhat unique twist, there was also lightening and thunder accompanying the storm. No animals were injured in making this report but my cat Krispy was outside when the storm struck and scratched on the door alerting me that he wanted to come it. I did not turn on the TV to look for any reporterettes standing in mud puddles telling me it was raining as I figured I could just wait until later and watch the replays. Headed back to bed for now.

DOLLY ROARS ASHORE IN SEABROOK

DOLLY 4PM UPDATE

Well, Dolly has moved northerly and formed up nicely in the Gulf now and has reached that magic 75 mph wind speed required to become a Cat 1 hurricane. In Houston, the radar is barely showing some of the offshore bands related to the large cloud formation you see north of the main storm center. Maybe we'll get a little rain out of this deal, which we need, and if we are lucky they might send a reporterette out in the street to stand in a puddle, blow wind in her face with a fan, and tell us that it's raining or storming or something. Can't wait to see that. Anyway, more updates later tonight if needed, otherwise tomorrow.

DOLLY, 4PM, JULY 22

DOLLY MANIA DAY 2

Well, the local media is really hyping this thing up as expected. They do admit from time to time that all indications are that this thing will go several hundred miles south of us, but then come out with the uncertainties about their forecasts and how these things are unpredictable and can change on a dime, blah, blah, blah. Year in and year out, all summer long, they can't wait to start hyping hurricane season. Most people that I know who evacuated for Rita (I stayed here) tell me that they have no intention of leaving again, no matter what the risk. You can only cry "wolf" so many times and people finally quit listening. Now it's sort of like "Dolly to kill us all one hour from now, but first, here's Blondie Bigboobs with the traffic." Pathetic, and getting worse. I believe the press is a greater risk than any of the hurricanes. More later.

DOLLY SATELITE IMAGE JULY 22

DOLLY PROJECTED TRAC

DOLLY MANIA

Dolly's not even formed up after crossing the Yucatan, yet the radio and TV media down here is slobbering and drooling and hoping against all hope that this will be the great disaster of a lifetime for them to cover. 24 X 7 hyping, scaring, threatening, warning, etc. No relief from the media shitstorm except for the occasional mention of the Messiah visiting the Middle East (accompanied by all the major network news reader anchors). Look for more posts here when I'm fed up even more with all this storm hype. More later.

HERE'S DOLLY

NEW "OLD SAYING"

I recently read this somewhere and thought it was good

"Never let the urgent stuff crowd out the important stuff"

MEXICAN RACIST?

How can a Cuban immigrant to Mexico be a racist? By allowing Spanish language comic books to be sold at Walmart stores. This little guy, Memin Pinquin has been around Mexico since the 1940, but now it's all racist. Is this a great country or what?

SKINNY CAT

Krispy's Return to the Baitcamp

Found Krispy waiting for me on top of my bar-b-que pit Wednesday morning just before noon. He was meowing and I hardly recognized him at first. I had pretty well given him up since he disappeared around the last week of May, and I had given away his food and his dish, etc. He's extremely skinny, but I really couldn't get good pictures to show just how thin he is, but I would bet he's lost 1/3 of his body weight. I fed him a can of tuna and he just wolfed it down. I sort of got him settled down and went to the store to get his regular cat food, litter, a bowl, etc. Also checked in with the Vet to get his flea medicine and talked to her, but she really did not forsee a problem with him returning to good health. He's not weak and listless like I might expect, and he's eating good and all body functions weem to be working well given the condition of the litter box.

He's extremely traumatized and will not let me out of his sight if he can help it. Krispy's not known for having an affectionate side and has always been very independent. All of a sudden now, he's always under foot, he sleeps right next to me, gets up with me to go to the bathroom at night, etc. He doesn't want to play our stupid little games like pouncing on the covers when I scratch underneath and so on. It's going to take a little time for him to regain his composure as well as his physical stamina it looks like.

My best speculation is that he went back to the old place across the street and somehow managed to get himself locked inside one of the apartments over there. Just recently, the salvage crews have been over there opening things up in preparation of tearing the place down, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's not when he got out and came home. There's no evidence that he's been fighting or been living outdoors, so I'll bet he just got trapped somewhere without any food. Those apartments would have still had water in the toilets, so that would explain how he's still alive at all.

Anyway, he's obviously glad to be home, and I'm glad he's back. I do feel sorry for him after seeing how traumatized he is, but hopefully he'll get over that. That's the story for now. More later.

Krispy Returns

Krispy Returns Again

Resting Easy

Krispy Returns

BAIT CAMP OWNER RETURN AGAIN

Today, after about 6 weeks of wandering in the wilderness, Krispy the Cat, owner of the Baitcamp, returned. He is pretty thin, but there are no cuts and bruises and he's not full of burrs and stuff. Rumor has it that he heard about the fish fry scheduled for the 4th of July and did not want to miss it. Anyway, I've given away his cat food and litter box, so guess I'll have to start over with all that. I was just about ready to get a new kitten, so guess I'll have to put up with this one a while longer.