Mother Nature Can Be A Bitch

During my time on this planet, I have seen some wild weather events. The flooding in Texas just breaks my heart. The deaths and destruction is just unreal. Until I lived in the South I just could not understand how people could die in flash floods. However, when we got to the South we got a whole new appreciation for how these events can happen and how quickly they can happen.

The flooding in Kerrville, TX and the surrounding area is just heartbreaking. That is about 45 miles from where we lived in Boerne, TX. Over the years we made many a trip up to wander around the area. Jennifer liked to go to the James Avery jewelry campus, but there was many other things to see there. A guy built a replica of Stonehenge up there.

Most of the times we visited the Guadalupe River in Kerrville it was almost dry it was just a trickle during some times of the year. We even went and soaked in it one time at Guadalupe State Park. There were a couple of times that we visited and the river was flowing hard and strong. So flooding in this area is not new. Just this time it was swift.

I have been thinking of all the weather events that Jennifer and I went thru. We were in junior high when Mount St Helen’s erupted. The year we graduated from 8th grade we had major flooding around the Butte area due to heavy rains and snow melt. Lots of stories from that flood. We went thru numerous hurricanes and our first home in Lafayette, LA almost got flooded when we got 25 inches of rain in 24 hours. We traveled thru blizzards and white out conditions on trips between San Antonio and Butte. We had bad hail storms in Texas, but were lucky that we never took a direct hit.

The long and short of it is that you can never underestimate Mother Nature. She can be a real bitch when she wants to and she can pretty much tear anything man made up. I have seen first hand the damage that she can cause to steel structures. During hurricane recovery efforts off shore in the Gulf of Mexico I saw huge steel beams that were twisted like spaghetti noodles on numerous offshore platforms.

My heart goes to all of those that lost loved ones during this flooding, especially the parents of the young children that were lost. I know their pain can never be eased and I know that a lot of finger pointing is occurring. Sadly none of that is going to ease their pain.

Acts of God are hard to fathom and understand. God knows I struggle each day with why Jennifer was taken in the way she was. There is no understanding it, I just try to appreciate the times and moments we did have and move ahead. However it is tough.

Certainly these last couple of weeks I have missed her terribly and the survivors guilt has been strong, but I can’t change what happened. So just try to enjoy things and know that she is with me in spirit.

Well I better get a move on and do something productive. Have to take Dad in for a follow up Dr appointment today. Overall he seems to be doing Ok. We continue to give him his daily injection of antibiotics and the handicap van has certainly made it easier to get him to these appointments.