Phillipe & Rita - And Me Without My Cigarettes

Maybe Hurricane Season Isn't The Best Time to Quit Smoking?¹

I've been away - again - because eleven days ago, my husband and I...drum roll... stopped smoking! I couldn't watch the tropics or any kind of news, really. I couldn't do much of anything besides concentrate on not-not-not lighting one of those filthy, nasty, stinking tubes of pure death. I won't go into the whole sordid thing here, but eleven days into freedom from that utter slavery to nicotine, I just have this to say: Freaking YIPPPPEEEEEE for us!²

Meanwhile, the dastardly hurricane season trucks along oddly uncaring that I've been jonesing for tobacco. I know, bizarre, eh?

The Florida Keys are preparing to be hit by Rita, which looks like it will become a hurricane pretty much any minute now, if it hasn't already. Mandatory evacuations are underway and I can't help but wonder who's looking out for the poor in the Keys. Yes, there are poor people in the Keys. Who do you think cooks and brings your food in the restaurants, makes up your beds in the hotels and picks up your garbage when you leave? And no, they aren't paid a wage that allows them to live in one of those quaint stilt houses over the water. They're barely paid a wage that allows them to live in their cars.

But I digress.

The five days forecast indicates Rita will probably make landfall in Texas (AKA El Territorio Ocupado) after it blows over the Keys. This is not good news for Texas as the Gulf is a perfect hurricane-fueling 90 degrees right now and Rita has lots of time to gather strength as it crosses the Gulf.

On its way, Rita will likely do even more damage to already storm ravaged oil interests in the Gulf and oil prices are already on the rise. Note to idiot eco-terrorist oil companies: Maybe Hurricane Land isn't the best place to locate your drilling operations. Nevermind the fragile ecosystem; everyone knows you don't give a crap about the oceans or skies, but you could have at least some regard for your own bottom line. Oh, that's right. You don't have to worry about that. You know Americans will pay $6 or even $10 per gallon to drive their Hummers. Ha. We'll see. I do believe we will get to test the theory.

But again, I digress.

Philippe (pronounced Phil-eep, I think) appears to want to become a harmless fish storm, though it still bears watching. The NHC says that while there is a broad area of low pressure between the Cape Verde Islands and the Lesser Antilles, conditions do not look favorable for development. I've come to adore that phrase: "conditions do not look favorable for development." Music. Pure music. Of course, I'll be keeping an eye on things.

Good to be back, folks.

====FootNotes====
1. Answer: Any time is a good time to quit smoking. Contrary to smokers' beliefs, smoking has little-to-no effect on hurricanes. Besides, where you gonna get your nicotine fix when the whole city is underwater?

2. Our friend over at Captain's Blog quit, too. It's an epidemic!