THE STORM

This is an old story, but re-telling a dab may have a purpose?

More than 38 years ago, I was a baby Trooper and got called at home in the middle of the night (I honestly didn't know that mid-night calls would be my life for a long time to come). Seems a hurricane had hit Corpus Christi and I was assigned to disaster duty until further notice.

I spent a couple of weeks there working the 6PM to 6AM shift. I was perpetually lost as all road signs were blown away, obtaining food and water quickly became an issue, fuel for my full grown black/white bear ride was scarce, and the hurricane inspired floods drove all of God's creatures that bite or sting you from their lair into the world of humans.

There were an endless stream of such environmentally inspired challenges in my career, but at long last I retired after 33 years to live a life of luxury like a fat dawg on the porch.

Now fast forward a few short years down the "porch" road and I woke to find I agreed to strap on my crime fighting costume once again and answer late night/early morning calls for service.

This week I have come full circle.

Hurricane IKE is bearing down on Texas with 100 mph winds and promise of 15 to 20 inches of rain in a sorrowful short spell.

Today I spent 12 hours in crisis management meetings attempting to mitigate the effect of this perfect storm. At this point it appears that my home will receive little more than some much needed rain and a bit of wind. However, our community will host a sufficient share of the multitude of evacuees from all along the Texas Gulf Coast and this will greatly impact many things I am responsible for maintaining.

I reckon it is merely a statement of fact that I have spent my entire adult life running toward the storm.