Barreling Toward Me

Hurricane Beryl came in from the Atlantic and shot straight across the Caribbean Sea, messing up several of the southern islands all the way down near Venezuela before moving a little north and thumping Jamaica. The projected track for the storm was for it to continue going west across Mexico and maybe even as low as Guatemala. 

Beryl had other plans, though. She wanted to show us just how little we can actually rely on weather forecasters, I think. She took a hard right turn, and skimmed her way up the coast of Mexico. Originally, it looked like the southernmost regions of Texas might get a little bit of Beryl's outer band moisture. All of a sudden, it looked like Beryl would be coming aground in Corpus Christi. That was close enough that it might inconvenience us all the way up here in Houston.

This morning, I woke up and came out to the living room, and my wife announced that Beryl had continued her drift, and now it was probably coming aground in Matagorda County. Guess what viewing area that county falls in. That's right, Houston. It was all the way up to us now. 

Matagorda County is way over on the west side, and it's not that strong of a storm right now. It was a category five when it hit the Grenadines, but it's not even a hurricane anymore while I type these words. It is expected to be a category 1 hurricane when it hits, which is the weakest it can be and still be called a hurricane. 

It probably won't be anything catastrophic, but it is catastrophic for my weekend.

I got a text from my boss this morning. We're switching to Hurricane coverage mode, and it was requested that I come in Sunday by 8:00 PM to back up the other editor there, and hold the fort down until 2:00 AM. 

The nice thing is that it'll be overtime. I'll get some extra cash for the effort. However, I'll probably have to stay the night at the station. 2:00 AM is right about when the storm will be hitting Houston the hardest. It probably won't be safe to drive home, so I'll be camping out at the station again.

I'm kind of annoyed for some reason. I guess it's because this stupid storm is supposed to be in Guatemala not way the heck up here. Leave me alone, Beryl. I wanted to have a nice weekend, dang it.