Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool X

Hurricane Gustav

Mercifully, Hurricane Gustav didn't live up to its potential as it got hit with some dry air and some sheering along with the west coast of Cuba being more disruptive to it than originally projected.
It ultimately made landfall near Grand Isle, LA, as a Category Three storm with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph.
Earlier in its life it was a Category Four storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph as it approached Cuba.
Despite not being the monster originally feared, having never fully regained its strength after passing over Cuba, Gustav may still be in the top ten of most costly storms in U.S. history.
It remains a tropical storm at this late hour and it remains to be seen what the storm will ultimately inflict upon our nation as its story is still being written as its rotation lashes Louisiana and parts of Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
However, it already has a deadly pedigree having killed 97 people in the Caribbean Basin which includes the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Given that fact, it is all but certain the name "Gustav" will be retired from use again.

R.I.P. Tanker 09

Tanker 09, a P2V based in Montana, crashed late Monday near Stead Airport outside Reno, NV.
All three crewmembers aboard were killed.
Witnesses report it coming down on fire and exploding upon impact creating a small mushroom cloud.
The aircraft had been fighting the Burnside Wildland Fire in Eastern California.

BREAKING NEWS:
GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN'S 17 YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER IS 5 MONTHS PREGNANT OUT OF WEDLOCK!!!

The lovely Leftist Liberal news media today seemed all too eager and earnest to report this shocking "news". I'm sure it hurt them to have to do it.
Larry King devoted his hour-long show to it this evening as if it mattered at all.
This follows right on the heels of the wild internet rumour making its rounds throughout the internet in recent days regarding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin allegedly not being the biological mother of her youngest child but its grandmother instead with its biological mother being Sarah's 17-year-old daughter now 5 months pregnant . Conspiracy theorists can't have it both ways!

Motorcycle vs. Deer

Saturday night I was driving in my neighborhood after dark heading into town when I passed a male pedestrian holding a motorcycle helmet. Something about his gait caught my attention but I wasn't sure what.
When I got to the next intersection I encountered a motorcycle wedged up under a guard rail at the intersection with a long set of abrasion marks crossing the intersection leading to the bike.
I drove on past that scene and pulled into Atascadero Fire Department Station #2 and drove up to a firefighter talking on his cell phone and told him all I observed and then left and drove on up town to get yogurt.
I then turned on my scanner and listend as I drove to find out what became of that situation.
By the time I arrived at Adobe Plaza to get said yogurt Atascadero City was dispatching police and fire to an "unknown injury motorcycle 't-c'" and one of Atascadero's finest was screaming Code Three down US101 en route.
I felt almost embarrassed to have triggered such a rucus but I knew I had done the right thing.
I soon discovered over the scanner that they had run the motorcycle's plates and found the house on my street its registered owner lived at and went and talked to him and determined he was not drunk, but had encountered a deer, instead, and was uninjured and awaiting help to get his bike unwedged.
After that the police were then sent on to a loud party they had been on their way to prior to my phone call. However, before they could get to that incident they received another call of a person backing into a large light pole at In-&-Out Burger which caused said pole to fall partly over.
Ah, just your typical Labor Day Weekend nighttime hijinx.

A Difficult Chore

This morning I got a call from mom that there was an injured squirrel in her yard so I went over to help and found it in really bad shape but not apparently injured but sick.

It could not stand and mostly just lay in the grass without responding but at regular intervals tried to stand up and walk but ended up merely dragging itself several inches and then collapsing again amidst loud gaspy and labored breaths.
It being a holiday weekend I knew getting help from the Pacific Wildlife Care Center would prolly not happen given our experience trying to get help through them the last time a wild animal issue came up during a holiday weekend.
Don't get me wrong: Pacific Wildlife Care Center is wonderful but they are an all-volunteer operation and most folks aren't available on weekends.
Besides, this animal was clearly dying and needed help with dying, not being kept alive.
I found it just about impossible to kill it with a shovel but ultimately I did that knowing it was unkind to leave the critter alive and suffering.
It helped that Mom was there to encourage me on.
Even before I killed the teenage gray tree squirrel, I contemplated the meaning of my being in this situation and "got it" nearly immediately.
God in essence killed His Son Jesus Christ for our sins
If I found it nearly impossible to put this cute little defenseless creature out of its misery when it was terminally ill or fatally injured how might it feel for God to essentially kill His Son for our sins so as to reconcile us to Him?
Modern life is designed in part to get us to lose focus and forget the important things we already know but sometimes forget on a day to day basis.
This object lesson helped me refocus.


Kimmer