Magic School Bus

Brenna loves the Magic School Bus television show and picture books. She would choose to watch MSB over any Disney show. So when the Children's Museum brought in the Magic School Bus weather exhibit, I knew I had to bring her.

Brenna really enjoyed the Weather TV studio, where you selected the backdrop, set up the map, dress up for the remote location, and read the script.




Live, from a snowy blizzard, it's Brenna!

The day we went to the museum, they had meteorlogists from the local television stations come in for a science demonstration. Brenna was very hopeful that it would be David Paul from our morning news station (because we watch weather in the morning), but she was still happy to see David's co-worker - Gene Norman - who does the 5 and 6 p.m. weather.


Quite honestly, she was just a little star-struck by meeting him. (That's face paint on her.) She sat right up front during the demonstration, got his autograph and wanted a picture with him. Now when we come home in the evening, she asks to watch the 6 p.m. news (weather only). She comes running in when I say, "It's Gene!"

They also had a hands-on lab for children 8 and over, so Cameron went in and made a hot-air balloon out of tissue paper. Since Brenna came in with us, she got to make one also. Once we had all of the pieces glued together, they put it over a hot air blower (like a hair dryer) and sure enough - up it floated to the ceiling.

Texas "Snow"

Yesterday morning we woke up and were surprised to see we'd had a near freeze overnight. North of town they did freeze, but we think it was only about 35F-37F on the coast.

When I opened the kitchen blinds, we discovered a thin white sheen of frost glistening on the grass, the playset, and the (used-to-be) golf course out back. It was really pretty and if you didn't know better, you could squint a little and pretend it was a light dusting of snow.

The girls were so excited to see it. Naturally they called it snow, though I had to correct them and explain that it was just a little frost. As we drove to school, the rising sun's warm rays took care of any remaining frost. (It actually warmed up to 65 yesterday.) But it was very pretty just as the sun began to rise, all white and glistening.

I wished I had a camera with me on the drive to work. Horsepen Bayou was steaming. Literally, white steam rose from the warm water in the cold air. Just beautiful. It was definitely our coldest morning this fall and it felt great!

Weather Reports

It's gotten to where a person can hardly watch the weather report on the television news. Everything is a BIG DEAL. Seriously some of these meterologists appear to be so hyped up they don't know what's real anymore.

Most of this summer we've had rain one day or another. It's been wonderful - a delightfully cool summer, my electricity bills haven't topped $300 (yet), the water bills are surpringly low, and the flowers we planted back in March are still blooming. (Completely unprecedented.)

Then last week our rain departed and a great big ol' high pressure system came and sat over us. This brings heat. The usual and regular August heat - with high temps in the upper 90s, heat index in the shade of the 110s. The heat that reminds us to drink more water, stay indoors during the greater part of the day, and don't get in the car until you open all the doors and turn on the air conditioning. You know - normal summer weather.

Well, you would have thought that we were all going to die. The weather reporters were so intense about our "Killer Heat". We had this "killer heat" for about a week. We usually have it for about 3 months. How is it possible that they forget each year what it feels like?

Sigh - now we've entered the busier part of Hurricane Season and the meterologists are whipped into their excited frenzy. This morning we learned that KHOU greats David Paul and Neil "I'm a hurricane watcher God" Frank stayed .... overnight.... at the studios watching Tropical Storm Erin.

TS Erin made "landfall" this morning around Corpus Christi and now (like you would expect) it's raining a pretty good piece over much of the Texas coast. That is - anything on the "dirty" side, north east of the storm's eye or center. We're getting the outer bands of rain, nothing constant, just a heavy rain that comes and goes. [update 12 noon: We have a pretty loud thunderstorm and heavy rain at the moment, but nothing out of the ordinary associated with T.S.]

But you would have thought this morning that the world was coming to an end, again, since we're not apparently dead from the heat.

Just ONCE, I would like to watch the morning news and have someone say in a clear and normal voice, "Well, folks, looks like that tropical storm is making landfall now. You know that means keep an eye out for flash flooding and watch for high water on the roads. It should last the better part of today and tonight. The winds have decreased from 40 mph to 35 mph, so we shouldn't expect much wind damage. Sit tight."

Oh no - we have to go LIVE to a correspondence in Corpus, who stands wearing a slicker and it's not even raining. We have to go LIVE to another correspondence who stands in the light rain this time, but there's almost no wind. We have to go LIVE to another person who yet again tells us in a loud, excitable voice that this STORM "could" wreak havoc across the coast this morning.

And of course, just as the rain begins to stop tomorrow - we'll be hysterical over Hurricane Dean, now predicted to enter the Gulf sometime next Tuesday?