It’s late August and two mothers are messing with my mind. Worse, they are thwarting my plan to blog some sort of “real time” adventure on sailing through the Gulf of Mexico in August of 2004.
The first mother was mine. She never let salt spill in her presence without throwing some over her shoulder. And we had to follow suit, or something terrible would happen. Superstitions were as powerful to her as the Catholic Church. Maybe more so.
Scoff if you will, but there is something close to magic in the ritual of superstition. At least there is for me. I no longer feel compelled to throw salt over my shoulder, but I understand the impulse. And I know – without knowing why – that something is out there …
Which brings me to the second mother: Mother Nature, in the form of Tropical Depression Nine, recently known as Invest 99L, which spent a full week in the Caribbean before finally ambling into the Gulf of Mexico and taking on enough of a disturbance to earn itself a number. Not yet a name. Or at least not as I type this.
This part of the Gulf – the Emerald Coast – hasn’t had a hurricane since June 10, 2015, when Dennis came ashore. Even if this weather system in the Gulf comes our way, it probably won’t be much more than rain and a few good thunderstorms. Maybe.
But just to be safe, I’ll hold off on the rest of the story for now. Because I detect a hint of salt in the air….
Unchained in Paradise 