Thought That Came Unbidden

We’re already up to P at only slightly more than the half-way mark for the official hurricane season.

Yes, that’s right, if the storm that looks like it’s about to graze Florida and dump more water on the gulf coast makes it up to hurricane strength it will be Hurricane Philippe.

There are currently two active tropical storms and active tropical depression number 16 in the Atlantic.

Global warming’s not a problem, eh? Pull the other one; it has bells on.

Hurricane names through 2010
[Read more…] about What are they gonna do if they run out of names?

Thank you, every one, who commented (if you haven’t gotten a personal thank you yet and you left your e-mail address it’s only because I didn’t want to monopolize the nephew-in-law’s computer while we were away this weekend). Donations have been made. I hope they’ll do some good. I’m going to go watch the news now. I hope I can take it.

Humane Society Donation Thank you page
Donation amount: $65 (now); $50 from me; $15 from comments; $130 (total) ($65 will come from The Girlfriend’s workplace matching program)

Montrose Clinic Donation Thank you page
Donation amount: $60 ($30 from me; $30 generated by comments)

Ella over at Occasionally Glamourous Results Of A Misused Youth decided to coordinate a bunch of folks in a “delurk for hurricane relief” day. The way this works is pretty simple: Most of us know there are folks who read our blogs who never comment. Well, now is your chance to come out of hiding and support a good cause: relief for survivors of hurricane Katrina.

For every comment (at least three words people, please; how hard is it to type “way to go!”?), left today I pledge $3 in donations. $2 will go to the relief fund set up by The Humane Society; $1 will go to assist The Montrose Clinic in Houston which is busy coordinating resources and providing couseling for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people displaced by the hurricane.

Update: After speaking with The Girlfriend, bless her goofy , generous heart, she’s drawn on her own experience working on DC’s glbt switchboard and has agreed to match my donation to the Montrose Clinic 1-for-1. Every comment (including the ones already left), is now worth $4.

Given that I’m not made of money, you may be wondering how I’m managing this. Simple: the $1 is my own money. The $2 will be split between money The Girlfriend and I donate and the dollar for dollar matching program her employer has set up.

All the comments don’t have to be on this entry. Dig around the site. Read some quotes. Learn about my whacked out experiences working for a bunch of treehuggers and my time in cubicle hell. Check out my reading list and tell me what you’re reading. I get notified of comments even if your message doesn’t post right away (don’t take it personally; comment moderation makes spammers quake).

Now, the good thing is that all you have to do to make this happen is follow that little link at the bottom of this entry that says Comments. The really good news is that any monies generated by this pledge are in addition to the $50 I’ve already decided to give the Humane Society.

It would be really nice if your comment included something substantive (such as why you keep coming around but never stop and say hello), but it certainly doesn’t have to. Just say something.

And to prove that I also walk the walk, on Monday afternoon I’ll make my donation and follow up with a screen shot of my thank you page from the HSUS web site, my thank you page from the Montrose clinic, and, when it comes through, the letter verifying our matching contribution from The Girlfriend’s employer.

So, what are you waiting for?

Other participants in this “delurk for hurricane relief” day are:

Ella M. at The Occasionally Glamourous Results Of A Misused Youth
Kay-Dee at The Life Of A Dreamer
Jon at metempsychosis rhetoric
Jim Carson
Michael K. Willis at Bread And Roses
J. at Tastes Like Burning
Barbara

A grain of sand…
A drop of water…

When aggregated, these things have the power to make mighty structures or wear away stone. The idea behind blogging for flood aid is that there are something like 3.4 million blogs on the web. If every blogger gave a small amount to aid flood and hurricane victims, well, eventually it would add up.

I’ve registered my blog (you can as well, but you don’t have to in order to donate) and I’ve chosen The Humane Society as my charity.

Why animals instead of the people who so desperately need help? Well, for one thing the Red Cross is going to get a ton of money from people bombarded by massive media coverage. The other, more important reason, though, is that we, as a supposedly more evolved species, have an obligation. When you domesticate an animal you make a promise to take care of it. Humans have an infinite capacity to focus on themselves, sometimes to the detriment of those with whom we share the planet.

From the Humane Society:

“Some people were forced to leave their pets behind. Others were never able to evacuate at all. Now, in Katrina’s aftermath, The HSUS’s Disaster Animal Response Teams are primed to help the pets and other animals left behind in the region’s most devastated areas.

In response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, The HSUS has begun a massive relief effort to rescue animals and assist their caregivers in the disaster areas. Our highly trained Disaster Animal Response Teams are in Mississippi and Texas coordinating a multi-state animal rescue and recovery effort. Our 38-foot Disaster Response Unit, and other rescue vehicles affiliated with our teams, are in Mississippi.

Your tax-deductible gift will be used exclusively for our disaster animal relief work.”

I’ve pledged at a minimum $50 donation. I’ve not made it yet, though. More on that tomorrow.

For a round up of participating blogs see Instapundit

Add your own blog at Truth Laid Bear

Technorati tags:
hurricane katrina
flood aid

Having a very spread out extended family has both advantages and disadvantages. You end up with places to crash in cities you never dreamed you’d get to visit.

You also end up having to worry about things you never thought you’d have to worry about.

My friend Mike went home to Mississippi a week ago because his mother’s health was deterioriating. Together Mike and his Dad decided to take his Mom off life-support. That was Friday. We didn’t hear from Mike until today.

He and his Dad are both fine but they’ve been without power since Sunday and don’t have any idea the extent of the damage that’s been done by Katrina. The sad part is, the worst has yet to come.

Katrina made her way up the the Mississippi River valley yesterday dumping rain on Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and all that water has to go somewhere. Where it’s going is right into the Mississippi…which passes right by the French Quater in New Orleans.

Makes you think, doesn’t it? For as much as humans prattle on about our power and our ability to make and destroy things, we don’t have a patch on mother nature.

Hurricane path graphic shamelessly stolen from Weather Underground