missing dora

Gentlemen, start your wind machines. Hurricane season is here.

The last few days, we have had scattered showers with minor thunderstorms. Some of my acquaintances have blamed them on a hurricane that is a couple hundred miles off shore. But the weathermen are more nuanced in their approach. There may have been some tangential effect, but very little.

The storm's name is Dora. (I am always a bit startled when I recognize these storm names. Dora, of course, is the woman who helps me clean the house with no name.) She (the storm, not Dora the cleaner) has now passed north of us and should be blowing her way toward Hawaii in a couple of days.

But, here we are, still in June, and we have had our fourth named cyclone off the western coast of Mexico. And not one has yet been good enough to bring us a major dousing of rain.

The local farmers complain about the lack of rain last year. And this year is no better. We have not had rain since December -- with the exception of the dribbles this past week. More than a few of the farmers wished Dora to play a closer visit -- without moving in too close. She did not oblige.

It is not unusual for the Hurricane Weather Center map to show a new storm brewing in the Gulf of Tehuantepec whenever a storm passes by us. This morning, the map is as empty as a Kathy Griffin monologue.

 I guess we will just have to wait for Ernie or Filia -- or, even, Godot.