Not perfect but better than expected
September 4, 2008 (Thursday)
The forecast maps for Hurricane Gustav showed it becoming a tropical depression, then moving into Texas and stalling. As I mused about that situation, I couldn’t help thinking of Tropical Storm Allison which became a stalled depression, dumping oceans of water. I feared Gustav would do the same.
As it turned out, Gustav did a lot of damage in southern Louisiana, but not as much as was feared, and its track on the way to becoming a depression was more northerly than predicted at first. The predicted storm conditions for Texas did not materialize. Not only did the storm not bring a lot of rain, its path and power sucked the moisture out of the state, created a northwesterly flow of dry air which results today in a much more comfortable day to be outside.
Such is life. We never know what to expect. We can do our best to shape the future, and we expend a lot of energy worrying about it, but when tomorrow comes, it’s nearly always at least a little different than we expected. Sometimes it’s worse; many times it’s better. Today the weather in Houston is better than we thought it would be a few days ago. The mosquitoes are worse because of recent rains. That’s life, isn’t it? It’s never actually “perfect.” That’s why we love to think about Heaven.