Last night Tropical Storm Cindy slammed the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Before going to bed, Bonnie took me out on the porch to see the leading edge of my very first tropical storm. The rain was pounding, the wind was roaring� I was a mixture of excited (I had never experienced anything like this before), and apprehensive. Hurricane and tropical storm stories are always fun to listen to afterwards, but I wasn�t sure I wanted to experience either of them first hand.

I buried my head in Bonnie�s shoulder. �Please don�t let it get me!�

�I won�t let it get you. You have three big Texans to look after you. You�ll be fine.�

We went to bed. I snuggled under the sheets, listening to the rain pounding on the tin roof, thinking that at the very least, I�d have some great material for a diary entry.

At 8:30 I prised my eyes open and staggered into the kitchen. All of the family were congregated there, discussing Cindy and lamenting how little sleep they�d had. The storm had picked up, and picked up� at the height of it, pine trees were bending right over; branches were snapping off and blowing against the house. The eye of the storm passed over the house about 4 am.

And I slept through the entire thing.

My first tropical storm, the most exciting thing to ever happen to me, and I was asleep. God damn it!

Hurricane Dennis is now on the way. It�s been upgraded to category 3, which is pretty bad. It�s hard to predict where it�s going to come ashore, but it�s entirely possible that it will pass over Clermont Harbor.

I asked Bonnie: �Can we stay for Dennis, since I slept through Cindy?�

�No way. I rode out Alicia, and that�s the most hurricane I ever want to ride out again.�

Oh well.