My Extreme Weather Book

Living in Texas is a lot like camping. I personally have never wanted to go camping. Or actually I briefly did as a child, but my mother was very quick to explain why we would never ever do that. If only she had also warned me against living in Texas! Because, you see, if you live in Texas, you have to prepare for major weather emergencies about twice a year. You get to stock up on supplies and emergency contraptions such as small portable stoves that work with candles, and then you get to pray that you won’t have to test your survival skills by camping inside your own house in either extreme heat or below freezing temperatures while the power is out, there is no running water, frozen pipes explode in your living room, and rattlesnakes, alligators, dinosaurs, aliens, raccoons with sharp claws, and hordes of looters lurk outside trying to get you.

I take back what I said about not liking Christmas. Christmas is wonderful when there is no hard freeze. Can we please go back to summer weather now? Or maybe actually this arctic blast is tolerable too as long as the heat stays on and pipes don’t burst.

I’ve made preparations all day, worried myself into a frenzy, baked cookies, and finally reached for my favorite extreme weather comfort: I started once again listening to Storms of Malhado, my novel about Galveston hurricanes. While listening I painted the cover of one of the paperbacks. Maybe a collector would like to acquire a hand painted copy? If we all survive, that is.