My Grandad's Name was Bill

My Grandad Herring's name was Bill, and he was tough. He rode and roped and ranched and farmed and raised three kids in a not-so-easy era.

Another Bill is out there right now, and it's looking pretty tough, too. Hurricane Bill is churning up the Atlantic, and we'd all better pray it stays out there. It's got to thread the needle between Bermuda and the East Coast -- and hopefully will do just that.

Hurricanes fascinate me. This 5-week Texas Hurricane season gets me all giddy. It's not that I want one to come here. Not at all. I like my air-conditioning, and our new generator isn't big enough to run it.

It's just all the wondering. With a wave coming off of Africa every few days, it's so interesting to hear all the speculation, to wonder what will come to fruition, where it will go.

This past weekend Claudette was an urgent reminder that we don't always get as much warning as we did with Ike. When we went to bed Saturday night, Claudette was just a puff of clouds off the coast of Florida. By Sunday afternoon, it was a tropical storm hitting Florida.

What a great reminder that storms can come up out of "nowhere" in the Gulf! And seemingly overnight. AND on a weekend when everyone has their guard down! YIKES!

If you live on the Gulf Coast and don't have your hurricane supplies together, you'd better get them ready. The GOM is a bathtub right now. Bill has gotten to a monster of a Category 4 storm without hitting any "warm" water. If anything gets into the Gulf, it's gonna be scary.